Lessons for Life Newsletter Nov 2010

Trustees visit to Uganda

Earlier this year we visited Uganda and were delighted with what we saw. Jan Sharp (our VSO volunteer) has been doing a great job and we’ve taken on some new projects and are helping more students.

Plus, we met some truly inspiring people and had some amazing experiences.
Here are a few highlights of our trip.

NATIONAL COMMUNITY OF WOMEN LIVING WITH HIV/AIDS (NACWOLA)

One of our new projects is working with Nacwola to enable 25 children to attend primary school. Many of these come from ‘child-headed’ families as their parents have died from Aids. Children in this situation cannot afford either fees or equipment so we pay for both.

Nacwola kids getting thier first pair of shoes!

Here you can see them in their very best clothes as they have come to collect their equipment, including for many their first ever pair of shoes.

RAILWAY VOCATIONAL PROGRAMME

Monica is one of the girls who couldn’t afford to go to secondary school but has learned to sew through the Railway vocational programme we fund. She is now able to eke out a living from this skill – here she is making sports uniforms for the school. It was both uplifting and sobering to hear their stories.

Monica at Railway Vocational

One was delighted and proud that she was able to earn £7 per month and that she has managed to save £30 in the last year. Tiny amounts but enough to give them indepedence and hope.

SPONSORED STUDENT SUCCESS

Caroline, pictured here on the right of Olivia (the headteacher of Railway school) is one of the sponsored students who had dropped out of secondary school when her guardian died. After this she was working in the school kitchen.

Olivia with Caroline

Our sponsorship enabled her to complete her A levels. When she heard that we were coming to Railway she came with a gift to thank us. We have since heard that she got 25 out of 25 (equivalent to 4 As) which means she has a government-sponsored place at University.

ACTION TO SUPPORT ORPHANS AND DISADVANTAGED (ASOD)

ASOD Director and Overseas Volunteers

Another of our new projects is working with ASOD to help pay for teachers at a secondary school attached to an orphanage.

ASOD is the brainchild of a remarkable man - John - who works as a doctor and has established (and helps to fund) an orphanage for street kids. As well as giving them a place to sleep he has also set up a school for them. This is chronically underfunded with a high turnover of teachers. We are helping to pay teacher salaries to stop them from leaving.

BUSOCO SCHOOL

The entire board of govenors turned out to thank us for the desks and equipment we provided to Busoco school.

Busoco School kids

Here are some of the children and teachers who will get to use them.

BANANULE SCHOOL KIDS

We attempted to revive the 70s by playing “Runaround” (remember Mike Reid) with the children during their assembly at Banunule. This is the primary school that many of our sponsored students attended.

Here are the winners of the game.

"Runaround Now!"

LESSONS FOR LIFE SPONSORED STUDENTS

We met up with most of LfL sponsored secondary students (about half are pictured here).  Having met some of them  two years ago (as our first intake) it was really rewarding to see how they have grown in confidence.

LfL Sponsored Schools ready for new year

However, it wasn’t all easy – we had to warn one about his behaviour and to tell another that he couldn’t return to school this year (as his motivation and behaviour were not acceptable).

If you’d like to see some more photos of our trip or some videos of the assembly we attended please click here.

We’d like to point out that not a single penny was taken from LfL for the trip.  We treated this as a working holiday and paid for ourselves.  100% of your donations continue to directly benefit students.

We’re still looking for sponsors for the children we took on this year so please get in touch if you know anyone who would like to sponsor a child.

Thanks once again for your support – you are all magnificent. 

The Trustees
Mark, Umesh, and Mike