All God’s Angels
School in Uganda
The school
is situated just outside Kampala, on land that was given to them by Irene and
Rebeccah’s family. Although not very
wealthy by our standards, Rebeccah’s family are mostly professional people,
including teachers, accountants and office workers. Rebeccah had her own catering business before
meeting Stuart on one of his visits out there.
They fell in love and Stuart was
determined he would marry her, which was, to us a miracle. He had always said he would never get married
and was well into his 40s before falling hook line and sinker for beautiful
Becky. It took nearly two years to go
through the process of getting all the paperwork and red tape sorted for her to
come here, but it was worth the wait for them.
Becky now
works full time in micro electronics, whilst Stuart retired last year from his
job as a forklift driver.
Irene, now
the headmistress of this remarkable school is the sister of Rebeccah, who came
to England many years ago to marry Stuart, who met her in Uganda whilst he was
out there overseeing a couple of projects that he had started. One was
the building of a mill where the locals of several villages could come and get
their corn ground for free, another was digging boreholes to enable them to get
fresh water, and yet another to build herds of cows for food, milk and fuel
(dung) for their cooking fires. Most of
the villagers live in mud huts, have no running water and cook over camp fires
outdoors.
Rebeccah and
Irene came from what we in this country would call a ‘middle class’ family
living near Kampala. Most of them had a
good education and had good jobs.
Rebeccah had her own catering business and Irene was at university getting
her teaching qualifications, when Stuart came along.
After Irene
qualified, she worked for a short time as a nursery school teacher until she
married. After her marriage, she was
expected to leave work and look after her husband. In Uganda, they still have the tradition of
dowries and ‘bride prices’, and it is customary to have a ceremony where the
elders of both families barter acceptable gifts.
Irene and
her new husband settled and started a business together selling all sorts of
things. They did very well and bought a
shop on a popular street on the main road leading into Kampala. They could afford to furnish their house very
nicely and even run a motorbike and were a very enterprising couple.
Unfortunately,
one night on his way home from the shop, he was waylaid by bandits. They killed him, taking his cash, his bike
and even his clothes, leaving him dead at the side of the road.
Irene’s
in-laws were entitled to take everything that had belonged to their son, which
they did, leaving her penniless. She had
to go back home to her parents, where she grieved for her husband and
everything else she had lost.
The time
came when Rebeccah got in touch with her brother, who is living and working in
America to say that it was time to help Irene to put her life back together
again. Rebeccah asked Irene what she
would like to do now and Irene told her that her dream was to build a school
where anyone could afford an education, rich or poor.
Rebeccah
sent her money to buy books, pencils, paper etc and Irene got together a few
kids from a nearby village and school started under the shade of a big old tree
in the garden of Irene’s parents.
As time went
by, a few more children came to join.
Irene’s father gave them a piece of land and knocked together a wooden
hut for a classroom for them.
This was
much better than sitting under a tree and very welcome for when the rainy
season started.
These are
the first children to join the school.
As you can see, they have been provided with a uniform.
Money for
furniture was very lacking and although they found the money for enough wood to
build some benches for the children to sit on, there was not yet enough for
them to have desks.
As you can
see from the picture, the benches had to double up as desks. Rather back-
breaking to say the least, but better than being outside under a tree in the
rain. Either way, their parents were
very glad to see their children getting an education. Something they hadn’t even dreamed of before
Irene started her school.
It was not
long before more parents enrolled their children in the school and Irene found
she had to split the kids up into age groups and find another teacher to help. Irene is standing to the right of the picture
below and Barbara is on the right.
It was
decided that as well as a uniform, the children would need a good breakfast
before they started their lessons. A lot
of children are charged with the job of fetching water before their day can
start and often that meant there was no time for food before school, and some
families could not afford more than one meal a day in any case. So Rebeccah’s mother took on the job of
school cook and provided a porridge made from maize in the mornings and a
cooked main meal in the afternoons before they went home.
The children
were so proud of their school and word soon got around about this new one. Soon the number of pupils grew and the hut
was very full indeed. Even so, their
exam results were very good indeed, and there was so much pride on their first
Parents Open Day, they marched around the villages with a band.
All the
villagers joined in and marched behind the children and the band and came to
see the entertainment they put on for them.
This brought them even more requests for school places.
Something
had to be done, because clearly there was a need for a good, affordable school,
with free places for those who could not otherwise afford an education for
their children.
Stuart and
Peter got their heads together and decided to buy and sell medals, military
memorabilia, and small antiques on an internet auction site. Glynis is an avid crafter and had many cards
stashed away in boxes, so she packaged them up in cello bags and they were
taken to the church fate to be sold.
We had a
very pleasant surprise to see just how much money we could raise from these
couple of enterprises and were soon gathering up enough funds to raise a proper
purpose built classroom for the school.
The plans for this classroom grew and grew, until it became quite a
large building that could be split into two classrooms so that younger and
older students would have their own space.
We also
needed a room where Irene could do her paperwork and a secure storage place for
keeping books and stationery etc.
Plans were
drawn up and money was sent for the foundations, and work soon began.
We were very
fortunate, as Rebeccah and Irene’s father had a lot of land, he granted a large
amount of it to the school, and as their uncle is a lawyer, he donated all the
necessary legal work for free.
It wasn’t
too long before the building was nearly ready for use. The main school holiday in Uganda is at the
end of December, just before Christmas and they start back on or near the 1st
of February. We really made an effort to
get enough money together so that the new building would be ready.
By then, we
had also managed to get a couple more teachers on the staff, as the list of new
students was growing very rapidly.
One of the
teachers was a keen joiner, so it was a great pleasure to him to spend a lot of
the school holidays making desks and chairs to fill the classrooms.
As you can
see above, the building has doors, but no glass yet, and it was in need of
painting once the cement had dried out.
This did not deter them from using the building though, and the children
were soon enjoying the classrooms and new furniture.
Here they
are, all lined up ready to go into the new building. A new year called for new uniforms too.
Glynis had
joined the Magmaker Forum and happened to mention that she made cards to sell
for the support of a school in Uganda.
People asked her to post some photos as they were really interested to
see it all and progress being made.
All the
forum members took the school and the kids to their hearts and wanted to know
what they could do to help. This led to
the start of a ‘Ugandan School’ (now named The Rainbow thread) on the forum, where news and pictures
would be posted to keep everyone in touch.
The Ugandan School was to become the adopted charity of the whole forum.
There have
been quite a few fund raising events over the years, and the first one was an
ATC (Artist Trading Card) swap. The
theme was ‘Hearts for Africa’ and for each ATC swapped, we all paid a pound,
receiving a swapped ATC and a ribbon with heart attached in purple as a little
memento. This event raised over £200 and
really went a long way towards the funds for some much needed toilets.
As the
numbers increased in the school, the need for more toilets became a
priority. It is amazing just how far the
pound goes in Uganda, and it wasn’t long before building was under way.
Not quite
finished here, but you can see the girls’ and boy’s entrances and a little
storage area for keeping all the cleaning things. Just the sinks, loos and some tiles needed
there. They do not have running water,
so cesspit had to be made and the sinks had to be fed from a tank that was set
up outside to catch rainwater.
This was the
start of a little school campus. Little
did we realise just how much this campus would grow over the next few years.
Unfortunately
we had a letter from Uganda telling us of a terrible tragedy that happened in
another school in the area. As we did,
they had a wooden hut, which unfortunately caught fire and several people,
including a teacher were trapped inside it.
With only one door and no running water to supply a hosepipe, it was
impossible to rescue everyone.
This spurred
us on to start building yet again, to provide a space to replace the old wooden
hut so that we could pull it down. The
forum were absolutely brilliant and we did raffles of crafting items etc and
people sent me their cards to sell. It
was absolutely wonderful the way people got behind the new project. What a relief it was when we could actually
see that the old wooden structure was no more and those kids were safe.
The building
progressed very speedily and it was not long before the children were able to
use the building.
After this
was finished, we needed to sort out the grounds of the school because the kids
had lost a lot of their playground and also it still looked rather like a
building site. So we raised more money
for paint, plants and concrete to make proper pathways.
The finished
building looked so much better.
By this time
the school was getting ready to register for and enter the National Curriculum
Examinations and it was a lot of hard work to get the students ready for this.
Money was
raised through the Ebay sales, coffee mornings, church fates and card sales for
more text books and resources. The exams
took place before the end of the school year at Christmas and we had to wait
until February to hear how well everyone had done. After much praying and nail biting, they got
the results and we out 9 kids who took the exam, we had 5 grade ones and 4
grade twos. It was a fabulous result and
one of the best in that area. Needless
to say, they got more and more enquiries from parents who wanted to bring their
children to the school. Including some
who could afford to pay fees.
To get some
students who could afford to pay their way, was going to be a great asset to
the school, as it meant they could stand on their own feet a bit more. Having said that, Irene and the other staff
have always been very careful not to treat anyone differently. All are equal whether they pay fees or not.
We continued
to make and sell cards, and other craft items at the fairs and coffee mornings
and our forum friends have always been faithful in supporting the school. The next ‘spark’ of excitement for us all was
when the school managed to get electricity in the school. As you can imagine, it opened up a whole raft
of possibilities for us.
It was not
long before we decided to raise funds to help with buying a computer for the
school so that the kids could learn some IT.
We did raffles, artist trading card swaps, one forum friend did a
sponsored swim. Pete sold some items on
Ebay and a wonderful friend donated a printer.
We ended up with a wonderful computer room.
They do have
internet now too, but it is very intermittent and not reliable at all. We have found that photographs sent as
attachments to emails, get lost all the time.
It was hoped that this computer room would provide a further income for
the school, in that they could provide night classes for the villagers and
perhaps open as an internet cafe at the weekends. The internet needs to be more stable than it
is at present, which is out of the hands of the school staff at present. The village elders are still working hard to
sort this out.
Another tragedy occurred a couple of years
ago, and a little girl lost her life to malaria. Irene hadn’t been informed that this was
happening and she would have given out of the school budget so that she could
have been saved. This galvanised us all
into action again and we asked that the next lot of money raised would go into
a fund for medicines. We also asked how
much they would need to supply all the kids with mosquito nets and sent some
money to provide as many as we could.
Fortunately, Bill Gates has now taken on that particular mantel. Having said that, there are hidden dangers
from mosquitoes that we are not often aware of.
Most families grow maize in their gardens, which stands very tall. Where the leaves join to the stem, there is a
reservoir that holds water, and this provides a breeding ground for the
mosquitoes. The children have the job of
harvesting the maize and are in danger of being bitten at any time. Even in passing these gardens on the way to
school etc. So this fund is now kept
topped up at all times.
As the
school grew and they took on more and more pupils, it soon became apparent that
we needed to think about the water supply.
It is not practical where the school is for a bore hole or well to be
made, and the best way of providing water is to collect it. The area gets a decent amount of rainfall,
except for a dry spell in the summer.
When
planning the new buildings, it was decided on corrugated and sloping
roofs. A gutter and downpipe was fixed
to funnel water into a tank, where the water could be safely stored. We worked hard at selling cards and Ebay
items in order to provide several of these tanks.
We have an
international community on the Magmaker forum, and one of our friends from the
Netherlands lost her dear husband to cancer.
His name was Harry and he took great interest in the forum and all of
Diet’s friends. He always read the
thread about the school and enjoyed seeing all the photos of the school and the
children. So when they arranged his
funeral, instead of floral tributes, they collected donations and sent it to be
spent on the school.
Harry always
told Diet to look for him whenever there was rainbow in the sky, and he gave a
message to all the forum friends that we should keep smiling and remember him
when we saw a rainbow. So the thread was
named The Rainbow Thread, and when the tank was in place, we had his memorial
painted onto it. When I got the photo of
the tank, it seemed a good idea to make a scrapbook of the school as a keepsake
for Diet and her family to keep.
I think this
book puts the story into a nutshell really and shows what can be achieved when
people come together like this.
The addition
of this new tank came to the attention of the villagers and unfortunately,
someone decided that they wanted to come into the campus one night to steel
some water from the tanks.
Unfortunately, they didn’t just turn the tap on to get the water out,
they decided to knock the whole tap off and let the rest of the water in them
drain away. It cost a lot of money to
have a tanker sent to the school to replenish these tanks.
To make sure
this did not happen again, they employed a night watchman. Fully armed with............ a bow and
arrows. I asked what would happen if he
used this weapon and was told that the guy is a marksman and was well within
the law to do so. So woe betides anyone
who tries that again.
All the
water has to be boiled before it can be used for food preparation and drinking,
and so it is a major task to get enough boiled water for all the meals and
drinks of 300+ people. The G8 summit of
2010 decreed that no more wood can be taken from the forest, even fallen branches. This caused a real headache for getting
enough fuel for boiling the volume of water needed for the school and it was
costing a fortune at the cost of resources for the kids’ education.
We had been
pondering for a solution for a while, when Stuart and Rebeccah decided to go to
a Christian meeting in Lincoln. There in
the exhibition area, they met a man who was showing some giant water filters he
had devised. In food quality dustbin
sized containers, he had fixed a plastic cradle that would hold a large water
purification filter. The whole thing
stands off the ground and has a tap at the bottom for ease of access to the
water.
It just so
happened that he was to visit Uganda, about 25 miles away from where our school
is and he promised them 4 of these filters free of charge. The filters need changing yearly, but work
out a lot cheaper than buying in wood from Kampala which would need delivery
costs on top. We really think that man
was a ‘God send’.
So now, with
the filters in place, it is much easier to draw water for drinking and cooking,
and it has saved a lot of money for the school.
It was
decided, that the school should also teach the children how to be self
sufficient. Rebeccah and Irene’s father
gave another parcel of land to the school for their use. Rather than build more, it was decided that
they would grow a lot of their own food.
They teachers and kids took on this project with great enthusiasm. Their
staple diet is maize and plantain, and then they grow lots of peppers, tomatoes
and sorts of vegetables. The kids love
their garden and never complain about having to tote water about.
It was
rather a large parcel of land that was given over to them, and Stuart thought
it would be a good idea to get a herd of cows going. So we set about raising some funds to buy a
couple of cows, some chickens and a goat.
During our
fund raising, one of our forum friends was diagnosed with a tumour on her
brain, which was, unfortunately terminal.
She had gone through lung cancer some about a year before this and now
it was secondary cancer and nothing could be done for her.
Helen,
another friend of the forum, lived quite close to Christine (Minxey we called
her) and was ferrying her around to the hospital etc, as she was unable to
drive. She was very uncomfortable with
the idea that Minxey was living alone, and although she had grown up children,
they were out at work all day, with some of them on shift work, and could not
be with her 24/7.
Helen would
go round there and find that Minxey had forgotten to wash her coffee cups up
etc, and whilst she was visiting, had left her kettle to boil dry. She was aware that the family would come
round and bring meals as often as they could, but it was very unsettling every
time she visited.
The decision
was made by Helen and her family that Minxey should move in with them. They have a farm with a good sized house with
plenty of room and it meant that Helen could have peace of mind that Minxey was
cared for as her health deteriorated.
She was also able to sell up her house whilst she was still able to deal
with the paperwork etc.
Everyone on
the forum decided that they had to give Minxey the best time possible before
she got too ill, and started to address all the things that were on her ‘bucket
list’ (her own words).
One of the
things she wanted was a house party, which Helen was pleased to provide. So for a weekend we all descended on Helen’s
house in Eastleigh near Southampton.
There were people from Suffolk, West Midlands, Bath, Germany and
Nottinghamshire. It was a very lively
and bubbly weekend, and Minxey thoroughly enjoyed it and distributed all her
‘crafty stash’ amongst her forum friends and granddaughter.
Another item
on her ‘bucket list’ was to ride a horse for the first time. Helen has stables with six horses, but she
knew of a friend who had some lovely docile mares and was able to arrange for
this. Linda, who had come over from
Germany was to do the ride with her to offer moral support. Now for Linda to take this on, was a huge
leap of bravery, because she was absolutely terrified of horses and needed to
face her fears to do it.
It was
decided to make it into a fund raiser for the school and everyone on the forum
sponsored this ride, including friends and families of the members.
It was
decided that the funds raised would help to buy cows to go on the land that the
school had started to farm. Stuart had
already successfully started off three herds of cattle in neighbouring villages
and he knew where to buy the best animals.
It was a fun
day for all when Minxey and Linda took to horseback. Many jokes and laughs as they hoisted Linda
onto the back of the horse.
Lovely,
placid horses.
From left to
right – Helen, Eve, Minxey and Linda.
Linda looks
very fetching, modelling the latest in ‘horsey’ head gear.
Think Minxey
won the coin toss with her hat.
She made it
up there.
Well, they
did it!!
We raised
enough money to buy two cows that were both in calf, and named them Linda and
Minxey.
Minxey with
her new calf.
Linda with
her new calf – named Becky after Rebeccah.
This is
Snowy
The herd is
growing and they have now stopped naming the cows as the children are learning
that this is food.
As you can
see, the herd is growing all the time.
Nothing at
all goes to waste in the school. The
milk and the meat is good, but also the dung gets used to fertilise the crops
and if there is any left, it is for fuel for the cooking fire. Everything else, hides etc will be sold to
raise precious funds.
All of these
extra resources has meant that the school could take in more orphans. To this end, more funds were raised to build
a bigger dormitory for them. Before
building this, they had been using a rented bungalow next to the school with an
employed matron to look after the children out of school hours.
The dorm is
not quite finished here, but it is put to use as soon as possible.
This is how
it looks today, with a coat of paint.
AIDS is a
huge problem, as you will be aware from watching television. There are many children left alone to fend
for themselves, but these have been lucky enough to find a loving and caring
home.
A lot of
fund raising goes into buying the essentials in life like clothes, and when
they get new things, they really enjoy showing them off.
These are
traditional suits that they are proud to wear for formal occasions like going
to church.
Pretty
dresses for the girls.
Don’t we
look glam?!!
This is
Moses, who was in a road accident. He
was just graduating from the infant’s department here.
New school
uniforms, and they look so proud of them.
A couple of
the students are showing great potential and are definitely university
material, so we had a meeting to discuss what was going to happen when the time
came for them to move on up.
Stuart and
Rebeccah have worked so hard in their life here, and have lived very simply so
that they can save a lot of their own cash.
In doing so, they have been able to build five houses near Kampala. These houses are to be rented out and the
rents will provide funds for scholarships to fund them through their further
education.
Whilst
waiting for that time to come, they managed to pool some together to start up a
co-operative. Whereby, money is lent to
individuals who do not want to go on to further education, but want to venture
out and start a business. Money has been
lent to start up a seamstress business, which has now been paid back and lent
on to someone else, who opened a shop.
These businesses are doing very well indeed and there are many such
projects in the pipeline.
Some of the
funds were also spent to get a more reliable power supply to the computer room,
with the purchase of solar panels. They
were so proud to send these photos.
Not a
brilliant photo, but the panel does a good job.
Just a light
for the night time, but with the electricity supply going off without notice,
it has helps to save a lot of work done on the computers from being lost. Progress indeed.
As you are
all probably aware from the recent news, there is a real risk of girl children
being kidnapped in Muslim countries.
Uganda has a mix of religions, with Islam being the majority. Our school is a Christian school. The problems highlighted in Nigeria recently
with the kidnapping of those schoolgirls, have been going on for some time on a
much smaller scale.
It was
really necessary to raise some funds for a high wall to be built around the
perimeter of the school, with strong gates that could be locked and the
employment of another night watchman on the grounds.
This is the
foundation of the wall. As you can see
from the steel that is still protruding from the wall, it is a very high wall
indeed. All needed to keep the kids safe
and sound.
We so often
see our children arguing about going to school and wearing a uniform. How we take it all for granted in our own
country, but these Ugandan kids really love learning and they work so hard to
achieve the best results they possibly can.
They are so proud of their school and love it best when they can show it
off to their parents and local dignitaries when they have their open days.
They love
performing for the audience, and have been filmed for the National news on a
couple of occasions.
They just
exude the joys of going to school.
There are
also regular graduation ceremonies that take place on the same day. For children graduating from one department
to the next.
These are
going to be moving up to the bigger classes when the new school year begins.
They always
have a little party with a special cake to celebrate. We make sure that there is enough for every
child to get a piece of cake. They
relish every morsel too.
With
resources often stretched to the limit out there in Uganda, there is not always
anything left over for the kinds of treats that our kids often take for
granted. So some of our fund raising
efforts have been directed at doing something to rectify that situation. Here are some of the activities that the kids
have been able to take part in.
Sweets!!! Oh
boy! They taste good.
We also
decided that we wanted the kids to have story books, to show them that it was
not just about learning to get qualifications, but that you could read for entertainment
and fun. With at aim in mind, we took an
embroidered picture that had been left by our friend Minxey, and lovingly
finished by Linda in Germany.
We framed it
and put it up for a raffle prize. The
proceeds went towards buying the kids some story books. Seems fitting that the picture is of a
fairytale character.
We have also
managed to provide the football strips and various other resources over the
years.
The story of
Irene continues to get better too, as she regains her self esteem and
confidence. She met a man who works in
the bank which deals with the school’s accounts. A very gracious and gentle
person according to Stuart and Rebeccah who had the good fortune to visit them
when they took a holiday out there to visit Rebeccah’s parents.
They are now
married and expecting their first child very soon.
The latest
news is that Irene’s husband has been in talks with the ‘powers that be’ and
there is definite talk of piping water to the school. A long way off for now, we think, but
something to really look forward to for the future. Meanwhile, we now have all the tanks and the
purifying filters, which is saving lots of fuel.
The card
stall continues at church fates, coffee mornings, luncheon clubs and even a few
go out to the Christian book stores for them to sell on our behalf. We continue with our support of these lovely
children and it is a privilege for us to be involved in changing peoples lives
and lifting them out of their poverty.
Parchment
craft and paper craft are such worthwhile hobbies and it is such a wonderful
feeling to know that something we enjoy so much can bring such huge changes to
people’s lives and give them opportunities that they might never have had.
Who would
have thought that we would have gone from a young, grieving widow, teaching
half a dozen kids sitting under a tree in her mother’s garden to this?
Meet Stuart
and Rebeccah.
Stuart on
one of his visits to Uganda. These are
some of the orphans keeping him company in the photo.
Rebeccah – in her traditional dress. Glynis – presenting a cheque, which was the
proceeds of a forum fund raiser.
The children
have sent lots of ‘thank you’ notes and Christmas cards too, over the years.
It is
wonderful to see so many children who absolutely love going to school. Something that is very much taken for granted
in this country.
Thank you so
much to all those forum friends who take the time and trouble to make cards and
send them for sale. Without them, this
would never have been possible.
Update on 24.10.2014:-
We were all thrilled to bits to get the news that Irene gave birth to a
beautiful 8lb baby girl on October 5th. It did take them some time to choose a
name, hence the lateness of this
update. They have chosen the beautiful
biblical name of Esther. I do hope to
have some photos to add here soon, but as ever, we are talking of ‘Ugandan
time’ here.
Update – 17.11.2014:- I have just had an email from Rebeccah, and attached is a
photo of the orphans in their new shoes.
Mary did a talk on our school recently and received a donation from the
ladies who were very appreciative of her presentation. It was duly sent off to Uganda and it was
decided that these kids (these have no family left at all) needed some new kit,
with priority given to shoes. It’s taken
some time for us to get the photo, but I am pleased to be able to share it and
the email that I got tonight.
Email from Rebeccah
Hi Glynis & Peter,
Hope you are all doing well,
surprisingly, today I have been sent one picture, and thankfully its that of
shoes. I am so happy to see them. From
left Gail, David, Sharon and William in their new shoes and uniforms. The photo was taken just after shoes were
bought but its been in Irene’s camera. They all look big, but they were only
kids not long ago. Thank you very much for making them look so smart like that.
The school will be closing end of this month after the Christmas party.
We had over 30 students sitting for their
final primary exams beginning of this month, and we hope they will do well.
Glynis you are in our prayers as you go
the op at QM.
God bless you and be with you all.
Becky S.
Dear Glynis & Peter/ Internet
friends,
Hope you are all Okay and I hope Glynis
is getting better.
At last Irene has sent us photos of her
new baby(Esther) , She looks such a lovely gorgeous peaceful baby, Irene said
that she enjoys her milk, she is sitting down and laughing she is 3 months old.
The school has been painted and the old
toilet has been rebuilt from scratch because it was not good enough according
to health inspectors, so there has been a lot of work going on at school during
holidays, we have two sets of toilets on the premises, The wall around the
school was completed and a big metal gate is at the main entrance for the
safety of children.(still waiting for pics).schools starts for first term on
Monday 2nd.
We are still waiting for the money from
our coffee mornings and card sales from last year, its been delayed this year
because one of the signatories had a major operation so we just have to be
patient.
Results for primary seven are still very
good we got 11 first grades and 20 second grades, they all qualified for good
secondary schools. Thank you very much for your support. The villagers are so
happy with their school.
Our orphans are doing well, William is in
primary 6 if all goes well he will be in primary seven next year,( that means
he has to work very hard indeed).We have sent money for their first term
requirements.
Irene has added some new teachers to her
staff; one of them is a good mathematics teacher for primary 7.
I will keep you informed as I will get
most of the information end February of what is going on at school and what
numbers of children and techers we have in the school and primary seven what
projects for this year.
Hope to see you soon Peter & Glynis,
And to you and all our Internet friends
you have stood with us and you have carried this school as a baby, Thank you
very much words cannot suffice what you have done Thank you.
May Love Joy and Peace be part of your
daily life,
Rebeccah Scott,
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.
Dear Glynis & Peter / internet friends,
Warmest greetings to you all from Uganda. Surprise! Surprise
photos of the gate have come earlier than expected I just couldn’t believe it.
Irene the headmistress would like to thank all of you for standing
with her ever since the school began. By
God’s grace the school is doing well and teachers are happy to see good results
every end of year.
We have been able to pay
for some very highly qualified teachers, who are doing a fantastic job to even
see that the young ones in the lower classes can read and understand and write
properly. Hand writing is so important
according to national standards, and provides the foundations to start
preparing children for the final exam at a young age. Teachers are paid
according to their grade. Some are university graduates, some are from teacher
training collage. The teachers who look
after the baby class also need child care qualifications.
Irene went on to say that the present kitchen was condemned by the
health inspectors. This year she has to come up with a plan of the new kitchen.
She has just finished the wall around the school, which has been a big
project. Other new buildings include
two dormitories, one for boys and one for girls, their toilets plus another set
of toilets for the school. This year it
is the kitchen. Without these proper facilities many schools have been ordered
to close by the ministry of education. (I don’t want that to happen, she says)
Plus every holiday there are repairs, changes and painting going on. Not to mention the stocking of supplies for
three meals a day for children, wages for 19 workers in total every month, and
every year they want their wages increased.
This is not possible without help from all of our supporters, as the
government class our school as a private school, therefore government help does
not come.
Two of our orphans are in primary 7 this year that is Sunday and
Marvin (right in picture). William is in
primary 6 and Sharon, David (left in picture) primary 5. Agnes, the youngest is
in primary 4. I was told about Sunday and Marvin last week when they came back
from holiday that they are now in primary 7.
I was surprised time flies!
They are in for a year of hard work. We had to send money for their beddings and
other requirements, as they came back from their relatives with nothing.
The children that left our school 4 years ago did wonderfully well
at 0 level, they got A grades again! This is so encouraging, as that means they
were given a good foundation at our school.
In two years they will be sitting for their A levels. We wish them all
the best.
When we get the money for last year we are going to buy more
reading books so that Irene can concentrate on her big projects. She is so thankful.
Dear friends we are so grateful that you love this school and you
are doing all that you can to make it a success. May you be blessed as you
watch the fruit of your hard work grow.
It is now almost self sustaining that’s what we wanted, and now it is up to
Irene to plan what facilities are urgently needed. Our main concern now is
mainly orphans and a little support for the school when we can.
Thanks once again, we love you so much,
Rebeccah Scott.
xxxx
These are
the new gates that finish off the outside wall.
Bright new
paint.
New
uniforms. As explained above, they are
now moving up to new classes.
I know it
has been some time since I place an update in the folder from the school, and I
apologise for that.
Stuart and Rebeccah came back this weekend from a trip to Uganda to see her
family and also visit the school. The
changes are wonderful.
The school has gone from strength to strength with brilliant exam results and
extremely happy kids and parents.
They now have water pumped to the school, which is being extended outwards to
the villages, so now people have nearby pumps where they can get lovely clean
water. The tanks are still in use to
some extent, but it does mean there is more water to share and fundamentally,
it is clean.
The wall
around the campus and security gate is completed and a new cookhouse is being
built. Some of the classrooms need
extending now though and some of the paths etc around the campus are in need of
repair, so Stuart and Rebeccah will be targeting those areas this year with the
fund raising.
The kids were absolutely delighted to see Stuart and Rebeccah, and performed a
lovely celebration dance for them, and the kids were presented with toys and
some tasty treats. Rebeccah has provided
me with lots of pictures, so I will post some here and will keep updating with
others in due course.
Some of the
money raised from the coffee mornings and craft stall went to buy some tablets
that would work on G3. The intenet out
there is still of the old ‘dial up’ type, which is very hit and miss when it
comes to sending photos etc. The
charging system is all different too and data has to be paid for in units
apparently. They have managed to get a
reasonable contract with a mobile phone company, so hopefully it will be easier
to keep in touch without having to rely on ‘snail mail’ getting through.
One of the
teachers was presented with a tablet and was quite overwhelmed with it.
As you can
see from this photo, this is one of the areas we want to see repaired.
Here are the
kids being presented with a sweetie treat.
Between all
the kids in the school and from the village, they gave out over 900
lollipops. Also quite a lot of toys.
Usually the
toys they have are made of wood, so these are quite a novelty and a luxury for
them.
We have also given money for them to upgrade the play equipment in the school
playground. It all had to be moved to
make way for the new cookhouse and it was noted that it was becoming unsound,
and so they will soon have new swings and climbing frames etc.
There was a
fabulous welcome waiting for the visitors with singing and dancing both in the
school uniform and in National costume.
They are so happy to go to school and the visitors were very impressed when they saw lessons in progress.
As you can
see they all pay attention and they are so serious about getting an
education. It has not only made a
difference to the children, but to the surrounding areas of the school.
There are other projects now under way.
Rebeccah
also has a scheme where she lends out money (no interest) to people who want to
start up their own enterprise. She has
mentored a few of these people herself, but also has enlisted the help of other
business people in the area. Once they
are on their feet and earning a living, they can pay the money back, which can
then be lent to another person.
Stuart also
began a cow project, buying cows that were in calf. The herds have grown and grown and many cows
given to other villages so that they can start their own herd. The milk comes in very handy indeed and
absolutely nothing gets wasted. Even the
dung provides fuel for the fires.
This is our story and it just goes to shows what can be achieved when
people come together like this.
