HUGS Update May 2025. Heping 4 children who are blind.

Let me introduce you to Pretty, Angela, Najiya and Vayati, four friends at St Francis de Sales School. All have been blind since birth. They are central to a remarkable story which demonstrates the delightful twists and turns of helping Ugandan schools, and the importance of our network of HUGS supporters.  What you do is amazing.

Four years ago, St Francis de Sales wanted to admit students who were visually impaired, but couldn’t recruit anyone with the right specialist skills. Teachers proficient in braille and teaching the blind are rare in Uganda.  At the same time HUGS was asked to sponsor Yayeeri Baseri, a blind student who wanted to complete teacher training, but had run out of money.  HUGS donors came to her aid.  Two years later she was the new teacher at St Francis de Sales, in charge of our four frightened new students, who previously had hardly ever left their homes and certainly never thought they would be privileged enough to be accepted into a school.  Yayeeri became their mentor, teacher and surrogate parent at the same time; rising admirably to all these challenges. 

I had the great pleasure of seeing the four girls walk around the school, hand in hand with confidence, recognising every undulation in the floor, every door and window. When together there were always giggles. In the queue for meals they were able to stand their ground and ensure they were never left to last. The influence of school is more than to learning to read and write.

Special needs teaching needs special equipment and that comes at a cost. The school owns a single braille machine, but it is frequently out for repair. It won’t last much longer as it is used everyday. So when  Sebastian, the school Principle, asked for a new machine, costing $600 we offered to help.  Now, the HUGS network is very well connected and came across a Stockport disability charity, Walthew house, that had a cupboard of outdated braille machines they never use. We showed a picture to Sebastian, he was amazed, they were better than the school could hope for, and importantly durable, effective and with regular maintenance would last decades. Our supporters made a donation to Walthew House, Walthew House have donated 5 machines, and HUGS trustees will take then to Uganda in June.

Pretty, Angela, Najiya, Vayati and teacher Yayeeri will each have their own machines to practice the skills of writing and undoubtedly will expand their ability to self-express in written word.

Help from our network makes magical things happen. If you have skills, time or other resources you could offer HUGS, please let us know.  You can make remarkable things happen too.