The last time I got off of a plane in Africa I had no idea what I was getting myself into, and it turned out to be a constant struggle of what is right and wrong and what should change but never will. I did not have this same attitude going into this, but knew in the back of my head that nothing is ever as it seems. This rings especially true when talking in development terms. Since I have been at Bright Kids days do seem to go by slower (although the week has seemed to past just as quickly as U.S. time), and the usually daily activities of reading, writing, etc are to be expected. Not a whole lot of moving around really, which can be a bit hard to get adjusted to after knowing only chaos on a daily basis for such an extended period of time (really since the last time I was in Africa…although that is another type of chaos entirely). The biggest surprise, however, was learning more about the faces behind the names of the Bright Kids operation. Having an idea about Bright Kids Uganda goals was about all I had really, until I saw how all the facets of the organizations work. That’s when the realities of development come through.
Nothing is as it appears.
Victoria’s goals for Bright Kids Uganda are admirable and her mission is pretty amazing. She is an extremely qualified and intelligent woman whom I am only getting to know bits and pieces of her past, but just by stories I hear from her and things Ashley has told me – I think there is little she has not seen or heard. But for someone to dedicate their own life to better those of children taken in as complete strangers is something that only a very small percent of people could admit to even dreaming about doing. What is more is how she manages to make everything work. She could just put the children into government schooling and still have school fees, but not nearly the expenses she has now for education. Instead, she wishes for all children to complete private education – half of which are complete boarders at these schools – to ensure they receive the absolute best Uganda has to offer so that they have the most promising of futures. While this fee is included for sponsors for the children, only about a fourth of the children are sponsored as of now. This means, somehow, Victoria is able to put the remaining unsponsored children through this same education without much support at all. And education is just one of many expenses she faces in order to operate Bright Kids Uganda and offer the best life for her children that she can.
I guess it goes without saying that Bright Kids Uganda is one of the better organizations I have ever come across in all my experiences with development. I am pretty lucky to be working for such a noble institution, but it also stresses me out more because I want these projects to be as successful as possible and get as much support for Bright Kids Uganda as possible – basically I will not let myself leave Uganda without trying to contribute as much as I am capable of to BKU.
But this brings me to the other faces of development, the facades that are a little trickier to detect and don’t always operate as smoothly as claimed. It is actually interesting how my ideas of how things might be before I got here were completely reversed after arrival. The support that acts as a backbone for an organization such as Victoria’s must be reliable and transparent if it expects the same in return, but that does not seem to be the way some things are going. Promising money for a child will only cause this word to be passed on a school’s headmaster, who then expects the debts to repaid within a span of time. If that does not come through, it will only make the middleman look incapable of keeping their word. Pretty unfair if you ask me. I suppose I have a little experience with dealing with organizations that get all of their support from across the world, only to be run haphazardly and lacking the basic ideas behind a properly functioning institution. I see how Bright Kids Uganda is so much more than that, and is based on such essential values. It is unfortunate that others with such control over such a good cause cannot see this.
Just another “bureaucratic bullshit inhibits the successes of a positive local organization” story, really. But…there is possibility for that to change.
