Gulu University and a link to Manchester

Once a feared place by every one is now very different.

Once a place known for war is now a place of peace. And source of education.

Among the most significant courses that bring people from all the parts of Uganda and the neighboring countries is the bachelor of medicine and surgery. Thanks to the Government of Uganda for setting up a fifth public University in the Northern Uganda, Gulu is now known internationally because of the University.

There are five public Universities in Uganda, Gulu in the northern Uganda, Makerere and Kyambogo in central, Mbarara in the west, and  Busitema in Eastern Uganda.

Gulu University was began in 2002 and started medicine in 2004. The students were being watched over by armed men within the University. For the faculty of medicine which is two km away from the main campus were all living in a hostel near the hospital still for security purposes.

Among the pioneers, many of them were victims of war and greatly  traumatized .

They were former abductees and others were once soldiers in the Lord’s Resistance Army. Like the late major general Walter Ochola who has just passed  away and was pursuing his masters in the in the University after his first degree.

Many victims of war have really benefited from the University, both academically, with job opportunities and created small businesses around the region. Some of the victims can easily be recognized as some of the their body parts are missing.

The vice chancellor of the University is Prof. Pen Mogi, an Acholi from Kitugumu.

The average age of students usually admitted undergraduate degree is 21 years for the direct entrants, these are the ones who come directly from high grade schools. For mature entrants it iss around 30 to 35 years. These  are usually admitted on merits of  their previous performance in their diplomas and degrees in Health related courses, like Nursing and Clinical Medicine.

The students of courses other than Medicine do study in shifts, some study during the day and are called Day students. Others study during the weekends on Saturday and  Sunday from 8 am to 5 pm simply because we dont have sufficient resources.

Helping the success of Gulu University is the Partnership with the University Hospital of South Manchester. This hospital has twinned with Gulu and many doctors, nurses and other staff have either volunteered or taken career breaks to go and live in Gulu and teach a wider variety of subjects. It is a great example of how the uK can help others around the world and at the same time bring back invaluable experience.

There's an exchange program that's yet to take place in the near future, were some medical students from Manchester University will come to study with us and some of us hope to study in Manchester.  Every one is praying to be among the chosen few.

Written by Sr. Grace Nannyondo who is being sponsored by HUGS and has now completed her third year.

Leaving something to remember

Is it unusual to think about leaving something to be remembered for? Margery and I have just returned from a 3 day stay in what must be one of the most exciting cities in the world, Barcelona. Not just because their football team overwhelmed Manchester United but because each year we try to see one or two great places and there are not many to beat it.
It really has everything from wonderful beaches and marinas but the most fantastic Gothic quarter, Cathedral, the world famous Ramblas and of course the architecture of Antoni Gaudi.

He lived for the last 2 years of his life in the cathedral which he started in about 1902 and which will be finished one day. "God is in no hurry" was his answer when asked about completion. He was knocked down be a tram when in his late 70's and nobody recognised him and walked by. He died a few days later.

And he really did leave something to be remembered. So many quite extraordinary buildings. Quirky perhaps but quite wonderful in vision and in detail.

He started to build a town in a park but this was way before people were ready for it so his Parc Guell only has two houses but what a Parc?  It is really worth seeing.

Then add all the sunshine and great squared and restaurants and we will certainly go again. Pity about flying though. The security processes are now making the experience quite horrible and one cannot help but think we are overdoing it. Maybe Barcelona by rail would be OK.

St Zoes May 2011. Some real world issues

With the massive drop in the value of the Uganda currency values there has been major inflation in costs. Add to this another really poor rainy season the result in problems and cost have been pretty serious. St. Zoe's looks after the accommodation and food for over 500 children  and much of the management time is spent on things our UK teachers never have to worry about. How can they find enough food for all these people when they are all poor.

This is part of the may Report from Director Andrew Ssempijja and it gives some feel for what he has to do.

ACADEMICS

P.7 Class

We have 41 candidates who have already been registration with UNEB. A special program has been set. This is to sit trial papers every Fridays and Saturdays. Marking must be done during the weekend and results have to be submitted before Tuesday of every week. Parents were requested to contributed 30,000/= for each candidate to cater for scholastic materials and motivation for the teachers in the program.

OTHER CLASSES

Serious teaching is taking place.

The aim is to push the syllabus of this term very well.

FOOD SECURITY

We have secured maize corn 3291kgs each kg at 800/= (very expensive) we still need to buy 9477 (not even half way)

With the beans, we have bought 980kgs. Of these, 380kgs were bought at 1900/= and 600kgs at 2100/= giving a total of 1,983,000/=

We still have to buy 3220kgs of beans.

We have sweet potatoes ready for eating.

We also have cassava at school which is planned for term three.

The planted maize at our new bought land, it is also thriving well (A hope for term three)

We have planted about 2 acres of cassava which was given to us from Mubende District Local Government.

Vegetable Gardens

The long drought affected our vegetable gardens and when the rainy season started some vegetables have been planted.

The first vocational school building

CHALLENGES FOR TERM TWO

1. FOOD, this is very crucial as the prices continue to escalate. Both beans and maize-corn are very expensive these days. We need to sit and plan for more planting of food crops so as to save some money that would be going for food.

2. High prices of items

3. Electricity.The solar can no longer serve efficiently.

4. Water problem since we are soon beginning a dry season and the rainy season did not give us enough water.

5. Improve the service delivery, so that we can convince the parents when we talk about fees increment.

OTHER ISSUES

 We sat as the administration and decided that on the 9^th of July, we shall have the following:

 Some entertainment by both primary and secondary

 To prepare a well researched fees structure that will guide the increment for the fees.

Written by Andrew Ssempijja    Director St Zoe's

A Snake or a baby?

What’s this? A lady was on her way passing near a garbage dumping place, got scared of a moving and shaking movements in the rubbish. Out of mixed minds , she takes a minute to closely look at what is shaking? , with much hope it would be a snake after all what else would be found in  that place.

Ready with stick to hit the snake all a rat, to her surprise, only to see human hair.  What? She broke into an alarm that stimulated every one. Within no minute the whole village had already gathered to witness.

Guess what it was a male Baby around 2-3 months. all exhausted and left with no not even any energy to cry or even to open his eyes, a part from shaking like a caterpillar.

After all the regimental and protocols, the child now landed in Sr . Demmy’s hands, the in charge of Lira babie’s home. They were ready and very sure of burial in the one or two days,

 Out of God’s mighty power through the hard work and creativeness plus dedicated care offered by the staff of the home, They were able to bring back the most handsome and bright  Ambrose Okello [as the name given from there] back to life .

As of now he’s adopted by some though he still come to to the home for very big and important occasions like Easter and Christmas.

Written by Grace Nannyondo May 2011

The HUGs Golf Event 2011

May 4th was a brilliant day. The sun shone. The Romiley Golf Course was at its very best. And 100 people came along to play golf and raise money for the Annual Golf Event which Charlotte, Bob and John spent so much time planning.

We had 22 teams and this year a "shot gun start" at 13.00 made sure that all players got back to the lovely Romiley Club House at about 1730 for an enjoyable meal and the prize giving.

Trustee Bob Blundell sponsored the Juniors again and Ben took a challenge at the 11th and raised £260.

Margery looked after all the finances again to make sure the teams paid and she and Catherine did a great job selling raffle tickets.

Joyce and Carolyn did a successful job running the Half Way House and made sure that the players got a beer and pork pie to encourage them on.

A great day and all the players said they would come back next year. It looks like the grand total raised on the day will be just over £5000 which for those of you who speak Uganda is 20,000,000 Uganda Shillings. It will really help our projects and every penny goes to the schools.

But without our Mega star Trustee Charlotte it would not happen. Thanks Charlotte!!

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.