An island adventure

The island of Mfangano floats on Lake Victoria like a scoop of ice cream shimmering on a bowl of jelly. There the analogy stops however, because of the heat. The day of our visit, Friday 5 August, was incredibly hot and, sitting in an open canoe on dazzling, still waters, which reflected the intense sun right back into our faces, Jennie and I felt like we might be cooked alive.

Whilst I was worried about the heat, Jerry, the Education Manager for Dev Link, was more concerned about the crocodiles known to inhabit the lake. After he had been unusually silent for ten minutes, I asked him if he was ok - and he confessed that he couldn't swim and was thinking back to an incident last year when a canoe had capsized with the loss of ten people. It turned out that they had drowned rather than been eaten. I attempted to reassure Jerry by telling him about my Bronze Lifesaving Award whilst privately wondering how someone who can't swim and is afraid of crocodiles could bring himself to make this four hour round trip from Mbita by boat each month.

Once we had docked and been carried to the shore, we boarded motorbikes and set off along the 'ringroad' - a single land dusty track circling the perimeter of the island. Jerry was taking us along to visit some primary schools on the island to view his progress on implementing child protection policies. He explained that human rights issues on this remote island were even more pressing than those we had heard of on Mbita, but that the organisation had gained the trust of locals, who had begun calling him directly when they came across cases of child abuse.

The primary school had made some progress: students at risk of dropping out had been identified and a support group set up, along with an after-school sports club. Parents had been contacted and made aware of the need for their children to attend school, rather than running off to earn money fishing in the lake. Pleased with progress, we returned to the canoe to make the two hour trip back to Mbita. Whilst the boat trip and scenery were stunning, the poor conditions on the island were sobering. Dev Link are clearly providing an important spur in the development of the awareness of, and support for, children's rights in this small island community.

Rosalind Camp