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Mebo Holiday programme 2020 4 Email

Mebo Holiday programme 2020 4 Email

When we decided to enroll 13 year olds plus into the regular MEBO Children’s Holiday Makers Programme for 2020 we hoped to separate them from the 21/2 – 12 year olds. Our assumption was that their interests and expectations as teenagers were different. In some cases they indeed were. But the approach was meant to introduce the children to a real life setting and help them to integrate better. We live and work in homes and society as people of different ages, gender, heights, religions, potentialities, likes and dislikes. Hence the situation gave us new opportunities to appreciate our differences and to realize this year’s theme: “To BE, To DO, and to learn to Live with Others.” I am happy that we integrated with one another very well and learned to give and take without denying the children the chance to be who they are. We prayed and played together every day. We ate the same food and took our meals at the same time. We came together to tell stories, play musical instruments, mold clay, sing and dance. We made connections to our cultural roots through riddling, games, and the different folk songs, dances and musical instruments. Some of the children discovered and learned more about their relatives and family relationships. The children’s drawings and creative items blended well with debates, acting and speeches by the toddlers and young adults. Together, we made new friends and connections. Everybody was happy and positively engaged. We designed and conducted our counselling sessions in the same light and hope that they added some value to the children. Above all, we aimed to give memorable experiences that would bring the children new opportunities.

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Purposeful Holiday Making

Purposeful Holiday Making

The MEBO Monthly TIP has stayed in draft form for over a year now, each new month seeing the existing drafts updated or discarded, unfortunately, when the news grows old! This first issue to come out formally in print is therefore a landmark step in the newsletter’s life as it is special. It is dedicated to the Book Harvest Week in Kampala planned as an annual event. The Kampala Annual Book Harvest Week has been on since Monday 29 June 2015, and it is special in many ways. First, it’s a premier in Kampala. There have been book days and fairs certainly but not a book harvest that, in our view, has climaxed as a literary explosion. Secondly, the Book Harvest Week is literal in every sense. Most book launches are organized in the evenings over a cocktail, and feature one book or two as anthologies or by a prominent figure. The Book Harvest is special. It has featured different activities over several days, including a three-day theatre arts and books exhibition; public and media interviews with the different authors and film directors; the Annual MEBO Essay Awards for secondary schools; and a stimulating talk by senior physician and surgeon, Dr. Rockie Kisekka, from Mulago Hospital, on “How the Human Brain Works under intense Pressure and Excitement”