OK.
So
I've got this video. I've had it for a couple of weeks now. I was the
cameraman. It is just over six minutes long and it was shot in the
very heart of Africa. Under the green hills of Africa.
I
sat and idled away the time as it uploaded onto YouTube like a snail
making its way from Dumfries to Aberdeen. But it got there in the
end. It lost some quality along the way, but not too much. Not enough
to really matter.
And
now it's there. On a perch in the vastness of the online world. Six
minutes among minutes and hours counted in their billions.
Inconsequential. Unnoticed. A grain of sand in a desert without end.
For
days now, I have racked away at my brain. How to find the right words
to steer some watchers to the video? How to attract attention? How to
persuade readers to donate six minutes of their life?
It's a twenty first century dilemma. How to flag down a taxi when it is
racing down the M8 at a hundred miles an hour?
Right.
Enough waffle. I guess I'm avoiding getting to the point because
failure means letting too many people down.
Background.
In
November 2017, Carol and I visited a school in the south west corner
of Uganda and we gave the girls a year's worth of sanitary pads. 250
girls. Under the green hills of Africa.
The
name of the school is a mouthful. Here goes. Kamuganguzi Janan Luwum
Memorial School. We have shortened the mouthful for our own personal
use. We now call it 'Our school'.
Anyway.
We returned to Scotland and set a new charity. The Kupata Project.
And over the last two years we have have made three more deliveries
of sanitary pads to the girls. There are more girls now. Lots more.
410. Which offers pretty compelling proof of just what kind of a
difference free sanitary ware can make. It what is now called a 'pull
factor'. No more missed monthly days. No more infections. Maybe these
statistics might just make you proud to live in the first country in
the world to provide free sanitary pads to every one of its school
girls and female students. The country in question is Scotland by the
way; for readers out there in the rest of the world.
When
we give the girls their pads we also give them a postcard bearing a
simple message.
'To
you from the people of Scotland'
Which
of course is exactly what it is.
This
year the generosity of the people of Scotland enabled us to help 900
girls in 4 schools. We are adding a fifth in a couple of weeks time.
So
now you know why we were there. At Kamuagnguzi Janan Luwun Memorial
School. At our school. Under the green hills of Africa. Two weeks ago.
To
make a movie.
I
had made some requests. The movie was for Carol. A song from the
black and white TV pictures of the streets of Martin Luther King's 1960's America.
Brutal cops. Snarling Alsations. Ripped and bruised flesh.
Non-violent defiance. Off the charts courage. An anthem for the ages.
“We
shall overcome.”
A
three worder: Dominic Cummings style. Three words to say it all.
Three words to stand the test of time. Three words to change the
world.
For
the better of course. Still work in progress of course, but at least
we now live in a time when people who call other people 'Nigger' get
arrested and charged.
So
I made my request. Could the girls have a go at giving their take on
the old Civil Rights anthem? Could they collect the soundtrack of the defiant
Sixties and take it all the way to the green hills of Africa?
Of
course they could.
For
a while things were in the balance. At the very moment the girls were
ready to roll, a raging tropical storm chased down the valley. For an
hour or so, the school was half submerged by the kind of rain Noah was
worried about. It poured from the tin roofs in a constant stream. The
glassless windows were home to hundreds of grinning faces.
But
this wasn't Scotland. This was the green hills of Africa. One minute
it rains like the world is about to end. The next minute, the sun
rips aside the clouds and the ground starts to steam.
Show
time. The whole school headed back outside for the performance.
Reverend Benon, the headmaster, was the accomplished ring master. The
machine was well oiled as an audience of 700 was arranged into place.
Then
the hubbub dropped into silence.
Lights.
Camera. Action.
Over
to you. Here's the link. It requires six and a half minutes of your
life. And I hope you feel inspired. Uplifted. Maybe even hopeful.
Because the world doesn't always have to be about constant bitter
ugliness. Instead it can be...... well. Like this.
So
there you go. Thanks for the six and a half minutes. Each and every
of the girls hasn't had to miss a single day of school since November
2017. Thanks to the generosity of the people of Scotland. Westminster
might not allow us a foreign policy of our own, but they cannot stop
us doing this kind of thing.
Well
you know what is coming next. Course you do. Can you blame me? I hope you don't. If you do, well, so be it.
Maybe
the girls have inspired you. The bare facts are as straight forward
as they come. £3 is what is required for a Ugandan school girl to be
provided with a year's worth of sanitary pads. From the people of
Scotland. From you.
For
their families, £3 means three days worth of average wages. About
£300 in our money. As in completely out of the question when filling
empty bellies is the number one priority. So you can see just how a
big a deal £3 can be.
I
guess I better do the unconditional guarantee thing. If you give £3
to the Kupata Project, not a single penny will be spent of salaries
or fancy offices or all expenses trips to the green hills of Africa.
Every last penny will be spent on sanitary pads and nothing else.
Here
is the link to our online fundraising page.
There.
It's done. Just over a thousand words to be thrown out in the ether
to go along with six and a half minutes of video. To sink or swim. To
gain a toehold or to be swept away into oblivion. A tiny flicker of a
flame to either burn or be snuffed out.
Who
knows? I don't. Which is why I have put off choosing these thousand
words. I can't think of any more. So it's time to do the wrap up.
Throw the words to the spell checker and then cast them out into the
vastness with a well trodden sense of trepidation.
To
sink or swim.
Thanks
for getting this far. I might as well push it? It's what you do in
the sharp elbowed online world. Could you maybe share these thousand
words and six and a half minutes?
Enough,
already! Time to post.
Wawooo! God bless you for the great work you are doing!!
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