News of Our Kids as of July 3rd, 2020

Early on in the covid pandemic, when the school our kids attend closed, members of the group and a couple of sponsors got together and sent Agnes, our wonderful teacher, money for food for the families of our kids. As part of our mission, our students receive two meals a day. With the pandemic, these children were not getting their meals, and food was not easy to come by for their families. This donation helped out the families tremendously! Since then, we have sent more money to help support our community of 45 families.

I recently wrote to Agnes to find out how things are going with the families of our kids. This is what she had to say about the situation in Kampala:

"I'm in touch with our children's families ... I have got calls from mothers asking about more support for food, especially those with more than one child. That will help them so much.

They have opened public taxi with restrictions and the transport costs are too high as the vehicles are carrying half of the number of people to be carried normally. So far, the government has not made any plan for re-opening schools.

We were so much worried about covid19, looking at what was happening in other countries - we became strong! When we have life, we thank God! May God continue protecting all of you and be safe."

Wonderful School News!

We've just heard from our teacher, Agnes, that the four students who took the National Exams for the end of Primary Seven - all passed! One of the four students ,Onen Richard, was top of all the grade sevens at his school! Congratulations, Richard!

Each of these four children succeeded in our Literacy class with teacher Agnes, and were very fortunate to have sponsors who supported them throughout their Primary School! We are very proud of these students!

Without the support of our school and the sponsors, these children may have been illiterate.

Visiting Namuwongo this summer!

Bob and I are off to Uganda in a couple of weeks!

We went together in 2015, and were supposed to travel there again in 2016, but Bob had an accident, and broke both his shoulder and hip. I was retiring from work, feeling quite exhausted, but decided I’d travel alone.

Now, here we are, ready to go back. We have our list of what to buy at the market opposite our favourite Coffee House 1000 Cups, including placemats and other cloth favourites made by Sophia. We are leaving with lesson plans, photocopies, and instructions from two (of seven) of the wonderful volunteers who went last year....to meet with our newly formed " on the ground " committee... A lot to accomplish in a short time!

I wish we had more volunteers coming with us. But we are excited to meet up with old friends who were exceptional when I needed help in 2016. And we look forward to seeing Agnes, our teacher of the Namuwongo Literacy Project and the children, present and past. And friends we’ve come to cherish.. Wonderful.