This November, author and journalist Teena Gates travelled to Entebbe with a group of Concern volunteers who were taking on a physical challenge to help raise awareness of the problems experienced in Uganda and the work that’s been done to help.

"The little tot in the scrap of red velvet grinned shyly at me, her glowing dark skin dulled by the red dust from the rough trail. As the sweat rolled down my face in the intense African sun, I summoned up a smile, as I wondered about her ragged grandeur – and imagined what child had first worn the red velvet dress in its first glory. It could have preceded me here to Uganda from Dublin – many years previously. I wish I knew its story. I wish I knew this ragged child’s story, but we can only speak the language of smiles. And I get back on my bike, wipe the sweat from my face, smile again and cycle on."

The girl in the red velvet dress

It's the image that has followed me most brightly through my trip to Uganda and my return back to Ireland; the little girl in the red velvet dress and how it was that she and it came to be together. It was a tough trip, a physical endurance challenge for our Concern Uganda Tri-Adventure team who were hoping to both raise funds and raise awareness about the work the charity does in Uganda and the work that needs to be done.

Raising awareness

For me, it was also about raising my own awareness. I threw pennies in a bucket for Concern when I was a kid and knew they 'did nice things for little African babies', but my knowledge was still no better than that, by the time I finished my physical training and joined our team to fly in three planes across three countries between two continents on a voyage of discovery.
After two days of travelling we arrived in Kampala, Uganda, to meet Concern staff at their offices and learn a little about why we're doing this; why we’re climbing a volcano at altitude, camping and cycling for hundreds of kilometers and kayaking a grade 3 white-water rapid on the mighty Nile.

Community struggles

We learned how communities here have lost their traditional farming skills through years of war, followed by years living in camps. Concern is helping with clean water programmes and training projects. Their health and sanitation programmes also tackle HIV and Aids. It sounds good and worthy and very reputable, but it wasn’t until later, when I was 4 days on the trail that the projects took life for me.

With faeces drying in the sun and the dust blowing into my face and trickling into my mouth with my own sweat, I realised a little more about the importance here of health and sanitation; and more importantly the importance of spreading the knowledge about links between dirt and disease.

When every touch of my hand to my mouth is preceded by using liquid sanitizer gel, when I wipe my face with wet-wipes after showers because the water is contaminated, when I spray every inch of my body with insect-repelling deet... when I live that way for days, in camps and on the road. Then I begin to begin to understand.

Vital work of NGOs

Back in Kampala we discuss how the work of NGOs or charities here is even more vital, with the recent freezing of Irish Government aid payments after the discovery of a problem with the accounts in Uganda. The charities and NGOs working here are not affected by the accountancy problems and their funding is unaffected, but still the lack of Irish government funding means there is less money to go around and the fallout from that effects everything.

It's also possible that public opinion might be badly affected by the funding revelations, and no fundraiser needs that, in these uncertain times, when it is so hard to persuade a nation that our help is still needed abroad, despite the fact that many are living through tough times at home.

Irish aid

Although not affected directly, the Concern staff in Kampala are quick to point out that the discovery about the Irish Aid funding issue was made by Ugandan officials themselves and flagged, and this itself is progress. It shows, they say, that systems are in place and those systems are working. The Irish Government will be debating the Irish Aid budget in coming months. Everyone here (Uganda) hopes they will return. 

I come back to Dublin without triumph. I have completed a huge physical test and yes I have learned a little about Uganda – but really, I have learned only enough to realise how little I know.

Children dressed in rags are not really the problem. So many children lining the route to wave and laugh, to shout and run with us; so many had swollen stomachs, could that be malnutrition? When we were hiking and cycling through such lush vegetation? It’s a timely reminder of why we’re here and the work Concern does in teaching people how to return to the land and how to make it work for them efficiently.

African gold

To see the beauty of Uganda, the splendour of the Nile, the great reserves of a country waiting for its time in the sun. Already the difficulty of the rough terrain in sun and heavy rains, of climbing the extinct Volcano Mount Elgon when altitude stole my breath, of cycling for days in the intense heat, of the terror of huge waves crashing towards me on my kayak, are beginning to fade into memory in a glow of African gold.

I hope we've done a good job for Concern, but we certainly haven't done enough; for Concern, for Africa, or for the girl in the red velvet dress.

Teena Gates

Teena Gates is an author, journalist and Head of News at 98FM Radio.  Three years ago, she weighed 23 stone, but today she’s lost half her own body weight, climbed to Everest Base Camp, Island Peak in Nepal, Grand Paradiso in the Alps, and has recently returned from a multi-trip adventure in Uganda for Concern which saw her climb a volcano, cycle 200k and kayak rapids on the Nile.  Just hours after getting back to Dublin, she relaxed by abseiling 54 metres down the Convention Centre Dublin, as part of Concern's Powering Kindness campaign.  As the title of her recent book suggests – Teena's adventures all follow one rule of organisation: putting 'One Foot in Front of The Other'.