Victoria was Victorious!

The big event which was really frightening so many people in Uganda when we visited in February was the Parliamentary Elections. Would there be bloodshed. Why were we coming at that particular weekend? We arrived at St. Zoes to find that many of the parent had come to take the children back home so that they would be safe. Our friend Victoria was running for election as the MP for Fort Portal. She had worked tirelessly as Regional Director of Education and has a passion for this subject. She has attended lots of events at Good Shepherd school and is about the best Charity Auctioneer I have ever seen. She was successful and got more votes than any other MP in the whole of Uganda. She came to dinner with us when we arrived and I spent a morning with her when I returned from Rwanda. HUGs has helped her daughter with her University Law Degree course. Victoria has the Bundibogyo area, west of the Rwenzori Mountains and next door to Congo as part of her constituency. One of the challenges she is going to tackle is the long established practice in thie area for the very poor people to sell their daughters, often as young as 12, to become husbands of elderly men in return for a few goats. The girl may have been promised at the age of 8. When she leaves home she joins the other wives and that increases the labour force at the man's farm. It seems that child abuse is international. I will keep blog readers informed on her success with this huge challenge

What makes leadership really work?

Over the years I must have read dozens of books and hundreds of articles on the subject of leadership, how to grow it, how to find it, and how to make if effective. Reflecting on what has worked in Africa one cannot but notice the significant effects which have been inspired and led by organised faith groups such as nuns of many faith persuasions.
As a Catholic I have a very warm place in my heart for these wonderful people who give themselves totally to helping others. Where could you find a team of skilled professions who dedicate themselves for every hour of every day to helping others with no financial reward at all. They are quite priceless. And believe me they really know how to get thing done.

So when Sr. Immaculate whose brother is Fr. John Kyazze had her Silver Jubilee on February 5th this year is was not surprising to find the over 500 people came to celebrate.

And when we visited a few weeks later she and Sr. Goretti and Sr. Josephine gave up their weekend and travelled the 5 hours each way just to look after us and prepare all the food. Can you imagine anyone in England driving to London from Manchester for the weekend just to be there to look after some friends. We would call in a caterer. The Big Society is alive and well in Uganda.

Who do I really admire?

Bob Blundell our Trustee asked the secondary school children at St Zoe's to write about the people they  admired most in the world.
I wonder how many European children of about 13 would have been able to write as well as Mutyaba George William of Form 3.

And don't forget that William does not see TV or newspapers in the very rural area where St Zoe's is located.

As we explored the site one day we met the head girl Naomi Tandeka aged about 14. She was sitting in the shade reading an English translation of one of the great Russian satirical plays by Gogol called The Government Inspector. 

And we are providing remedial English to students in our Universities. Something wrong isn't there!

Who is third world.

Too late for Felicisa

Felicisa lived next door to my friends in Uganda. With terminal breast cancer and aged 41 and with 6 children her brother in law received a text message from the big hospital telling him to come and collect her from the hospital verandah.
She died yesterday.
We dont know how lucky we are in UK.

This is what the local daily newspaper has just reported:

PATIENTS admitted at Mulago Referral Hospital with spinal injuries have abandoned their ward, demonstrating against lack medical attention. 

Business at the hospital came to a standstill as patients relocated their beds to the verandah, while some blocked the entrance to the ward. 

One of the patients, who preferred anonymity, said he had spent six months at the hospital where he was referred for an operation but nothing had been done about his condition. 

Another woman claimed that her husband had died due to negligence. 

“My husband sustained injuries in a motor accident and we were admitted here for four months. His body had begun rotting. Doctors recommended an operation, but nothing was done,” she said. 

The acting deputy executive director, Baterana Byarugaba, told journalists that the hospital did not have enough anesthesiologists. 

An anethesist is a doctor who puts patients to sleep before an operation is carried out. They also monitor the patient’s breathing. 

The standoff drew crowds including the medical staff and administrators who resolved to rush urgent cases to the theatre. Details of the patients who underwent surgery were not readily available. 

According to Byarugaba, Mulago has seven anesthesiatic experts out of the 40 required. Three of the seven are attached to Makerere University Medical School, he explained. 

The rest of the staff are diploma holders and cannot handle the overwhelming number of patients. 

Cooked fish from the Garden

At the bottom of the site below Good Shepherd school they have diverted the stream and created a large pond. Stocked with fast growing Tilapia Fish which are fed on Yam leaves grown alongside the pond they are growing and multiplying really fast.

They provided a wonderful lunch when we were there in February.

They were not quite this size though. The ones in the picture came from Lake Victoria.

The pond is just below the sport area which Matt and his Engage for Africa team are planning to level and make into a proper football and handball area over the next 12 months.

The Sisters and staff made a great meal for us all with everything produced in their own small farm. This included bananas, potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, peas, chicken, milk. In fact almost every inch of the 5 acre site is used really carefully. We have two gardeners full time who lave done all the work over the last 4 years to create a wonderful farm from the densely covered site. Rainfall in Fort Portal is excellent and it would be hard to find a more productive place to farm.

A chess champion

Phiona Mutesi from Kampala is about 17 and learnt chess a few years ago. Now she is No 2 in Uganda, plays at international events and attended the World Chess Olympiad in Siberia, where she met her hero Gary Kasparov.

She is not certain when she was born, although FIDE has estimated it to be 1993.   She grew up in the Ugandan slum of Katwe, where as of 2011 fifty percent of teen girls are mothers; when Phiona was about three her father died of AIDS and shortly after her older sister Juliet died of an unknown cause. When Phiona was about nine, and had already dropped out of school as her family could not afford to send her, she found a chess program run by the Sports Outreach Institute, which taught her how to play chess. As of 2011 she is a three-time Women's Junior Champion of Uganda.[ She played on board 2 for Uganda at the Chess Olympiad (Women) (2010). Furthermore, she is the youngest person ever to win the African chess championship. However, if the Sports Outreach Institute cannot raise enough money, Phiona will be unable to attend the 2012 Chess Olympiad in Turkey.

We must look at starting a chess club at our schools. Many of us learnt at school and it is just the sort of thing that could really appeal to our boarders when it is too dark to play out in the evenings.

Will Assumpta play for Uganda?

Aged two little Assumpta was coming to school but due to her very severe spinal deformity it was all she would to to sit on a chair and sing and clap as the children entertained us. Thanks to some wonderful kindness and generosity of friends she is now running about and taking a full interest in everything that all the other children can do.

Matt and Phil spent a lot of time with the children at Good Shepherd school for children with learning disabilities and she joined in all the fun.

Our visit to St. Zoe's 2011

The visit was to review progress at St Zoes and at Good Shepherd schools and for Mike and Jean to take a detailed review of the vocational project which the Oglesby Charitable Trust are supporting.

We saw great progress and the school results for the Primary school continue to be at the top in the region. The wall chart below shows recent results from the Primary school.

The secondary school is expanding and now covers S1 to S3 with about 70 pupils. Term started in February with an additional 65 which reflects the growing reputation of both Primary and Secondary schools.

Over the next three years our German friends will be fund raising to refurbish the primary school and the site and the Director of the school, Andrew Ssempijja has started a school environmental committee which will try to change a deep Uganda cultural problem and make the site continually free of both litter and the huge range of potential accident hazards which go with so much building going on. The first new paved footpaths and flower gardens are being established but we really need some rain to make them look beautiful.

A new classroom for these children will be completed in April and the Vocational building perhaps a month later.

Climate change in this very dry region mean that all our water harvesting tanks are dry but when the rains come (hopefully in April) we will have finished a major upgrade and expansion of this scheme and will have greatly increased storage capacity.

In the meantime the school truck is spending a great deal of time travelling to fetch water from a distant well.

As the school is growing so fast the logistics get more complex. We provide dormitory accommodation, regular meals and uniforms for the children and the newly formed structure of the project as an NGO with Ugandan Charitable status is now getting started. Local Trustees have been appointed and they are now beginning to meet regularly. There first tasks will be reviewing the organisation support and deciding on future priorities.

Matt Houghton and Phil Hayward came with 4 huge bags of football shirts and kit and gave lots of coaching to the children, they are also planning how best to create good quality pitches for football, netball and hand ball and athletics in the future. The aim is to make St Zoe's an exemplar in educational, vocational, and sporting excellence and try to find tomorrows Premier Division players and Olympic competitors.

Our two Project Trust volunteers Rebecca and Naomi have now been at St Zoes for 6 months and have made a huge contribution to not only the teaching of English and Mathematics but have joined in the affairs of the school in a truly wonderful manner. 

Ou

On the way to Uganda

Bob, Peter, Matt and Phil set off for Uganda on Feb 17th and enjoyed the luxury of Terminal 5 shopping at Heathrow. But coming through on the way back with the dreadful security delay and systems as you go through to board the internal UK flight to Manchester really is a national disgrace and one wonders what our visitors think of us.

A Commemorative Book

With February 2011 being the 10th anniversary of the opening of St Zoes it seemed like a good time to put together a Commemorative Book to record the event.
A long cold and snowy winter gave lots of time to do it.
The book is A4 landscape format with about 3500 words but perhaps 100 photographs of some of the most memorable events and places and people.

The book is 40 pages and Coffee Table style. If you would like one then please send £10 plus £1 post and packing. Cheques payable to Peter W Mount and all profits go to Helping Uganda Schools.
You can email an order or put a message in the Comments box on this blog entry.

Education and Aid

Aid to Africa is a big subject. $44 billion went there in 2008 and the figure is rising. Yet the long term effect overall has only been to widen the gap between the poorest and the rest.
Look closely at the aid and you find it is often all about political influence and not real aid. It is given even when countries have not kept their promises.
We looked at the St Zoe's schools from the point of view of the local economy and the result was surprising.
With no HUGS or other support money being used for day to day revenue expenditure and only being spent on infrastructure and capital like buildings and equipment the schools employ 49 teachers and other staff and also generate work for up to 50 families in the village to grow food for the children and make school uniforms, provide timber and work on building projects. In turn these people support their families and even at a very conservative figure of 10 per employed person the schools are helping to support nearly 1000 people and provide a livelihood. All with money generated locally. It should continue even if we were not around.

It makes you think.

HQ Coaching and Sport for Schools

Uganda is not famous for sport excellence. I think there was just one Gold Medal in the last Olympics and cannot remember hearing of any great footballers or athletes. Boxing is perhaps the one exception. Next door Kenya has done a great deal better over the years. Matt Houghton of the well known Merseyside Coaching business is visiting St Zoes with a fellow Coach Phil Hayward in February. They have raised money to allow St Zoes to purchase a very considerable range of sport equipment so that the school can encourage sport excellence. Matt believes that if children are given the opportunity and some help then lots more hidden abilities can be discovered

The idea is that St Zoe's over time becomes a centre for Excellence in Sport and Matt and his team and all the schools he works with in the Merseyside, Cheshire, and Greater Manchester areas will all be able to support this great initiative.

Thanks to British Airways we will be taking lots of sports kit as part of our baggage allowance.

Opinions please

We posted something earlier about the Lira Babies Home which is a wonderful initiative in an area which was devastated by the violence in Northern Uganda in recent times. Happily it seems to be more peaceful now. But lots of children lost parents and the Lira Babies home has been helping the orphans in a very imaginative way.
HUGs is not a supporter but some of you have been donating through HUGS to help them. It costs about £12,000 per year to pay for everything at the home.
I wonder if we should suggest to our Trustees that we adopt this cause? The home has been running for many years but we found this press cutting from the Uganda New Vision which is rather worrying.

Please us the comments box on the blog to let us know whether you would be interested and if you might be able to increase a standing order to help. If lots of us do it this should not be a big burden.

Preparing for the start of term

Although ther is still much to do the repainting at St Zoe's should make the school look so much better for the start of term next week

Volunteering in Uganda

We are developing opportunities for people to spend periods of time volunteering in Uganda. These can be three types of volunteering.
Medical Students in their 5th year are encouraged to spend a few weeks overseas and Virika Hospital in Fort Portal is keen to help. These students can also get very involved in Good Shepherd School and perhaps stay in the guest house there during the stay.
Gap Year students like Rebecca and Naomi could spend periods up to a year at St Zoe's school.
Doctors and Nurses, Midwives or Teachers could also spend periods at the hospital or either school location and not only help pass on their skills but gain enormously from the experience.
Central Manchester University Hospitals Foundation NHS Trust have a number of staff either arranging to go to Virika Hospital or to volunteer elsewhere in the world.

Refurbishment at St Zoe's

Taken in early January this gives some idea of the scale of the refurbishment work being done at St Zoes.
Creating a high quality environment with proper paths and well painted and smart classrooms is important and sets standards for the children and the teachers. We created a small fund to employ most of the teachers during the long Christmas vacation to do much of this work. Altogether 221 person days of work were done so it was a win for the school and a great job for the teachers who dont normally get any pay during holidays.

The Long Holiday

Uganda schools close from early December to the start of February. Much too long say many teachers because unlike UK there is no pay when you are not at work. The St Zoe's team thought that this closure could be a really great opportunity to redouble the work on refurbishment of the primary school and make it ready to the start of 2011. Because limited funds prevented us from having verandas and proper paved paths around the site there is a real problem during the rainy season. Everything gets covered in red mud and this gets onto the walls of the class rooms too.
With financial help from parishes in South Germany we  have been able to create a lot of paid work for teachers who will be showing us the results when we visit in February.

Verandas around the dormitories will be a great help

At Good Shepherd there has been great progress on the latest building which is a class room for year 6 but it will also have a meeting room for parent teaching events and a vocational skills room for the children.

Bob, Peter and Matt Houghton will be visiting from February 17th to 27th with other friends. We will be reviewing the progress on all these things and at the same time meeting with parents and local leaders to hear their views and make sure that what is being done is what is needed by the local people. Matt and a colleague will be reviewing the work on the sports fields and will also spend about 6 days running football coaching for the boys and girls.

Christmas 2010

As we come to end of 2010 this blog sends the very best wishes from the HUGs Trustees in UK and the teams in Mubende and Fort Portal. Supporters are making a real difference to the lives and the futures of our special needs children at Good Shepherd and the children of St Zoe's near Mubende.

We start 2011 with finishing a new class room at Good Shepherd and plan to fund a vehicle during the year.This will allow Sister Thesesa to extend her work to the families who live in the region near to Fort Portal.
The school cow had a new calf in December and he has been named Bruno.

At St Zoes the second classroom for the secondary school, the vocational institute, a major primary school refurbishment, extended water harvesting and new sports fields and equipment are all starting to be built so it is going to be a very busy year. Many of the earliest pupils have now gone on the University, a few to further vocational education or to practical jobs in the community. The plans for the campus will allow many more to gain really valuable education and training for the future.

Rebecca and Naomi in the foundation trench for the new buildings.

Our Director, Andrew, is taking a leading role in developing the use of biogas systems in Uganda and our Ugandan Charity which is called Kagoma Educational Development Organisation, has just been asked by Ugandan authorities to train and lead the creation of 100 biogas systems on 5 regions of Uganda. The income from this venture will of course go to support the schools. St Zoe's is becoming a national training centre for this work and creating fuel from waste and not by cutting down forest is of great importance.

End of Term at St Zoes

Rebecca and Naomi who are volunteering at St. Zoes's sent this end of term report.

In the last blog, I mentioned that the Primary 7 children were in preparation for their Primary Leaving Examinations which the students said went very well. At the end of their last day of exams they all arrived back from the examination centre on the back of a pick up truck waving little white paper hats. All the Primary School cheered them as they arrived and they celebrated the end of term with a leaving party which Naomi and I attended. The next day they all departed after giving each other lots of sweets, I got some tasty humbug type sweets so was rather happy!

On the week of the 15^th, it was the Secondary School exams at St Zoe, the previous week I had given endless revision exercises and continuously given questions in Prep. Mathematics in the Secondary section is a subject that is performed weakly, so after poor mid-term results I was really hoping for some improvement. I had worked mostly with Senior 1 and 2 students, so as I waited in the staff room for them to finish their papers so I could mark them, I genuinely felt nervous! Thankfully the student’s hard work paid off and there was a great improvement in their results. In Senior 1, almost all the students passed with 55% or above and in Senior 2 half the class passed with 50% or above, a huge improvement on the 3 that passed in the mid terms. I was particularly impressed with Robert in Senior 1 who got 69 out of 70 and Frederick in Senior 2 who came from being at the bottom of the class in Maths in the mid term exam to 3^rd highest; both of these students (who are brothers) worked really hard to get their result, so I treated them both to a pack of Coca Cola playing cards. Across all the subjects the end of term exams went well with improvement in many of the subjects and all students have been promoted to the next year. The Director has also come up with a very good idea; he has decided that those students who get a 70% or above average in their end of term exams, can receive a school fees bursary for next term. If they can maintain the required percentage each term then they will continue to get the bursary. This term 5 children achieved the percentage required; from Senior 1, Michael, Happy and Oliver and from Senior 2, Bruno and George William. All 5 of these children are not only naturally intelligent but also work tirelessly to achieve their grades, always complete their homework first and give themselves extra work. Both Bruno and Oliver are from the same family and are also day scholars, their family works hard to fund their school fees so the bursary will greatly help. I think the bursaries are a fantastic idea as not only does it reward those students that work extra hard, but it also encourages healthy competition between students and a very good incentive to make them perform to their best ability.

During the last week of term the students relax and get ready to leave for the holidays. A sports gala was held in which the classes competed against each other in netball, football and volleyball. The girl’s football match was particularly amusing with literally all the girls legging it after the football, screaming from one side of the pitch to the other! The day before the students left Naomi and I organised an end of term dance for the Secondary students; decorations included 70 balloons personally blown up by Naomi and I! All the students had a great time and of course Naomi and I had a good dance as well. The following day on Friday the 26^th, the students received their reports and then departed via various modes of transport, most on bodabodas with their huge tin suitcases and mattresses strapped on the back! In the evening Naomi and I went back to school and it was so strange to see an empty school-we wanted the students back.

On Saturday was the Get Together Party for both the Primary and Secondary staff members of St Zoe; there were also invited guests which included parents and other directors of the school. This was a full day occasion comprising of a speech from the Director and a speech from Master Lauben and Master Tamukedde with their end of term reports for the Primary and Secondary sections. Their was also a speech reviewing the ‘Think tank workshop’, this was very interesting to here about and was very productive in its aims to improve the school, addressing problems such as litter around the school and over-crowding in the dormitories. We then got a special lunch all prepared by staff members, Naomi and I played our part- first witnessing the slaughtering, skinning and then cutting of 2 goats, I then used my farmer background to chop chickens into 8 or so pieces-my mum (who is a butcher) would be very proud! The lunch was really delicious and everyone had humungous plates full, there was also a selection of sodas and beers. After a very hunger satisfying lunch, the non-teaching staff members held the equivalent of a secret santa-this was a really fun event with each member dancing around with their present before giving their gift and then they would dance together. It was really joyous and everyone had a right good time clapping along to the music. After that we had a small dinner sat outside in the school gardens, which was also very tasty. Then there were lots of photos taken and finally a dance until very late. The day was really lovely and the staff had put a lot of hard work into making the occasion special, it was nice to see interactions between the staff members of Primary and Secondary. I feel that this kind of interaction between both schools will lead to better co-operation in the future, which is how it should be. The event was a brilliant way to end the term.

So now all the students have left and the teachers are departing back home swiftly for Christmas, although we are still a little in disbelief that it is nearly Christmas with the sun shining away as brightly as ever. The school is very empty although this afternoon I witnessed a match between the locals on the school pitch, there were men in brightly coloured shirts everywhere. They were using the football given to them by the school for the work that they have done in clearing the weeds across the school, which was good to see-they do love their football in Uganda!

Tomorrow Naomi and I are heading off to Kampala and then Rwanda as we need to renew our visas by the 3^rd, otherwise we will be highly illegal. Aside form the goings on at St Zoe the main event in Uganda at the moment is the forthcoming elections which is creating a buzz across the country. Every available space in Kampala has been taken by candidate posters! That is all for now, I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

 Best Wishes

Rebecca

Some stories about Good Shepherd Special Needs Children

Sr. Theresa send these stories about some of the children at Good Shepherd school

KYOMUHENDO DERICK 

Derick is a boy aged 13 years; He is in primary four class.  He likes playing foot ball and is like a professional goal keeper, and even the teachers are proud of him! He also like running around, helping everybody who needs help.  He also likes drawing funny pictures.  In the class he can concentrate for few minutes the rest of the time will be disturbing others, but when given individual attention, using sign language and a variety of learning aids after which he can really concentrate. 

The story of his life is not all that good because he has some impairments that is Speech and Hearing (totally deaf) but doing very well in his studies when given individual attention.  His parents neglected him since Child hood until Good Shepherd was put in place, now He is happy and enjoys the whole environment of the school. 

HIS STRENGTHS

He is very good in sports and football and art

He is very good in keeping time

Has Team Spirit and friendly 

WEAKNESS

Sweeping the class

Fighting

KEZABBU SHARON 

Sharon 10 year old girl, She is in primary two class.  She has visual impairment (partially blind), and with Intellectual impairment.  She likes running around and playing net ball.  She stays with her Aunt who cannot meet her needs at all, as a school struggle to meet her needs because her parents run and leave her behind alone.

HER STRENGTHS

She learns very well when given special attention with a variety of learning aids

She likes sweeping the class all the time even if not instructed

Sociable

Likes the School very much that’s why She cleans all the time

WEAKNESS

She is very shy but sociable

She is very hot tempered when frustrated

AGASA BOB

Bob is 6 years of old he is in Nursery class.  He has severe intellectual impairment, he lives with parents who are very poor who cannot afford paying school fees and other needs.   He is always punctual and attentive in class, but very slow in areas like learning, playing, associating with his fellow learners and sharing material things in class and outside class.  Apart from the above mentioned, Bob is also a stubborn boy who doesn’t like or respond to teachers’ instructions, sometimes violent whereby he needs to calm him down with calming tactics in a calming room!  He behaves like an adult person by not wanting to be directed and helped whenever he is in difficulties.  So he needs special attention, and persuasive tongue.

Written by Sr. Theresa Abigaba