Dateline: Kampala, Uganda

The team is selected, practices are running and GYPA's Gomo Tong Football Club, in partnership with Kevin Carroll and the Katalyst Consultancy, are gearing up for the Homeless World Cup to take place this July 28 - August 5 in Copenhagen, Denmark. Stay tuned to our website and the Kataylst Consultancy website (www.katalystatlarge.com) for bios, stories and updates in the lead up to this year's cup.

"This dream is worth a thousand looks"
Coach Robert Ssemakula Observes Gomo Tong FC at a recent practice
Photograph taken by: Carrie Stefansky

GYPA Kimeeza Alumni ('06) Jessica Nape and Brandon Trapp coordinated a book drive on their respective campuses -- Akron University and George Washington University. This past week, June 10, 2007, GYPA received the following news from Kennedy Okello Kosko of the Attiak Development Initiative and Lwani Memorial College located in Amuru District.

"On April 30, 2007, I received 10 boxes of text-books books from GYPA through Kenfreight Uganda limited and they safely reached the Attiak community. Several hundred books are now being used for high-school students in subjects such as math, biology, chemistry and general sciences."

According to Kosko, "Lwani Memorial College is one of the community schools in the newly created district of Amuru (a new district created from Gulu in 2006).The school was opened in 1999 but collapsed, in 2002 it was re-opened which again collapsed all of which was because of its financial incapacitation to facilitates its operation. Lwani memorial college was opened by the community of Attiak in memory of the massacre of over 250 civilian population in Attiak on 20/04/1995 where students of Attiak Technical school, teachers, civil servants, men and women where massacred in cool blood leaving hundreds of orphans, widows and widowers yet now several others have been mutilates and incapacitated."

"In April, I handed over these 10 boxes of books received officially to the Community of Attiak through their chairperson Local council III who then handed them to the Head teacher of Lwani Memorial college and the head teacher, and lastly I handed them to the student of Lwani Memorial college through their representatives group. All of this took place before the BOGs Board of Governors, PTAs Parents Teachers Association, Local leaders at various levels, the parents, the students of Lwani Memorial College and the general community. The school is working day and nights to shelve these books by the end of this month. A room at the site is allocated for a library which shall be put in to use as soon as the latrines have been completed at the site for the students and teachers. Thank you GYPA!"

And thank you Kosko! We are thrilled with the partnership established through your participation and friendships developed at the Uganda KImeeza I (January 2006).

Ohio State University-College of Dentistry first year dental students Rebecca Goldberg and Charu Gupta will be traveling to Kampala, Uganda on June 14, 2007 in collaboration with GYPA. They will be volunteering at the Makerere University Dental Clinic for a month. They aim to educate patients at the dental clinic about proper oral health technique and the importance of oral healthcare. Additionally, they will correlate the community’s oral heath status with their educational and economical backgrounds to better serve the needs of this community.



By working with their mentors Dr. Hillary Soller and Dr. Homa Amini at OSU, the students have been successful in raising money and dental supplies towards their efforts. The college has granted them $2500.00 each and items such as 750 toothbrushes, 750 toothpastes, 300 floss, and 100 fluoride varnishes to donate to the community members they aim to serve.

The students also plan to volunteer in the Namuwango community, outside of Kampala, as preventative dental educators in order to help improve oral hygiene technique and to establish oral health education in this region. They will use child-friendly dental educational tools such as puppets to teach the youth about proper oral care as well as provide fluoride varnish treatments. They will be distributing toothpastes, toothbrushes and floss to the community members to enable them to continue practicing proper oral care after their departure.