Thank you ORANGE

A few months ago thanks to the inspired idea which came from friends at Taylor O'Brien (probably Manchester's best Media Companies) they put in a bid to ORANGE to fund an Internet Cafe at our St Zoe's School near Mubende;

We heard today that the bid was successful.

This could make a huge difference for the children and staff and also for local villagers

Thank you Orange!

Denise's Book goes international

You will remember Christmas In Uganda the lovely illustrated children's book written by Alex Tracey and illustrated by Dominique Byron and which Trustee Denise Ead published in hard copy last year.

it sells really well with enquiries coming from Europe and USA.

It is also available for your iPad from the Amazon Kindle Books store for £1.93.

But now it has been published by friends in Germany. Well done Gerhard!

Some special children

Sr. Theresa and her team at Fort Portal have been involved with the annual Ugandan Primary School year 7 examinations. This is rather unusual because children with special needs in learning are very unlikely to ever get this far. But as she says "Disability is not Inability" and we had the first 4 children take the exams this week. Here is what she writes about them.

DISABILITY DOES NOT MEAN INABILITY is really true as these children have made it to the end!

Allow me to  write little about each Child:

1.  Mwebesa Brian:  He has learning difficulties like Dyslexia and also letter writing problems especially when shaping letters e.g instead of writing b he writes d.  He is also with behaviour disorder, he is a short tempered person and he doesn't want to be forced to do what is not of his will or wish.

2.  Katusabe Ester:  She has short attention span.  She concentrates on anything for more than a few seconds at a time and then loses morale.  She is not settled in class when given and activity and she likes moving up and down all the time.  She is also Autistic.

3.  Kemigisa Rosette:  She has emotional problems and always stressed up as she is a total orphan who lives with her uncle who doesn't care for her, we try our best to cater for her school fees and other basic needs.  She forgets easily and she is always absent minded in class due to the above problems, and always quarrels with every body.  She shows very less or little interest in studies.  We tried our level best to offer guidance and counselling which has helped her through, and we thank God who has helped us.

4.  Kabagaya Mary:  She is unable to concentrate on anything for a long time.  She has difficulty in remembering things and she has a problem in writing correct spellings of words.  She delays to respond to questions or perform any given activity.  She also has dyslexia problems, and is also total orphan.

All these children have severe intellectual impairment as professionals of special needs, we teachers tried to give them individual, special attention inside and outside the classroom.  

The classroom shown below is the one our supporters paid for this year and it contains a Primary 7 class, a hall, and a vocational space for the girls. We have a new woodwork department for the boys and this is nearby

Our Rwanda University Student

In developing our work to focus more on educating and less on buildings we have started a range of scholarships for school children and also for further education.

Mourice is our third University Student who started in Rwanda this 

Here is what he told us;

National University of Rwanda is the largest University in Rwanda located in the city of Butare in south of the country and was established in 1963. It has about 13000 students who always come from different parts of the country and bordering countries like Burundi, Uganda, Democratic republic of Congo and Tanzania.

I am carrying the faculty of Economics and Management, the department of Management, option is Bachelor of science with honors in Accounting. For this first year I am studying in modules which include Basic Mathematics, Principles of Economics, Statistics, Financial Accounting, Information Technology, and Skills for students. From second year I will start specializing in Accounting Sciences.

In my studies here at the college I meet different important people with different skills including the Lectures, and I am also able to make new friends. And there are other different activities carried out here like sports, clubs for research, organized programs for teaching students like Anti AIDS programs.

Fortunately, I live in the hostels of the University, because of the big number of students, all students usually don’t get this chance of living there.