Last October, we took a big step in moving the school and day nursery into a bigger premises. Its new location is in a more developed area. Its been a great move, much more space and a beautiful environment for the children to learn. However, like I said it has been such a big step, the property is rented and is 6 times what we were paying before. We decided to use the top part of the building as our residential home to help save rent until the school can be self supporting. Not only having a big rent we have had to bring in more staff, the premises is bigger and so it needs more cleaners, we now have 56 children so we had to employ more cooks, the nursery section enrolls most of the new children and being younger they need a smaller staff ratio to child so we have had to employ more teachers. The school now has 19 members of staff, where as before we had 9 staff members. Its an amazing opportunity to be involved in, but as you can see a lot more expenditures which can be quite pressurizing.

There also needs to be a lot of development within the school, building new classrooms and resources so that the children may have more space and equipment to learn with. We are situated right on the main road and so many people already know about us and pass by. The school changed its name to King's International School and having the word International in it mean we are expected to be at international standards. The teaching staff we have ,are really good and very teachable, but being from a totally different education they need a lot of training and help with their planning. This has created a lot more work, but its good to see how well everyone's doing.

We are really hoping that we could have volunteers in that are teachers, or experienced with children or admin work that can come along and help us.
I am really excited to be involved in a project that is giving the children high standards, with a good building and a good education and although it has been challenging it is great to see the children have an opportunity to be in a lovely, spacious, stimulating environment.

For many years I have worked in the community working with very poor families. I don't know how many times I tried to help them in to a small business or jobs, it has been so hard to see them settle and be self supporting. I always had thought that creating a business where I could employ my families to work for me would be a better option, and now I can take joy in employing them in the school. Below in the picture is Mama Okello - Okello's mum. Okello is one of my children who has lived with me for over 10 years. He and his family were living up in Northern Uganda during the war, every night they had to flee in the bush to sleep to hide from Kony and the rebels. They as a family watched many people killed and taken away. During that time we helped the family resettle in Kampala by helping them with a house and education for 5 of her children. Even though they were supported by us, Okello's mum as a widow had so many needs and she struggled to support her family. It is now a joy to be able to see her working and knowing that she can be more self supporting. There is so much in supporting yourself, it gives you a higher level of self esteem that gives you energy in so many other areas of you life.

Below is Mama Rafiki, she is a mother of 10 children, four of them are living with me and have been for a very long time. Two of the older boys have been working for themselves and so Mama Rafiki and her husband have been struggling to provide for the other four children who live at home. We have been helping with their rent but again it has been a very hard life for them as a family. Mama Rafiki had lost a lot of hope in most of the areas of her life, we again had the pleasure of giving her a job in the kitchen. She is so hard working and so excited about having this job.

Mama Oyi, below. Who is the mother of Denis who has also been living with me for 10 years, has been working for the city council, where they work very hard but not paid very much. We gave her a job as a cleaner and she arrives on the dot at 6 every morning. She is a very hard worker and very good at her job. She is separated from Dennis's dad and struggles alone without any support.

We keep saying everyday how lovely it is to have all these ladies on our team, how hard working they are, how good they are at what they do. Its wonderful to see them happy and to know that they are now working for their families and able to be self supporting.

Polan is our new french teacher, he is from Congo. He teaches french in our Nursery section and Primary section. Its especially nice to hear our young, young children speaking french and singing french songs. Polan has been in Uganda for the last six months where he had fled from Congo with nothing because one of his relative's and the Government had tried to kill him, he watched his mother and sister being taken away. He came to Uganda with nothing, no money, no possession and no where to stay. He found a church to sleep in, but no bedding or mattress. It was so hard for him after having a good job in Congo as a lab technician. He eventually bumped into a cousin unexpectedly while he was walking in Kampala and he helped him get a place to stay. He is a good teacher and the children enjoy learning French and music with him.
Sometimes I get a little worried about the big step we have taken, but the aim is to provide a great education and a beautiful learning environment to the community. And as a result be able to provide a beautiful learning environment to under privileged children and provide jobs for their families. Its a privilege to see this happening.

All our free paying children who I had talked about in one of my earlier blogs are doing so well, they are all speaking English, growing fatter, learning well in school and are so happy to be with us everyday.
Amar and Edward who have been with us for a long time are struggling as their family have a lot of problems, the father goes to their house at night in his drunkenness and beats them all up. The children miss a lot of school and when they do come they are quite disturbed and struggle to study. We have now decided to rehouse the children away from their parents and we are looking for a house parent to look after them.
Samuel's dad died just recently leaving him with his stepmother, he has been through a traumatic time in the short time he has been alive with his brother being sacrificed and now his father dying. This life can be so hard watching all of these young children live in such difficult circumstances.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

This year has flown by so quickly, to think we are coming to the end of the year is quite scary. This year has been a good year for us all. Everyone one has done well at school, Orikodi has now finished school for good and is now moving onto a new period of his life. He is now looking for a job and looking forward to higher education later on in the year. Charles finished last year and has had a good year of opportunities. He obtained his driving license and has been working in a lodge. He will be starting a tourism course sometime in the new year. Although he feels its been a hard year for him I think its been a fruitful year where he has achieved a lot. The rest of the boys are happy and working hard in school, a few of them will be going into there final years of high school this year. I can't get over how the years have past so quickly and how they have now grown into responsible great young men.

The school is developing quickly, just in the last few months we took a big step in renting a much bigger building in a more expensive area. We moved into the upstairs for our residential home to help with costs. Although its a beautiful building and has a big garden it means I spend a lot more time at work which can be more tiring. Its been an exhausting term for me with the changes and the pressures, but I am excited to see us moving on. The new children that I wrote about in my last blog are doing very well and settled in. Its good to see the changes in them already. We have 46 children, 24 free and 22 paying. Because of the higher expenses in the school we are looking for 32 extra paying children to cover our costs so you can think of us in the new year as we work hard to achieve this.
We are also really in need of international volunteers that are interested in coming for more than 6 months to teach and work in the school, so if you are interested or know people who are interested please contact me.

We have been doing family savings with the parents of the children we work with and training in life skills. This has been going well and good to see their enthusiasm to develop their lives. It has been especially difficult in the last 6 months with the alcoholics we have been working with. For some reasons they have been less interested in looking after themselves and not really wanting to help themselves change. One of the ladies has gone back to drinking and given up her job after she had been doing so well. I hope to spend more time this year in the community to work amongst these people to help them out of the problems they face which cause them to drink, it will be a hard job but I hope that this year they will be helped.

Grace is now in her final year of primary, she will be finishing in May. She is doing so well and is a beautiful girl. Its a blessing to see her grow up so happy. Diana is doing so well at school, she loves reading and studying and is so happy just generally. I keep thinking of how she use to be so shy and use to hide around the back of the house playing especially while visitors were around but now she so sociable and happy to be around people.

Jude and Lizzie are now three years, they have grown up so fast and its so enjoyable to be around them. I love watching them play together, they really love each other and have so much fun together. They are both different in their characters but so loving and happy.

This year has been a good year for myself, although I found out I had diabetes which has been quite devastating and life changing still I can say that I have seen a lot of good developments in my life. I am happy to be here in Uganda which has been a hard thing to say for awhile. I am looking forward to seeing what 2012 brings us.

Thank you so much to you all for all your support.
We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Lots of Love from us all!!

Inspiried to be an Inspiration

Last month, following discussions with a friend who runs a medical clinic nearby, we invited ten new children to come to the school. The children were identified by the clinic as being very vulnerable, living in poverty, and being affected in some way by HIV. None of the children were able to attend school due to inability to find school fees. Many have brothers and sisters who are also not at school. Upon meeting the mothers and visiting their houses, it was clear that many of them are extremely poor and have highly complex needs. Though it stretches our resources past what we can afford, once meeting these children and their parents, there was nothing we could do but offer them hope through a high quality education. We want to give these children a good start; inspiring them to be an inspiration in the world. It is exciting for us to introduce you to these fabulous children.

Solomon is three years old. His mother and father are both HIV positive and unemployed. His mother suffers from severe depression. There are four other children in the family; the older brothers work in the holidays to pay the rent. Solomon’s mother is attending our adult’s meeting where they are educated on life skills. Solomon attends Sparkling Stars Early Learning Centre and has settled in well.

Patricia is five years old. She lived with her mother in a very bad slum area, but unfortunately she had just been thrown out of her house because they failed to pay the rent. Patricia’s mother is HIV positive and her father recently died. All of her siblings live in the village. Patricia’s mum has a small job washing clothes that doesn’t pay much. She has recently got another job cleaning in town so is not around in the evenings to care for Patricia. Hopefully though, with two jobs she can find another house. She earns about £1 a day. Patricia attends the primary school.

Emmanuel lives with his mother in a terrible slum area. His siblings live in the village and his father ran away. Both him and his mother are HIV positive and have to take medication every day. He is three years old and attends Sparkling Stars Early Learning Centre. His mother had a small job serving food earning 50p a day but we recently employed her to prepare snacks and assist with cleaning at the school so she could earn more. Her rent is £10 a month. She attends our adult’s meeting where we are helping them with a financial savings scheme.

Mark lives with his mother and her new baby. The father does not stay with them, he has another wife elsewhere. He is three years old but is very small. Mark is enjoying nursery school; he is best friends with Emmanuel, they do everything together. Mark is a happy boy and his mother is very grateful that he is able to attend school. She has a small job helping to serve food at a local restaurant.

Akim is three years old and lives with his mother. He used to spend his days running around the slum where they live. His mother works sweeping the streets. It is hard work and the council doesn’t pay her reliably. Sadly, their house was recently burgled and the little she had was stolen. Akim did not behave well when he first started school but is now settling in and learning some English quickly. Mama Akim is considering working with one of the other mother’s on a small business idea.

Juliet lives with her mother and four siblings. The mother has taken in another child of a friend who recently died, a common occurrence in Uganda. Juliet is six years old and loves school. Her mother does not work but is attending the adult group we run to participate in the savings scheme and gain education in English and other areas. She is trying to put together a plan to open a small hair salon to earn some sustainable income.

Sauda is three years old and lives with her mum and two siblings. Her father died recently leaving her mother with the children and six months pregnant. Her mother is HIV positive and the family struggle in very poor housing. They share one very small room with a mattress on the floor. The walls are a mixture of pieces of wood and cardboard. Mama Sauda works cutting stones in the quarry for 25p a day. She does not know where the money for their rent is coming.

Stella lives in a very poor area with her mother. She is four years old and has two older siblings. Her mother runs a small shop and is able to earn £1-3 each day. She is unwell with HIV and tuberculosis. Stella is learning well in the primary school and her mother is coming to our adult’s meeting.

Mariam is one of four children living with her mother. She works at the quarry bashing stones earning 25p per day. They live in the slum area in a house that is leaking from the roof. Her mother is HIV positive; Mariam has not yet been tested. Mariam is in the primary school and enjoys her lessons.

Robert is a sweet boy, attending the primary school. Robert’s father died of HIV related issues and his mother is positive. His mother has a small job cleaning a house. She is looking after four children and manages well with what she has.

We encourage all of the parents to attend the adult’s meeting once a week at our house. We have found over the years that the children do better if their whole families are supported. Currently we are not supporting the families financially but are working with them to help them to save some of their small earnings and are considering a microfinance program to help them with sustainable business ideas. We are educating them to speak and write English, in health and lifestyle issues, and offering a support system where they can bring their issues to discuss within their peer group.

It is encouraging to see the changes in the children after only half a term of school. They are happy and healthier, with regular meals and snacks provided during the day. Their parents are taking pride in their appearance and the children are now turning up smart to school each day. Many of them are communicating in English already; they spoke no English when they first came. They integrate well with the other children in school. What is most exciting is they are now productively occupied during the day instead of running around the slum areas and streets. This, after all, is one of the main reasons we want to offer children the opportunity for education, to prevent them from living the lives the boys lived.

We would love to share more with you if you are interested in these children. We hope there are many more stories to tell in the future of children who we can inspire.

Sere, Akwedde and Osilo

Sere Charles

In December 2010, Sere finished his A‘levels. He is our oldest child and the first to finish his school education. In Uganda the local school year finishes in December, but the university year starts in August. So for the last 6 months or so Sere has been trying to find a job that could help him earn some money. We have decided that after they finish secondary and wish to continue on with their studies, it would be good for them to contribute to the fees. We hope that this will teach them to work hard and value their education and job, so they learn to be self sufficient.

Charles found a job with a friend of ours who runs a tourist business. He sent Charles to work deep in a forest in Budongo Safari Lodge. It’s been very hard for Charles as he has never lived outside of the city so he really struggled trying to adapt to not having life around him. He sleeps in a tent so not even having electricity and friends around to chat with has been very hard. When he first came back he totally refused to return that he couldn’t cope anymore. We talked with him throughout his time off explaining to him how this could be a good opportunity that our friend who owns the lodge is a very successful person and could offer him a good opportunity. Eventually Charles returned after he had applied to the Universities around Kampala and spent another two months planning to come back in August to start Uni. Just before he finished his time our friend Amos went to check on the lodge and spent some time with Sere. He saw that he was doing very well and could make a good tourist guide and offered to pay for him to study tourism as a diploma down in another town out of Kampala. He asked him to come back home to learn how to drive properly and then he would be able to go down to one of the Safari parks and while studying he could also be a tourist guide. He explained that there were a lot of opportunities in tourism that you don’t need a degree for and many people who have been to Uni haven’t been able to get jobs. It is expensive to learn how to drive so it might take a while to pay for everything for him; meanwhile he is working for us at Sparkling Stars cooking lunch for the children and staff.

The rest of the boys are studying hard. Orikodi finishes his A‘levels this December and then will look for a job. He has told us that he doesn’t want to go to University straight away that he would much prefer to work for a while and save money and study later, maybe first get a diploma like Charles. The time is running fast and each year a few boys at a time will be finishing school entering the big world with hopes of further studies. Fees for University are a lot different to school fees. Many people ask us what our children will do when they finish secondary, we always tell them like any family we hope to support them until they can support themselves. If that means university then we will try all we can to provide for them. We have a friend who already has been raising funds for further studies by making and selling Christmas decorations. We hope to find other ways too.

Some of the younger children are finishing primary school and needing to go to secondary school. Two of them, Akwedde and Osillo, have been home-schooling this year because they are dyslexic and Ugandan schools don’t really recognise it and definitely don’t have support for it.

Osillo has repeated one class at school three times. Recently my mum has been teaching him and he is now reading and writing after only a few months. We’re hoping to send them to a school that does look after children with dyslexia but it is a lot more expensive than a normal school.

This is Akwedde Erina, she is 14 years old. She is a sister of Kilappa, Orikodi, and Rafiki. She came to live with us two years ago as her mother had moved to the village and she had a problem that needed parental supervision. She is a lovely girl and is very good with Jude and Lizzie. She panics in exams even when she knows the answer in her head so doesn’t do as well as she could do.

Osillo is younger than Akwedde and from the same family. He still lives with his parents at home but they don’t have much control over him and comes home at all hours of the night. When he started home-schooling this year I couldn’t really face working with him as he had some of the habits the boys had when I first started working with them and felt that as I had been through all that before could I really face the challenges again. However he is doing well and is changing and it hasn’t been such a big challenge.

Sparkling Stars

The school has now 31 children, 14 of which are free children who come from very, very poor families who live in the slum areas. The rest are paying children. It is encouraging to see how the school is growing, though at times I have been very discouraged and have almost given up. But this last 6 months we have been able to put up our fees and admit a few children who are able to pay these fees. Although we are still not covering our costs and some of the expenses are required to be covered by donations, we are doing a lot better and we have a lot more enthusiasm to continue on with it.

We are covering the Cambridge system of education. After many years being, here having my older children in the local system, I have got to know how the local curriculum works, and to see how it has affected Uganda’s development. It uses a lot of fact cramming, not really teaching a child to think and use their initiative; with no imaginative development at all. After a lot of debate, we have now started teaching using a more international approach. This means a lot of work for us as the teachers are not experienced in teaching practically. We spend a lot of time planning for each term and teaching the teachers what to teach. It makes it quite hard and frustrating attimes and feels like we are doing many jobs at once. The local educational examining board allows the Cambridge SATS results to be converted into the local PLE (end of primary exams) results so meaning the children will not be affected if they need to go back into the local schools. So far, the parents are very happy and the children love coming to school.

We have a good staff; 4 Teacher’s, a Toddler worker, a Security man, a cleaner, and a cook. They are good workers, but of course it’s hard at times managing them due to cultural differences. Jane, one of the teachers who I have been working with for around four years, has just finished her Nursery Teacher training course. I met Jane when she was struggling with life. She finished her A’levels but hadn’t been able to go on with further education so she was working at a fishing net factory. She was really struggling with hardly any money so didn’t have good accommodation or much provision of anything else. She didn’t have any teacher training but applied for a job with us so we gave her a try, with the aim to put her through studies if she does well. After a while her living conditions worsened so I gave her a house to live in. At that time her boyfriend mistreated her, deceived her into bed and she fell pregnant. For months she never told me in fear of being fired from her job, which often happens here. She was astounded when I found out and didn’t send her away. Since then she has been working for us and being a single parent to her little boy who has just turned three.

At the end of the term in July we held a school performance where the children sang songs and did presentations on the things they had been studying during the term. We had been studying about the world; they sang songs from different countries and also made cakes to sell to the parents after we had finished. The children performed very well. It was a lovely afternoon and the parents were so impressed. You can see some of the photo’s below.

We have a friend, who I have mentioned about in one of my other posts, she has a clinic where she works with many people who are affected by HIV. She has raised funds for many people to have free ARV medicine. She looks after a lot of children, many who are very poor. This term we will be taking in at least five of her children under free education, and if we can raise enough support, to help with housing and other financial costs the family may need. We are happy that we now have a good base of fee-paying children to enable us to support more vulnerable children, much in need of a good education.

Volunteers

We have had many short term volunteers come and work with us in the past. They have offered valuable assistance and enjoyed the experience of living and working in Uganda. We appreciate the value that these volunteers offer and realise we cannot do all the work ourselves. We are currently looking for long term volunteers who are trained teacher's and nursery teacher's to work with us in the Sparkling Stars Early Learning Centre.

The school is going well and growing steadily. We now have a nursery school section as well as a primary school. The foundation pupils are now at year two, in September they will progress to year three. Many of our children are from very poor families who cannot afford education. They attend the school for free. Our aim is to increase the capacity of the school to offer more places to disadvantaged children.

Though the school is going well, we have a great need in the area of teacher training. The school teaches both international and local curriculum with a focus on practical learning. Because all of our teachers are locally trained and have experience working in the local school system alone, they have little awareness of a practical approach to learning. A volunteer with experience working with an international curriculum who could work alongside and train the teachers is essential for the high quality education the school aims to offer. I currently do most of the planning for the lessons for all year groups which is a lot of work and unsustainable in the long term. With assistance from a trained volunteer, the teachers could become independent in this aspect of their jobs.

We would be able to provide accomodation and meals for the volunteer, plus a small allowance. We are seeking a volunteer to be committed for a minimum of six months starting at the beginning of September. Please spread the word and ask teachers you know if they or any of their colleagues are interested. It is a great need and we would really appreciate the help.