What does Abato do?

Bricks for a school                                                           

After informing everyone in Germany that we are going to support Abato,
one of the questions that came up the most was “What is this organization doing? What’s their purpose, why support them?” 
Well I want to give all of you an example of what Abato does right now. This project impressed me very much and I am proud to show you #Bricksforaschool

Bricks for a school means that Moses and the Abato family started to raise funds by donation to build a school. And when I say build I mean they started at nothing and created a place where children can get the education they deserve.

The following is just a brief overview to show you the progress they have made, there are many more pictures and things to learn about the project…

    Deutsche Version

Let’s start with the place where the school was supposed to be built. 

This picture was taken before they started the construction.

At first Moses and his supporters had to clear the land.

The project is called bricks for a school because they even made the bricks themselves. In order to do so they pressed mud through a frame

and then later it is put on the ground and pulled leaving the brick on the ground wet.

 Many people were involved in building the school.

Together they made a lot of progress in just a few months.

With more donations coming in

they were able to start the construction of the rooftop.

They also focused on the outside looks and painted the school in a beautiful blue.

I cannot wait to be in one of these classrooms with the children.

The building grew and grew thanks to the passion and effort 

lots of people put into the project. 
Today the school is almost ready. They are giving it the finishing touch by now.

Even though they made it this far, there is still a lot that needs to be done. 

It all started with this

and they have come a long way ever since.

If you want to support them you can go to Abato website or contact us. As this project continues Abato does a lot more. Let’s help the children to learn how to help themselves because education changes everything…

Stay tuned we’ll provide you with more information and beautiful pictures of people who are trying to make a difference soon.

 Julian

We've got news

"You're not going there" and "What? That's freaking awesome!" 

Christmas. The whole family comes together and you meet all the good friends that you haven't seen for way too long. Every time Julian and I were nervous, sitting in front of our audiences and telling them about our plan to support Abato. Reactions were as mixed as expected: Our mums were the ones who protested the loudest. At least, Julian and I are good in doing a lot of persuading. Our friends shared our hapiness, were courious and asked many questions.
The first step is done and we are happy about every kind of support; support that we can impart to the children in Uganda.

 Anne

Deutsche Version

I love that song

Soundtrack of our trip

Shortly before we got the message that we will be with Abato in 2014 it was Anne's birthday. I got her a ticket for a concert of the famous german rapper Marteria. 
Shortly after we got the message the we will be with Abato in 2014 Anne showed me this:

The video is a collaboration between   musicians from Uganda and Germany and is shot in Kampala, capital of Uganda. We have officially announced it the soundtrack of our trip!










Julian

Deutsche Version

Looking for the right organisation

"it belongs to my childhood friend and soccermate"

Looking for an organisation that welcomes us as volunteers appeared to be pretty hard. Even though there are alot of agents that offer these kinds of opportunity, many of them ask for alot of money for their service. That's not what I wanted. There are a few that manage to give their volunteers a scholarship (e.g. weltwärts), but most of these organisations don't accept couples and for the few that did we were already too late with out application. A close friend told me to try and get in touch with the organisations directly. We searched the internet for organisations and wrote lots and lots of applications. Our motivation went up and down like a rollercoaster: Some answers gave us hope, but the majority was devastating. After a few weeks we let go of the initial hope to work with (and for) children in Africa. It just seemed impossible. We switched and started looking for any community service outside Europe. And then we waited...

... until Leonard Kazooka wrote me a message via facebook. Leo and I know each other from my trip to South-Africa in 2010. I was a little bit angry with myself that the idea of asking him didn't come to my mind earlier. So I told him about our plans and asked him if he knew an organisation that might need volunteers. Leo is from Uganda and told me about his "childhood friend and soccermate" who is the founder of a charity organisation named Abato. Julian and I immediately checked out their website and excitement came up. It sounded almost to perfect to be true so we hurried and filled in their contact-sheet. 
The next morning I had a friend request on facebook from a stranger. I almost ignored it (because you know - random facebook request) but Julian didn't: The request came from Moses Kalanzi, Founder of Abato Foundation Uganda! Oh my god - NOW I was thrilled! Julian and I put some info about us together and sent it to Moses. And then we waited...
...Every day we checked our inbox several times, everywhere we went we asked each other: "Do you think he already replied?" I expected every message that I got to be from Moses and every message that wasn't made me more nervous and curious. 

Then, on December 23rd, after seven incredibly long days, Julian and I got the answer we were waiting for:
Moses message blew my mind. I got so excited when I first read the long text that I didn't really understand half of it, I just couldn't believe it. We both said in front of the PC petrified. 
Julian broke the silence: "Anne, we are flying to Uganda..."


Anne

Deutsche Version

Decisionmaking

Conversations

To be honest with you guys, I don't recall the first time Anne talked to me about going abroad. I do remember that we often talked about it - going abroad for a longer period of time and I was always up for it, but we didn't know where or how or even what exactly we wanted to do. Then, around summer 2013 in a conversation that was about something totally different, Anne approached me with an idea: "We should do something good. In a country where people need help the most." She came up with the idea to volunteer, so we cannot only visit a foreign country, but also do something with the time we spend there. To really get in touch with the people, to learn about their culture and to learn from them while supporting them. Do I need to mention that I was thrilled?

Julian

Deutsche Version

Two Blogs - two languages

Adventure ahead!

Anne and I will go to Uganda in August 2014. In the beautiful heart of Africa we will support the Abato Foundation. To do so and to raise awareness for the mission of Abato we started this blog. In here we will update you with all current developments concerning our volunteership, our state of mind and projects of Abato. As you can imagine it is tough to keep people in Uganda and Germany updated but we'll do our best to present every post in English and German.

p.s. I apologize, trying to write in English and German actually makes both of it worse.

Julian