Why Water?

The really big thing for HUGS and St Zoes this year is to fund a major water borehole project with pumping, solar power, header tank storage and water distribution to the school and local community.

Our existing water tanks and water catchment have been a great success. But climate is changing. Lack of rainfall is a real problem.

But we are sitting on a substantial water table although it is over 300 feet down!

We had drought in 2011. Not like this picture from next door Sudan but they once had better conditions. We must plan for the future.

The project will be expensive and we anticipate a cost of over £30,000. We are well on the way to reaching this goal by July (with your help)

Trustee Charlotte is doing the Manchester 10K BUPA Run. Her team will be running as a caterpillar.
Do please sponsor her.

You can do it at Virgin Money Giving by clicking here;

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/hugsrjw

The big May 16th Golf Event will also be raising money for the same cause. We have already sold all the 22 team places.

But if a supporter would like to sponsor one of the PRIZES for the winners of the event please do this at our Virgin Money Giving Site. We are very happy to mention corporate donations in the Golf Brochure which goes to over 100 people.

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/charity-web/charity/finalCharityHomepage.action?charityId=1002429 

Hollyoaks is Helping

This year Trustee Matt Houghton and his HQ Coaching team are playing their annual game agains the stars of the Hollyoaks TV programme.

It will be held at Conway. Please go along to support. All the proceeds are going to HUGS.
Well done Matt

Joseph Kony and Invisible Children

We blogged about Joseph Kony and the dreadful things he was doing in Uganda before moving the the Central African Republic where he is believed to be.

The UTube video which is getting all the publicity is here ;

                    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4MnpzG5Sqc

It is rather long but very moving. We covered his story in a blog earlier last year and you can find it on the history record to the right of this text. It was in April 2011.

So what is HUGS doing about it? We think our role is to try to address the causes of such atrocity and where we can to help repair the damage.

Our schools are teaching tomorrow's leaders and trying to instil a set of values which will prevent people behaving in the awful way that he and his followers have been living.

And at Lira in the North of Uganda we have been giving major support to the Lira Babies Home. Lira was a centre of much of the killing by children of their parents and siblings. The babies home is providing a safe warm and supportive home for nearly 50 children who are orphans.


Rwanda had a major genocide in 1994 and when it ended Sr. Mary and two colleagues were invited there to see if they could help. You can imagine the state the country was in with 800,000 dead which is nearly 10% of the population.

They have opened a health clinic and the beginnings of a nursery and primary school and HUGS has helped with the feasibility study for this.

Thanks to a Dutch Charity who gave a big donation the work has now started and the first phase should be completed by the end of April.

The school will teach children of all tribes and faiths and will contribute to developing racial harmony and of course good academic achievements. HUGS may wish to get more involved in the future but is you would like to help please find our donor page on Virgin Money Giving.

Many of you are supporters. If not and you would like to support then there is a page on Virgin Money Giving for HUGS and you can donate on line. Insert Helping Uganda Schools in the search box on the Virgin Money Giving site.

                                                   www.virginmoneygiving.com

Leadership at St Zoes

The following was written by the head teacher at St Zoes.

ST ZOE MISSION REALISED IN STUDENTS’ LEADERSHIP

St Zoe primary school mission says: TO TRAIN AN ALL ROUND PERSON CAPABLE OF SELF RELIANCE.

This mission guides all courses of action at the school. All the curricular and co-curricular programs are aimed at achieving the school mission.

One of the elements through which a person could become round and self reliant is to learn leadership. The belief is that future leaders are trained right from infant stages. It is very hard to begin training leadership at a later stage. So, at St Zoe, children are given opportunities to become leaders when they are still young.

HOW WAS IT DONE AT ST ZOE THIS YEAR? PLANTING THE SEED OF DEMOCRACY

Two teachers were assigned the duty of guiding the young stars on the procedures. On 13^th February 2012, an announcement was passed in the morning during the assembly. The teachers advertised several positions that required applications. Some of these included: Head prefect, Assistant Head Prefect, Sanitary prefect, Head Monitor, Dormitory Captain, Debating Prefect, Games and Sports, Welfare Prefect, Time keeper, Catering Prefect and Librarians.

Pupils were encouraged to apply on any position of one’s preference. All boys and girls were free to compete on any position and the community was to elect on merit.

THE GENERAL CAMPAIGNS

 These were held on the 16th February 2012 in the afternoon. Here a candidate was given chance to address the whole and show the others how capable he/she is in the position he/she is campaigning for.

On the 17^th February 2012, the general elections were held. Eligible voters were Primary Three to Primary Seven. Lower classes did not vote just because of age.

At the end of the exercise, a lot of joy was observed and this manifested the real feeling of victory on the side of the winners. The role of the teacher at this point is to congratulate the winners, explain the role of prefects and to encourage those who have not gone through to always try again and to join hands for the greater glory of the school. Hence, St Zoe has always seen both good winners and good losers

The School Results for 2011

Here are the regional school results for 2011. Although St Zoes only entered the system for the first time this year it came 3rd out of all these 28 secondary schools. Numbers are small of course because the school is not yet fully established. Some of the schools get dreadful results and this must be a great disappointment to the children and the parents. Lack of a good school really gives these children a huge disadvantage.


It is a very good result!

No	Name of School	No. of 1st Grade	1st Grade %	No. of 2nd Grade	2nd Grade %	1st + 2nd Grade %
1.	Sacred Heart  Seminary	15	60%	9	36%	96%
2.	St. Charles  S.S	37	37%	52	52%	98%
3.	St. Zoe Sec and Voc School	1	7%	6	42.8%	50%
4.	Kasenyi S.S	16	6%	30	11.0%	17%
5.	Silver steps	3	3%	5	5%	08%
6.	St. Joseph’s Kasambya	1	2%	10	20%	22%
7.	Mubende  Army	3	2%	10	6%	08%
8.	Madudu S.S	1	2%	4	8%	10%
9.	Light S.S.	2	1%	14	7%	08%
10.	St. Matthias Mulumba	1	1%	3	3%	04%
11.	Nabingoola  S.S	1	1%	2	2%	03%
12.	Kiyuni  S.S	0	0%	3	3%	03%
13.	Kitenga S.S	0	0%	4	5%	05%
14.	Bright  S.S	0	0%	2	4%	04%
15.	Kassanda  S.S	0	0%	4	3%	03%
16.	Comprehensive  Mubende	0	0%	2	4%	04%
17.	Myanzi  S.S	0	0%	5	6%	06%
18.	Mubende   Hall	0	0%	0	0%	0%
19.	Bagezza  Seed School	0	0%	2	3%	3%
20.	Highway Kiganda	0	0%	3	4%	04%
21.	St. Suzan	1	2%	12	24%	26%
22.	Kalamba	0	0%	2	3%	3%
23.	Kakungube	0	0%	1	1%	01%
24.	Bukuya  S.S	0	0%	0	0%	00%
25.	St Charles  Lwanga   Lwangiri	1	2%	2	4%	6%
26.	St. Mugaga  Kiganda	1	1%	5	5%	6%
27.	Butoloogo Seed School	1	1%	3	3%	4%
28.	Kiganda  High	0	1%		%	%
29.