January 2017

Newsletter and update from Uganda.

Dear Glynis & Peter/ Internet friends,

Greetings to all our friends, it is a long time since the last newsletter, and I apologise for being so quiet, but you have all been on my mind.

Irene, the headmistress had a baby (Joshua) in May, then in July Dad fell ill and it was Irene who had to take him to hospital in Kampala some 60miles from home, several times in a week.  One of Mom’s legs is not so good after the accident, so Irene had to be there for Dad until November. It has been a hard year for all the family, but Dad is getting better from high blood pressure and sugar diabetes.

The school has been doing very well.  On January 10^th, the national exam results came back, and amazingly we got 17 first grades and 11 second grades.  We are thankful to you all who have bought reading books and all that is needed for the school’ success.  We are so thankful to the four teachers who work tirelessly throughout the year. They have been given a well-deserved bonus to thank them for their dedication, and they were so grateful. The pupils collected their certificates last Friday at and had a wonderful event with their parents in attendance.

There was a nursery graduation at the end of last year, which means they will soon be joining with the primary school.  The total number of pupils in the whole school is over 500.  How it has grown.

Students collecting their certificates.

Proud parents.

Proud Headmistress Irene.

Nursery graduates.

Time for cake.

Proud father and his son.

Orphans.

William (right in the photograph below) is one of our orphans, who is thriving, but when it came to serious studies of the final class he failed to qualify.  Unfortunately, we do not know his age and as he has no family at all, we cannot find this information.  He is looking mature enough to be in secondary school, and so Irene has enrolled in nearby school.  He got fourth grade in the final exam which is very sad.  We will see what we can do for him for his future. This year we have David (left) in the final class.

William is on the right and David on the left.

The four teachers who took the pupils to such wonderful exam results.  Behind them, you can see the new school colours.

The School has had a face lift, and the colours of buildings have been changed, and we also have a new school uniform.  Schools in Uganda do this colour change more often.

New School Uniform.

We are thankful for the hard work you put in, in different ways especially cards. In December, we received a cheque for £450, which was from coffee morning sales alone.  This went towards the painting and all repairs that needed doing before the new year term starts on the 30/1/17.  We merged two of our church fairs into one Autumn fair this year, as we found in previous years, that many people attending had already bought their Christmas cards.  This year we had a record number of people coming, despite really bad weather on the day.  The sum raised was £820+

We thank the church youth organizations (Brownies, Guides and Rainbows) for also being involved in the card and calendar making for the fairs.  Also thank you to those who donated the materials.  The children thought it was so lovely to unpack all the packages and boxes when they arrived with them.

Thank you very for standing with us, those who wanted to see pictures of the school garden am very sorry I did not receive any, but I hope next time.

On behalf of the school, I just want to say thank you to our loyal friends.  May this new year bring everything you hope for.

Mrs Rebeccah Scott.

xxx