A trip to Uganda

Blog Feb 2025

This coming Saturday (1st of March) I am travelling to Uganda. Usually HUGS Trustees visit projects every 18 months to check on progress to give assurance that UK donors money is spent wisely and as intended.  This trip, however, will be different.

I’m traveling solo, for 6 weeks. For three weeks I have a volunteer placement as a doctor working in the Komamboga Health Centre III, in Kampala.  For those of you who don’t know my back ground, I have worked as an NHS General practitioner for 27 years.  Komamboga is a government run facility; people turn up in the morning, register and then wait under a large gazebo until they are called in for assessment.  The Director, Dr Daphine, told me that some days up to 4000 people may attend. Let’s hope I’m not the only doctor on site.

I will be sharing the realities of life for families in Uganda, through this experience.  For those of you who use social media, I’ll be posting on the HUGS Facebook and Instagram accounts.   If you’d like more of a personal insight I’m happy if you would like to follow me on my own Instagram #richardbircher or My Facebook

During the trip I will be travelling to 4 of the HUGS projects.

The most exciting is the SEVA school.  This has been the largest HUGS school developed to date, thanks to the generous support of the Mulchand Foundation.  Ninety Children from a Kampala slum, who usually have extraordinarily tough lives, blighted by illness, malnutrition and violence, are now safe, in a beautiful school in the countryside. None of the children had ever been out of the slum, and now have acres to run and play in.  For the first times in their lives they will have a guaranteed three meals a day. Like all new school recruits, we will see them rapidly grow, in stature and confidence. It’s such a moving story.  The school will eventually care for 300 of the most disadvantaged children.  

I’ll also be calling in at St Francis de Sales school, our latest Special Needs School, caring for 100 children, who mostly have hearing or sight disabilities.  We are hoping to host volunteer teachers there in the future, and as there is nothing like first-hand experience, I’ll be staying there with the staff and helping with the children.  I wonder what they will make of my Manchester accent.

Also on route will be Father John Kyazze, and St Zoe’s school.  This was the first HUGS school we developed. It is so well run by Headmistress Sister Agnes.  The school has a compassionate culture. It has been financially sustainable for over 10 years and spends its profits on a bursary scheme which identifies children, often who have just one subsistence farmer parent, to bringing the most marginalised into quality education.  HUGS uses some of our your donations to support this programme.  Father John and I have an invite to visit the home of Patrick Ssekyanzi (one of our first HUGS sponsored students, who started school aged 12). Thanks to the power of education he runs an animal husbandry business, owns a house, breeds chickens and goats, and has a beautiful family living in security.

I will end my trip at Good Shepherd school. The beautiful, safe, lively and fun special needs school in Fort Portal.  I will share the progress of the vocational student programme.  Not every child is able to achieve academically.  Take Brian, who the school, Director, Sr Theresa found 10 years ago, eating out of bins, because he had been disowned by his family.   He is now a grown man, in his last year at Good Shepherd School, learning the skills of carpentry.

If anyone would like any particular updates, please message me.

Suncream, malaria pills, anti-worming medicine at the ready… oh and of course my travel guitar.  Thanks for all your support.

Richard Bircher. Chair HUGS

Success Stories. Celebrating our students who have completed their studies.

HUGS helps children, who face obstacles which prevent them from entering education, to attend school and benefit from the liberating power of learning. Our sponsorship programme particularly supports children with disabilities (often sight or hearing loss) and those from families which are in inescapable poverty, often as a result of disease or violence. 

January is a joyful time in the HUGS calendar as we celebrate the achievements of the students who have come to the end of their studies. The Ugandan school year ends in December, and over the last three weeks we have received 80 school reports.  Our school heads and Trusted representatives are working hard.  Please join us in wishing all our school leavers the best.   

HUGS started 25 years ago, as a small support programme for 9 disadvantaged children, living in a poor community near to Mubende, who were orphaned because of HIV.  Father John Kyazze, (born himself in the village) teamed up with HUGS founder Peter Mount, to raise funds for their school fees. Roll forward to today and we see the same community has been irreversibly improved by the development of St Zoes Primary and Secondary School (caring for 450 children).  This year 5 HUGS sponsored children have graduated from the school.

 

Rehema Nabrinda, Mary Nawatti and Edison Kasereka have completed their O levels and are nervously awaiting their grades.  When Rehema and Mary were just small girls, the school principals noticed them watching other children attend school, when they stayed at home, and asked HUGS to help out.  They are now both emancipated, bright young woman. Mary has always been a talented singer and dancer and Rehema is fiercely academic.  Edison is a star pupil. When HUGS Trustees met him he was head-prefect and school goal-keeper (taking advantage of starting school late, he had extra height on the sports pitch). He is from a family of 6 children, where he and his siblings run their own home, as their single father works away. 

In St Zoe’s Primary School, Fredrick Ganafa and Winifred Nayiga (both aged 11) have taken their Primary Leaving Exams.  If they do well, we will continue their sponsorship into secondary school.  Fredrick always scored top marks in his class but his family fell into poverty after his father died. Winnifreds home situation is so precarious, that she is almost entirely cared for by the order of Sisters who run the school, as she has no parents of her own.

Some of you may remember Amiru, a blind child who Sebastain from St Francis de Sales School, brought to our attention in 2017. HUGS helped him to remain in school, by buying wooden crutches and a braille typewriter. He has just completed his Primary education and has done well. 

Claire Nakanwagi is awaiting her A Level results. She has her sights on being a doctor, and just as it is in the UK, her future plans depend on her grades. Her school report comments on her strength of character and how she is a very good performer and comedian!  Ever since HUGs has supported her she has maintained grade 1 passes every year.

And finally, we are so proud of Rosemary Nabiyre who has been blind since birth, and was raised by her single mother, working as a subsistence farmer.  Imagine the barriers she has faced to even start school.  She has graduated from Makarere University with a degree in Social Work. 

All these remarkable stories are only possible because of the repeated generosity of our donors.  Thank you for making this happen.  Each child is a miracle and together we are helping them reach their full potential.