August Immersion Days 1-3

The Youth Global Ambassadors Summit has been off to a great start! The American participants all arrived safely after two long days of travel and went directly to the Makerere University dorms where the summit is taking place to have a traditional Ugandan dinner.

The following morning, they were sent all around Kampala on a scavenger hunt, learning about the city and getting to know more about Uganda and its culture. Later in the day, the Ugandan participants joined and the official summit began. The afternoon was spent with the participants getting to know each other and learning about each other's countries.

Monday, August 6, 2007
The morning started off with a series of icebreaker games with the American and Ugandan participants. For one of our activities we joined hands and created a human knot, which each group had to unravel without letting go of each other's hands. It was quite the bonding experience!



Following those activities, Dr. Martha Naludosa, a representative from the Ministry of Health, came to speak at the summit about the challenges facing the government in the context of health issues. She spoke about her experiences working in the Northern part of the country during the conflict, as well as her current experiences working
in the face of regular transportation and communication challenges.



The following speaker was Dr. Sophie Simons, a participant in GYPA's Helping Hands Medical Fellowship working with the community of Namuwongo Zone B, a slum located in the outskirts of Kampala. She spoke to the summit participants about the challenges she has faced and the successes she has accomplished working on various community health projects, and presented some challenging views concerning the role of foreign involvement in Ugandan development issues. Her presentation sparked much discussion amongst the group members and lead us into more formal small discussion groups which continued after lunch throughout the afternoon.



The Ugandans and Americans are enjoying interacting with each other and learning from the experiences of one another, and seeing that despite the many differences between the two countries, there are quite a few similarities! We are looking forward to the rest of the upcoming program, stay tuned to read about it!