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Wise Choices for Life UPDATE
May 2019
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"We are seeing the fruit, but we are also at a tipping point. The energy we are seeing, the personnel and the opportunity is now limitless." - Jen Gunston, Board Member.
THE KAMPALA CONFERENCE was exceptionally well run, all thanks to Joyce and her team of facilitators. Wise Choices for Life has also invested into eight leaders to do the Leadership Matters Training. We are all now training the same way and using the organisational and public relationship skills they passed on to be used for the future of this movement.
The new film will soon be out and will capture the highlights and enthusiasm we are witnessing.
The message of poverty prevention rather than poverty relief is coming through in endless discussions and debates. Moses Mukholi has become a great flag bearer for Wise Choices for Life. In his previous life he rode a bicycle in his village to transport labouring women to the clinic. He had endless experiences, some of which are too tragic to write about.
"Recently a friend from my church was having her fifth child, and as she had delivered many times before she knew what to do. She died due to complications during the birth. Now there are five small children with no mama. After burying many mothers who died in childbirth, I want to become more involved in Wise Choices or Life to help parents prepare for birth." - Moses Mukholi
Uganda's maternal mortality rate is 19 per day.
The need to expand the Wise Choices for Life training is now beyond our small teams' ability to be able to manage this well. The next step is finding in-country income to sustain further staff, just like Moses and many others.
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Amos reading the Myths & Truths literature, of which he contributed to the content.
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Moses Mukholi
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The community work was once again an eye-opening experience. Seeing the Namatala Alcoholics women's group now renamed as a prayer group was amazing! Using drama they demonstrated their life before and after Wise Choices for Life. Fred Mukisa could not believe the change in this group. When they started two years ago the room smelt of alcohol and the ladies were unclean and unruly. Now, smartly dressed and taking pride in their life, we heard stories of personal impact.
The curriculum review was also a great time as together we decided on improvements and addressed gaps. I have left the Wise Choices for Life training team to write their own new lessons to add into the current curriculum. One of these lessons is titled Male involvement in pregnancy care.
Once again, thanks for reading this newsletter, for staying in touch or sending encouragement messages to us.
Marg, John and Jen
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