Rebecca's end of Term at St Zoe's

So we are at the end of Term 1 and much has happened during the school term. Firstly I am going to start with how the art materials and other resources donated have been used in the school. This term I have been able to teach both Senior 1 and 3 Art which has been lovely. The children are often limited to a pencil and generally draw plants in pencil lesson after lesson, year after year. This term thanks to Bob, I have been able to do a variety of lessons using the new materials available. We have done figure drawing, concentrating on movement, proportion and colour, using the pastels; I also managed to recycle some of the empty cardboard water boxes from home and the children put them to good use, creating some 3D work. We then did mark making using the handwriting pens as well as observational hand drawings. Finally we looked at the school compound and concentrated on perspective and proportions. I have attached some photos of the students art work.

In Primary 7, the teacher asked me to do the topic Punctuation with the children, so having got the basics wrote down, I asked them to do a holiday piece and then we made this into a display using the pencil crayons. This was great for the kids, as not only has it given them a sense of pride in their work, it has also brightened up the classroom; display work is rarely done here in Uganda. Also, in P7 Master Paul has introduced a new group scheme; the students have been split into four groups with different house names-which is a brilliant idea and is encouraging healthy competition within the class.

I have also been teaching Pre-primary and Primary 1 this term, who are both brilliant classes, full of enthusiasm and who love to use the colouring pencils and wax crayons. We created cardboard butterflies which they coloured and are now displayed, as well as smiley faces and little chicks. Pre-primary now also have an Art book, which is great-they are so enthusiastic, although guaranteed they will always end up attacking each other with the pencils and wax crayons by the end of the lesson! They are an extremely active bunch, at the point of crayon attack I usually remove the crayons swiftly and then herd them out of the classroom for a good old sing along of ‘The Okey Kokey’-which the Secondary students find hilarious, as I am the only one singing at a rather high volume and am usually sufficiently red faced by the end!

Towards the end of this term I have started teaching Primary 3 reading using the books brought by Bob; I teach them on a Wednesday and Thursday, on the Wednesday we read through the book, copy down any interesting words and then on Thursday they do a structured excerise, interpreting and making their own version of the story with coloured pictures. They are also a lovely and enthusiastic class and give me an orange every lesson-which is a nice little perk to the lesson-not that I need it! Below you can see some examples of their work after we read the book ‘Handa’s Surprise’. So many thanks for the donation of the Art equipment and reading books, they are wonderful and the students are really enjoying them. The children at Kisimbiri are also enjoying the books, as I read the books first with them; they always give me good ideas as to how I should read the book and what to concentrate on.

So onto Mathematics, in Senior 2 mid-term exams, the boys came on top; Kukunda Happy was not too pleased with this and as a result has been asking me for numbers every night at prep. As a result of all the hard work she has put in, she performed very well in the end of term exam and came top of the class, beating even Michael (our top Senior 2 student in academic performance)-she was very happy and so was I, as Ugandans have the strong opinion that girls can’t do maths! She has also managed to create a nice little bit of competition, which is exactly what the student’s need; I know that competition spurred me on in school. In Senior 1 Kasoma Alphonse got the highest mark in Mathematics and has also managed to get the highest percentage in the whole class-which I am overjoyed about. Kasoma is 19 and a big lad, living in the village here at Kagoma. He did his Primary Leaving Exams in 2003 and obtained very good aggregates, however decided not to go to Secondary education due to lack of funds and village life (this often happens in Uganda). Kasoma makes a living from making bricks and he sells them to the school, this term he told the Director that instead of paying him for the bricks, he would like to put the money towards his school fees and start in Senior 1. He is a naturally intelligent boy, good natured and is working hard in class. There was also an interesting incident a few weeks back…at the time I was teaching Senior 2 when we heard screaming next door in Senior 1; my class ran out and I followed, I got out of the class just in time to see Kasoma chop a snake in half with a metal pole! The snake had been in the Senior 1 class, where Naomi was teaching and all the children had ran out screaming and jumped onto desks! After Kasoma had removed the snake he went straight back into the classroom and continued copying the notes, while Naomi and I spent  a good few minutes getting all the other students back into the classroom!

Kasoma is not great at art and scored 65%, afterwards he came to me and said ‘Madam, I need your help, I want to improve so please give me lots of exercises’. Because of Kasoma’s hard working nature and brilliant results, I have decided to give him a bursary for his next terms school fees. Both Senior 2 and 3 are eligible for a bursary for the next term if they score above 75% overall at the end of term; the Director decided not to apply this to Senior 1 until 2^nd term as 1^st term is an introductory term. Kasoma scored an 83% average and I therefore think he deserves to be encouraged to continue with his hard working ethic; at the same time encouraging the rest of the class to strive for their best.

On the 31^st of March the Director organised a trip to Gombe Secondary School. Gombe SS is 3^rd in Uganda for academic excellence and has a student population of 2300, all of which are boarding. Andrew organised the trip with the intention of showing our students and teachers a well established and successful school that they can gain inspiration and ideas from. 14 students and 3 teachers were taken as well as Naomi and I. The school was impressive, with an extremely well established and organised compound and a very full timetable involving Sundays, as well as early mornings and evenings. Enrolment to the school is highly regulated with only those students achieving aggregate 8 or higher in Primary 7 admitted. (The best mark that can be achieved is aggregate 4, 1 point in each of the 4 subjects and the lowest is aggregate 36). The academic excellence was displayed around the school and gave our most intelligent students something to really think about, as they realised that they were in fact very small fish in an extremely large pond! Both the teachers and students alike learnt many lessons from this trip and Andrew is hoping to organise another such trip next term to another high achieving school in Uganda. From the trip the Secondary section has decided to introduce a new system in which each lesson the teachers are monitored on attendance and punctuality. In Uganda, the punctuality and seriousness of teachers is a real problem. In prep on the evening when we arrived back from Gombe SS, the students that had gone on the visit were excitedly informing the other students, creating a real buzz, which was great to see. I really believe that in years to come, with all the highly dedicated people that are involved in the development of St Zoe, the school can really reach such levels as Gombe SS.

In terms of sport the Secondary children had a sports gala the other day. There were netball matches including S1 and S2 versus S3 and S4, which had a very interesting outcome, with S1 and S2 beating the older students 7-4. S2 has a new secret weapon in the form of Shifulah, 5ft10 (a lot taller than all the other girls) and a brilliant defender, using her height to her full advantage. The Senior 3 girls were not impressed, especially Florence (5ft) who was being marked by Shifulah and didn’t appreciate the height difference and voiced this opinion quite loudly! In the football we also have some new students who are challenging the school football team, including Tonny S4, who has exceptionally long arms and legs and makes a good defender as he can boot the ball to the opposite end of the field from a fair distance.

Since the trustees visit, water tanks have been installed, paving slabs laid and the construction of the Secondary blocks is continuing at a positive rate, with the roofing to the first block now up. Next term Andrew is hoping that the first block can be started to be utilised, as currently the S4 students are taught in the staff room, which has created over-crowding as well as disorganisation of staff documents.

As for the rainy season, it has barely been apparent and it has not rained in the past few weeks at all despite us being in the rainy season, the village, school and Kismibiri have been desperate for rain and this morning it has finally rained-so all are happy.

On Saturday we shall be leaving ready to go travelling; this time we are going to Kenya to do a bicycle safari in Hells Gate and we would also like to visit Mombasa and Nairobi.

HUGS Plans for 2011

We had our Annual General Meeting a couple of weeks ago and approved our accounts subject to audit. We publish these on the Charity Commission web site when they are approved.
Looking ahead and with nearly all the major work at Good Shepherd complete we have decided that our big priorities will be;

1. Continued development at St Zoe's where we can see at least 5 years of major site development. The Vocational school is a big part of this.
2. Emphasis on sport facilities at St Zoe and Good Shepherd.
3. Some revenue support at Good Shepherd.
4. Giving support to the Lira Babies home. (see earlier blog entries)
5. Giving some support to St Kizito's and assisting the new head teacher and renewed PTA.
6. Exploring a potential educational project in Rwanda which would be led by the Uganda Sisters who have built and run Good Shepherd school. More about this later.
7. Developing the volunteering opportunities at our schools. If an supporters have pre university youngsters who are interested do contact us.

From Cowhand to Surgeon

I met George in 2003 when he was about 14 and his job was to look after the cows on my friends family farm. Like many children in Africa he had missed out on any schooling at all. But then neither had his parents or any family members.

But in 2003 St. Zoe’s had been open for two years and the school was about a mile from the farm where he worked.

"Would it be possible for me to come to school too?"  was the question he asked one day. Yes, I know that Primary 1 children are 5 to 6 years old but I can handle that.

With that sort of courage he started in Primary 1 and moved ahead very rapidly, soon catching up and overtaking the little ones.

He had grown up with a love of animals. After all that was his job. But his vision and his love of animals had made his career ambition very clear. “I want to go to college and †rain to be a veterinary surgeon”

We met George again in February. He has finished secondary school and is doing a further education course as a preliminary to University to study to be a vet.

There is such a lesson for us in England. How is it that a 14 year old who misses all the early years of education can join in and hopefully will become a vet and have a really rewarding and satisfying career while we have such hopelessness and dependency in so many young people.

There are no bad kids. Just missed opportunities and suppressed ambitions.  

Another Town in Africa...Lira

We had a meeting of HUGS Trustees this week and discussed future plans now that most of the really expensive work at Good Shepherd school in Fort Portal has been completed. Several people told us that they would be keen to support the Lira Babies Home (see earlier Blog)

We decided to do this and will be helping them with their task of creating a warm and supportive home for what is now over 45 abandoned babies. The Sisters have been very successful in finding relatives or good supporters who will adopt these children when they are about 3 to 5 years old and therefore the children do not become institutionalised.

Although the Lord Resistance Army now appear to have moved to Congo, the lasting effects of the child abduction and the devastation of many families has left a scar on places like Gulu and Lira. The Lira Babies Home has been addressing these problems and several of our supporters have visited the home. They were really impressed and keen that we should give support.

If you would like to help and are already a regular donor then all you have to do is to call your bank and ask them to increase your monthly standing order.

If you would like to start then there is a form on our HUGS web site and it is explained there.

Your can read more about Lira at this link 

http://kabiza.com/Lira-Children-Kony-Rebels.htm

Uganda Schools and sport

Nairobi — Kenya's dominance in sport remains largely unchallenged in eastern Africa. The country's secondary school students, competing in last week's Brookside East Africa Schools Games in Nakuru, proved just that.


In the 1960's it was the effort by just one Kenyan Secondary school which created the Kenyan excellence in athletics and this led to so many famous Olympic Games successes.
Matt and his Engage For Africa want to help change this. Why can't we help St Zoe's children in Uganda to become top sports men and women?  So we are going to try.Here is what Matt said;   When we pulled up at the school pupils were playing volleyball, netball and football. One of the issues I noticed on my visit in 2009 was the fact that girls at the school don’t play any sport and it’s mainly the older boys that play football on the school pitch. This surprised me as when I spoke to younger pupils and the girls they expressed an interest.

During the two days at St Zoe’s myself and Phil Hayward coached all boys and girls at the school using their new equipment. Basketball, netball, athletics, football, volleyball were all played as part of a round robin where pupils had the chance to be coached and compete in games, a special thanks goes to Naomi and Becky as without them we couldn’t have coached so many children.

Prior to any coaching all pupils at St Zoe’s were presented with their premier league football kits donated from primary schools in Merseyside & Cheshire. This part of the project plays a massive part during the day and beyond, as every pupil has their own dreams when they put on the shirt whether it is at school or in their local village. The T Shirt is a talking point of happiness.

The need for structured coaching on a regular basis at St Zoe’s is necessary due to the number of pupils, the enthusiasm, work ethic and talent the pupils possess.

I feel St Zoe’s has massive potential to produce talented sportsmen and women in the near future that can go on to great achievements in the sports industry. The talented sports boys and girls at the school must be used as positive role models as so many pupils will look up to them at school in their everyday life. With the right coaching starting from an early age and with all sports areas up and running I can’t see why the pupils wouldn’t flourish in St Zoe’s Sport School of Excellence. 

The drive and energy at the school from the children is there to see, with help from HQ Coaching, HUGS and the staff at St Zoe’s, the schools sports will now go from strength to strength. The recording and evaluating of activities is key and the fact the pupils must get a competitive edge in sports that will come through competing against other schools is massive to their short and long term development.

Bob's reflections on 4 days as a teacher

My visit to Uganda this years was fascinating and full of interest. I was very lucky to be able to spend four full days at St Zoes and I was extremely impressed with what I saw and heard. The teachers and students generally have a wonderful work ethic and are clearly full of gratitude for what all you supporters around the world have provided. They really are taking full advantage and some students already have great aspirations. 

Becky and Naomi  our two gap year students are making a  superb contribution. They work at the school every day and have developed a great working relationship with both the teachers and the students. I cannot speak too highly of them. In Peter’s last blog he said that I had asked a class to write about someone they admired, and he had copied an essay by one of the students. In fact it was Naomi who had asked the class to write about a person who '”inspired” them. This resulted in the wonderful essay published on the Blog

Posted by Trustee Bob Blundell

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