Uganda Lodge Newsletter July 2018

  Hello to all our dear friends and supporters

I have been back in Uganda for a month now, and have missed the heatwave I   hear UK has  been experiencing. Here in Ruhanga it’s 1500 metres high so although we are close to the Equator its rarely very hot for more than a few hours during the day, and at nights you usually need a thin duvet – never a fan. Even during the rainy seasons, which seem to occur at different times each year, its usually very wet for an hour or two and then the sun comes out and quickly dries everything up. July/Aug is almost always very dry with some water shortages, but now we have a new well and pump funded by volunteers Johnathon and Nazra so that is helping us this year.
Jen Cohen who came out to help us from UK just before Christmas has taken over the job of managing our school accounts and Tony has been co-ordinating our volunteers during his Uni holidays.
        

The three new classrooms we started to build in 2017 are now all complete and being used so we have been able to split the 80 children in Primary 6 into two much more manageable groups of 40 each. Both boys and girls each have 3 dormitories as we have around 250 boarders each term. Thanks to all the volunteers for the fundraising, and the help in building work plus painting & decorating these rooms, and also for other play facilities they have added to  our  school.
As I said in our last newsletter we are no longer receiving monthly funding from ASE Consulting, who have supported our medical centre over the past 5 years and during that time has enabled us to provide free healthcare for so many children. We have now let our former Doctor, Lab technician and one Nurse go but we are fortunate in currently having two volunteer Ugandans Doctors to take their place for a few months. We have started to ask parents of our school children for a small contribution, but as many find it difficult to even pay the top-up school fees we ask, they are not very forthcoming.
This is a reason why we still need more people to come forward as sponsors and commit to a regular contribution of just £5 a month towards one child’s education. PLEASE WILL YOU HELP SUPPORT THESE CHILDREN?

     

See http://www.sponsorachild.co.uk where you can choose a child, download an application form and set up a monthly standing order. Alternatively we can choose a child for you as the money all goes into the school fund and is equally shared between all students. Thanks to all of you who already contribute – and especially our long term sponsors, some of whom have upgraded to £5 and others who have been sending in £3.50 each month for many years now. Please be assured that even if your original child has left, your money is benefiting one of the many new ones we accept each term.

 

Daviot and Oldmeldrum Explorer Scouts from Aberdeen have now spent two weeks with us here in Uganda, and as well as fundraising over the past year and so far raising the magnificent sum of £16,800, they worked tirelessly throughout their stay on a huge new building that is now well on the way to completion.
They made bricks, sieved sand, moved truckloads of stones, made bridges and generally made themselves useful wherever needed. They organised a weekend camp with the Scouts from Ruhanga Development School, built a large campfire and invited many local dignitaries. On their last weekend they went to Queen Elizabeth National Park where they camped, went on a boat trip and met with Elephants, Lions, Hippos and Buffalo etc.
Here you can see some photos of the construction of this 91ft x 45ft School/Scouts/Community Hall, and the Scouts on various activities while they were out here.

 

 

 

 

Over the past months other Volunteers have also raised    money and that too has gone towards getting this massive building completed as quickly as possible, so it can be ready for use when the rainy season returns.

Many of the 250 children who board with us during term-time tell us that they prefer that to staying with their families, as they always get more food, they avoid long walks to and from school each day, and they do not have to do so many household tasks. This gives them more time to concentrate on school-work and enables them to have a better chance of a good grade in the Primary Seven Leaving Exams.

In Uganda on an average its only children who can afford to go to the expensive private schools that pass with a good grade; unless they are particularly bright, few of the children who attend government schools get a good pass and many do not even reach P7.  Your sponsorship support enables us to offer these disadvantaged children good schooling at a price they can afford. Sponsorship is just £5 a month per child, but we need many more people to join us at www.sponsorachild.co.uk. If you can’t spare that much right now please ask around your friends to see if any are willing. So little can do so much and all of your donations goes straight out to Ruhanga Development School in Uganda – as all our admin helpers are volunteers.

Many of our readers who have already visited Uganda Lodge will of joined one of Denis’s safaris to Queen Elizabeth National Park and seen the hippos, elephants, buffalo, lions and hundreds of antelopes close up. Maybe also even a leopard, a crocodile or a family of hyenas and of course hundreds of different species of birds? Did you enjoy it, and do you have friends who said ‘I would love to do that and I wish I could afford it?’ Or even ‘Aren’t you brave?’ Well Denis and his team will look after them from Day 1 and their arrival at Entebbe. Remember the adorable children in Baby Class?

Outside of July/August you really can have a 2 week trip with a safari from UK for under £1,000 including flights. Just email me for an information booklet. Denis has now developed his land at both Kisenyi on Lake Edward and Kasenyi on Lake George, and this is attracting more tourists and helping to bring additional money and services to these remote impoverished fishing villages. Come and see for yourselves.

Building work at our Vocational Training Centre has taken a back seat recently with more new classrooms, and the large School/Scout Hall we are building, but the hair salon, tailoring, knitting and shoe making classes are doing well. Thanks to Fiona we now have some new modern sewing machines and students are making pads for girls alongside school uniforms, sweaters and dresses for themselves.

Karen Perry would really like some help with raising the £15,000 that we still need to complete and open the partially built training restaurant that our dear friend Suresh Amin was working on before he suddenly passed away. He wanted to put something back to the country where he was born, and a restaurant on this prominent site really will generate an income as well as train many youngsters in catering skills over the coming years. Do you have any useful contacts in restaurants, bars and other food or drink related companies that might offer assistance? Can you help with a collection or a raffle? You can use our UK charity name and number number for fundraising – Uganda Lodge Community Projects No 1150023
Each month we get additional income from those of you already using ‘Easy Fundraising’ every time you buy anything online.  Please start using it every time you shop online and also join in with our ‘School Lottery’. Here at £1 a week you are in with a chance of winning £25,000; thanks go to the winners of many smaller prizes who have donated their money back to our charity. Its better odds than at your local paper shop!

These is our news for now but I will be happy to hear from anyone who would like to give some input next time, or indeed help with promotions for finding us more visitors, fundraising and child sponsorship.

 

We hope to see you out in Uganda soon

Best Wishes from

Ann McCarthy & Denis Aheirwe