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.