Tom and Lydia contacted Denise (Trustee of HUGS) when they noticed the ‘Christmas in Uganda’ story book on the web. When they met Denise they told her they had just taken over the running of a charity called ‘Bury African Outreach’.
This is a small charity that pays for children in Uganda to attend local schools. Tom and Lydia said their dream is to build their own school in Uganda. They arranged to visit the Good Shepherd school during their trip to Uganda in September and they have send some lovely pictures and comments which they would like to share.
Tom also mentions Pat Scampion. Pat runs the charity called Improving Chances and Pat started this charity to fund the children's Outreach Programme at the Good Shepherd School. Pat has written an excellent book about Sister Theresa and the children at the school. It is available on Amazon and called ‘Improving Chances’.
Hello Denise
I don't know what to say....
...we visited Sr Theresa and the children at the Good Shepherd and we were all blown away by how incredible and fantastic it all was!
Sr Theresa is a real inspiration, her hard work and love for the children is apparent as soon as you enter the school gates. We can not praise the school highly enough - it was just brilliant!
What HUGS has achieved out there is brilliant. It would be good if we could meet up at some point and get the full story of how you went about setting up the school. How much it cost / what (if any) legal issues you had to overcome etc.
Its a long story, but it turned out that our driver who was from Fort Portal had a relative teaching at the school. He is also a good friend of one of the pupils (Derek) father. It really is a small world!
In another weird coincidence. We stayed one night at Ruwenzori View Guesthouse and it turned out that the owner knew your friend Patricia Scampian! I therefore gave her your copy of the book (which she didn't know about) Improving Chances. I therefore owe you a book, sorry!
My mum in particular loved our visit to the Good Shepherd. She described Sr Theresa as a living saint (and I wouldn't disagree)!
Speak soon
Tom and Lydia
