Edwards svennestykke

Edward Kajumbahas been working hard on this pavilion for many months. This is his practical exam in carpentry. Now the pavilion will be moved toto the Garden at the House of Elders in Rjukan

Edward Kajumba har brukt deler av skoleåret på å bygge denne paviljongen. Nå er den klar for flytting til sin plass i sansehagen på Eldres Hus i Rjukan.

Kristiansand-the magnifecent coastal city….

My trip last week, to this beautiful Norwegian coastal city started on rather a bad note, I missed the train after waiting for it for three hours! Would you believe it! I know you can’t, I couldn’t believe it either! Well what happened was just a mix up for a first time traveller on these fast moving trains!
So having missed the train, but determined to visit this beautiful city, I had to think fast for plan B, which was to brave the long five hour journey on the bus. After a long trail that took me through beautiful high and low lands of Norway, I was finally in this coastal city at about 11pm local time. Like is the case in most areas of Norway, Kristiansand is a beautiful quiet city sitting at the banks of the sea. The night was chilly but with still some light, again like is the case in spring and summer time here in Norway; days are longer than nights, so day light can still be seen even at 11pm!
Well I was warmly welcomed by my two hostesses and fellow FK participants who are based in this city, Annet Najjemba from Uganda and Patience Nyange from Kenya. They ushered me into their two roomed flat, took a warm bath, a cup of tea, then headed to my room for the much needed rest.

The following morning, my first tour of the place started with Gimlekollen School of journalism and communication, which was one of my major objectives of the visit. At the school I was warmly welcomed by a lovely lady, Pamela Melhus, the Director of Administration, who took me through the genesis of the school and the wonderful work they were doing around the world. A tour around the school proved that this was a first world class school, the state of the art studios just for the students’ practice can not be found even in the major media houses in some developing countries!

Later in the day I was treated to a sumptuous lunch, had a brief talk with the staff, and a guided tour to different lecture rooms and witnessed first hand, students reading news live in one of the studios. From the school we headed to the beach! Which is virtually in the heart of the city. From the beach we wound up the day at an entertainment park, a huge facility sitting on about 10 acres of land! It is at this entertainment park that I came across, the present day Noah’s Ark! An ultra modern hotel built in the shape of a ship. If you read about the ark only in the bible, come to Kristiansand you will see it first hand!

The second day of the visit took me to NRK- Kristiansand regional office. NRK is the Norwegian broadcasting corporation, comprising of both the National Radio and Television stations. At this facility I had a guided tour of both the radio and television stations, as expected they have real state of the- art machines, expected of a developed country. From NRK I took a tour around the city, and like most cities and towns in Norway, it’s very clean.

Having seen enough of Kristiansand, it was time to pack my bags and head back to my mountainous town of Rjukan. This time round I was determined not miss the train come what may! The ride on the train was so fascinating, but that will be a story for another day.


Bernard Butare Buteera
FK participant 2011

Girl Power in St.Joseph Technical Institute

Randi og jentene på St. Joseph i Fredskorpsets årsrapport 2010

Read more in the Fk annual report 2010

Fk: Two well educated Ugandans challenge attitudes in a small Norwegian community

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Read more in Fk Annual report 2010

Fk annual report 2010

Fredskorpset: En unik modell for internasjonal utveksling - Fredskorpsets årsrapport for 2010

The struggle for the Liberation of women is still on….

The struggle for the liberation of women has been on going for a long time and still continues. This struggle is at many fronts; political, economic, social and in all other aspects of life. This was revealed at a women’s conference held recently in the Norwegian capital, Oslo, in the parliamentary chambers.
The conference drew participants from different parts of the world, including Uganda. The Ugandan delegation was headed by the private secretary to the president, Princess Pauline. M. Kiyimba, and included Florah Kabibi, Head of department, women affairs in the president’s office, Ms. Margret Ssejemba and Mrs. Joan Sitenda, a social entrepreneur and woman activist.

The conference under the theme ‘Small is Great’ was geared at empowering especially African women and in particular Ugandan women economically.

While addressing participants, the chief guest, Ms Villa Kulid, Director General in Norad, emphasised that economic empowerment of women is very crucial, because it leads to social and political empowerment. She added that her organisation Norad will continue to support social and economic empowerment of women around the world.
Other people who addressed the conference included, Mette K.Ofstad of Women’s network at the Labour party, Telemark, Gro Trom from EMPO and Jenfrid Stelberg of Chime.

The chief organiser of the conference was the Norwegian woman activist Bitten Schei, of Mother Courage organisation. The chief hostess of the conference was Hilde Magnusson, Norwegian woman member of parliament.
All speakers highlighted the major challenges in the liberation of women, being corruption especially in African countries and gender imbalance, where men are still domineering in many societies around the world. They called upon women to embrace education for the girl child as it is the sure way of achieving real and effective emancipation of women!
  By Bernard Butare Buteera FK participant 2010/2011.

Small is great; seminar in the Norwegian Parliament

Norwegian MP Hilde Magnusson in the seminar "Small is Great!" to highlight the importance of small scale business in the economical emancipation of African women.

Fk-participants Kajumba Edward and Buteera Bernard Butare in front of the Norwegian Parliament

Bernard Butaare Butera adressing the seminar and the Ugandan guests

Ugandan guests, Pauline  M. Kiyimba and Florah Kabibi together with our Fk.participants

Celebrating Norwegian Constitutional Day, 17th of May

Miland Village; Fk-participants Kajumba Edward, Buteera Bernard Butare and Inger Margrethe from Rjukan videregående skole

Speaker of the day Tom Nilsen in front of the parade

Graduaters on their "Russe"celebration

The home coming seminar-a mixture of happiness and sadness!

Some months ago, a number of FK participants converged at Hotel Hadeland in Gran for a three weeks preparatory course, to prepare them on how to live and work abroad. It was all excitement especially from the south participants (the participants from Africa and Latin America) who were coming to Europe for the first time!

The period these participants spend in Norway ranges between 12 to 18 months, and as you read this, some of the participants their time is up! It’s time to pack their bags and head back to their home countries.
So as was the case with the preparatory course, even at the end of the exchange another course is held called the home coming seminar! This course is geared at helping participants to prepare for the likely challenges when they get back to their home countries.

This year’s home coming seminar was held from 12th to 13th May, 2011 at P-Hotel in Oslo. Unlike the preparatory course which was all excitement for the participants, the home coming seminar was a mixture of happiness and sadness. Participants were happy about going back home but at the same time sad that they were leaving their new found home! To some participants they were even sadder in the sense that this could be the last time they ever set their feet in Europe!
The seminar opened with participants sharing their experiences during their stay in Norway, and as expected they really had interesting experiences. They also shared the challenges they had a encountered, but most of the participants highlighted the winter season as their greatest challenge.
While addressing participants at the closure of the course, the Deputy Director of FK Mrs. Grete Thingelstad urged participants to be good ambassadors of FK back home in their countries and to transfer knowledge and skills they have acquired during their stay in Norway, which is one of the major objectives of the exchange program. Most of the participants will be leaving at the end of June, as new participants jet in and in some programs, this was the last round of exchange, as they look for another project in the future.
                                                                                            By Bernard Butare, FK Participant 2010-2011