Photo: Children at our urban primary school eagerly await a nutritious lunchtime meal of fresh-cooked beans and rice.
Today we bring you an important update from our Children’s Hope Center School in the slums of Kampala, Uganda, beginning with the good news that we successfully started the new Ugandan school year at the beginning of February. We have 132 students (ages 3-15) enrolled this year, and they are studying English, science, social studies, mathematics, writing, physical education, Luganda (one of the native languages of Uganda), and two levels of literacy classes. Thanks to your generous support we were able to purchase school supplies including 2,286 composition notebooks to provide 2 notebooks for each student for all of their subjects, pens, pencils, loose leaf notebook paper, chalk, and markers. With your continued generosity we are also seeking to buy shoes for the children who do not own shoes and also provide all of the students with quality medical care.
We continue to face some challenges at the school, mostly from damage caused to our humble facility during severe flash floods. The colony is located at the base of the Gaba hills approaching Lake Victoria, so the area is very prone to flooding during the rainy seasons. But thanks to your donations once again, we were able to repair all of the desks that were damaged during previous flooding, and we cleaned out and repaired the pit latrine toilet, just in time as the rainy season recently started again. We were also recently able to purchase the materials needed to raise the floor level of the Hope Center School high enough to hopefully prevent future flooding. The surrounding neighborhood is currently suffering from flooding, but our recent foundation elevation work has protected us thus far and we are extremely grateful.
However, we have not been able to build 2 additional classrooms as we had planned due to a change of heart from the landlord who has been leasing the additional land to our native team. The landlord has decided to sell the land and we are not allowed to build anything on the property until we can purchase the land. Thus, we are seeking to raise $3,000 to purchase this plot of land which we desperately need for the comfort of our students enrolled in our Children’s Hope Center School as they pursue excellence in their education. In addition, we are also seeking to raise $1,600 to construct an additional pit latrine toilet — this funding will enable us to purchase bricks, cement, timber for the roof, iron bars and sheets, sand, and labor. These improvements to the Hope Center will also benefit the local community who are very grateful for the school as it’s the only free private primary school in the area. As you can imagine, one toilet to serve 132 students and all of our teachers and staff is very challenging.
Uganda has been dealing with a widespread food crisis which began over a year ago when the country suffered a serious drought. As a result, food costs doubled due to food shortages in the area. Our native team has been trying to alleviate this suffering by striving to serve 2 meals a day to our 132 students every school day, such as rice and posho (corn flour) to make a porridge, and potatoes, cassava, and beans.
Sadly, there are times when there is just not enough food to go around in the community. Often times children from the colony are lined up outside our Hope Center hoping to receive leftovers from lunch. We do what we can, but it is heartbreaking to know that children are going hungry all around us. Therefore we are seeking your support to be able to stock posho, rice, beans, and charcoal to adequately feed the children each day of every month.
Please keep our children, our native team, the local community, and our endeavors to help them in your prayers. We remain grateful for your faithful support, holistically enriching the lives of these beloved people.
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