A Quick Cup of Coffee?

Last month HUGS agreed to fund the development of an income generating coffee plot at the Little Shepherds School.  Sister Jacinta and her team have wasted no time to get the ground ready for their first batch of Coffee seedlings.

The whole project is costing under £1,000. Sr Jacinta and her team would expect profits within two years and eventually a surplus which will pay for up to 15 children's education a year. At the moment the school cares for 5 orphans and has many other children whose families are too poor to reliably afford the school fees every term.

The power of partnerships

Today (November 21st 2017) we got news of the first results from the Eye Clinics which our partners Primrose Magala and Sebastian Waiswas have organised in Uganda with help from Moorfields Hospital doctors and nurses.

All our Uganda and Rwanda work is with partners and what is achieved is many times greater than anything we could do alone.

The picture shows them both with Sr Evangelista who is leading the Lira Girls School project.

Here is an extract what Sebastian told us;

Am glad to report to you that our children I brought yesterday and today got assessed, received surgeries and treatment. While others who have difficult conditions have been advised to seek specialized treatment in other hospitals.
Among those who underwent cataract, and squint surgeries include ; Keith and  colonius both squints and Geoffrey with cataract who is in the theater as I write now.

Abdallah was give spectacles.
Carol given eye drops but advised that when she knocks 12 years she will undergo surgery of squints and bilateral conjuctictivis.
Racheal with corneal scars and posterior synachea of the left eye which was found blind and so no any other intervention can be done to correct it.

We also received a lovely picture of the Nursery level children who attend our Rwanda School and who have just "graduated" to primary level.

Two new Scholarships

We have told you about the 70 or so active scholarships which our supporters are all helping to fund. And we have also told you a little about the 90 or so children living around Jinja who have been identifies with various forms of eye disorder.

This week a team from Moorefields Eye Hospital London is visiting Uganda and will be running clinics to help some of these children.

We have decided to do our bit by addressing some of the long term solutions for such children by offering two scholarships in Optometry. We chose this speciality because our research told us that perhaps 70% of eyesight issues can be resolved by optometrists who can offer the correct eye lotions and prescribe and fit the correct spectacles for the children.

Priya Gupta who is an optometrist from Jinja has been working with Sebastian and Denise and she has identified two potential winners of the scholarships. One is named Augustine and the other is Ronald. More about them later.

Denise is tracking all the results of the eyesight project and here is a sample of the data being collected.

It costs about £25 to treat and provide glasses for a child and this can transform their education.