“Go and Explode!” - The ROL Leadership Academy

"Genda Obwatuke - Go and EXPLODE!" was the rallying call at last weekends Leadership Academy get-together. Our vision is for the 30 odd young people on the programme to take River of Life’s vision of spiritual revivial and community transformation out into the world.

On the day, Sali, a founding member of River of Life Church and now a qualified Crime Scenes Investigator specialising in cyber-forensics AND a Pastor in Manchester, UK, really inspired us all with his testimony. As a small boy he had mingled the mud to make the bricks which built the church! A couple of the Academy Members deserve a special mention - Robert, having stormed his A-Levels has won a Government Scholarship to do Medicine and Surgery whilst Sharon, who was disappointed with her A Level results, has completely repaid the trust we placed in her by getting the best first year University results we've ever seen! She's studying for a BA in Adult and Community Education and is getting some good experience through our Community Outreach work during the summer break.

It costs approximately £100 per month to send one of our Academy members to University - but it's worth every penny. We're looking for funding for 3 University Students right now! If you think you could get a group of people together to cover the costs, please get in touch.

Girl Power!

Holding her A-Level pass slip in her hands, Veronica (rt.) could hardly believe it... It was better than she'd hoped, far better. Better than her mocks, better than anything she had managed before. Veronica isn't someone who you'd say "oh, she's just naturally intelligent" about - she has worked her socks off, steadily improving her grades each year. She's a White Eagle graduate, resettled with her family back in 2010. Her story is one of poverty and challenge - she was even a “Missing Person” for a few years before coming to us.

But today she's looking at an A-Level Pass Slip that confirms she's one of the top performing girls in all of Masaka, getting A, B, B, C in four A-levels! And what’s more is in with a chance of a Government Scholarship for uni! Isn't that awesome?! Meanwhile Persist (left) is our highest achieving O Level candidate, missing out on a First Grade by just one mark!

It's for people like Veronica and Persist, and others who work just as hard (even if they don't achieve quite as highly academically!) that we've established the River of Life Leadership Academy. To help a generation of leaders EXPLODE out of Masaka to take on the challenges not just of Uganda but of the world!

Sarah's Story - Back in the saddle for River of Life 2011!

Hello everyone! I hope you are all ok! I’m doing well here. I’ve been back just over a month now, so I thought it was time I wrote another newsletter.

Having had a WONDERFUL time in the UK seeing friends and family, (and eating like there was no tomorrow!), I returned back to Uganda and received a lovely welcome from the White Eagle kids and staff, especially from the girls, who nearly knocked me over in their enthusiasm! Kitibwa was in a mood with me for some time (-I think because he felt that I’d abandoned him!), but now he’s back to normal, and gives me just as many hugs and kisses as ever! He’d learnt loads of words while I was away, and also knows nearly everyone’s name now. He doesn’t always pronounce them correctly, hence “Aunt Sarah” is “Ah-Fat-cha”, and “Kevin” is “Mi-mi-mi” – but we all know who he means! It’s sooooooooo cute!!!

Three of the girls had returned home over Christmas to live with their families (although we see 2 of them every weekend at church), just leaving 4 girls and Kitibwa in the house. And two of the remaining girls have had to go to boarding school, and so we just see them at weekends!!! So the house is considerably quieter than it was last year!!! But we continue to run the evening programme, etc., so my work hasn’t changed.

As I mentioned to loads of you when I was home in the UK, much of our emphasis this year is on trying to resettle our residential kids (i.e. those in the boys’ and girls’ homes) with relatives. It’s not possible in all cases, because some of our kids were abandoned, and for some of them it’s not safe for them because of violent relatives. - But for those that can, we are trying to prepare them to return home. So we’re busy writing policies, mentoring our kids, and arranging meetings with relatives. - But our homes won’t be empty, because we will take in more kids to replace the ones who go home – we already got asked to take in a little baby/child by the probations officer at the police station for some time until their situation can be sorted out (-but we don’t know if we can as they’ve not told us much about them yet!). So watch this space!

If it’s ok, I would just like to flag up one of our girls in the girls’ home. I hope that this doesn’t offend anyone, as that’s not my intention. Please ignore it if it does!..... but just in case anyone would like to have the opportunity to bless one of the girls that I look after, I’ve been told that one of the girls in our girls’ home, Judith (see picture below), is in need of another co-sponsor. She has been with the project now for several years. She is an orphan (both of her parents died when she was young), and came to the White Eagle Project when she was 10 years old. She has just turned 17 years old, and is in the second year of Secondary school - she didn’t start school until she was quite old because when she was little she worked as a house-girl (doing the cooking, cleaning, washing, etc. for a family). Anyway, she’s growing into a wonderful young lady (although I’m very biased!), and works hard at everything she does, and is greatly in need of another co-sponsor. (If you are interested in helping, please go on the website: http://www.riveroflifeuganda.org/sponsor-a-child.aspx )

Appeal over!

We’ve had elections here in Uganda since I’ve been back, and it’s been very interesting watching the candidates campaign ( - 1 man who wanted to be elected to the local government gave us hundreds and hundreds of grasshoppers – yum! - , to try and convince us to vote for him! I’m told that hardly any of our kids and staff who vote were persuaded to vote for him, but we all enjoyed the grasshoppers immensely!!!). When they last had presidential elections a few years ago, there was a lot of violence all over the country, so we were praying that there would be peace this time.... and there was!!! There were a few small problems in some other parts of the country, but nothing too major (nothing like a few years ago!), and Masaka where I live was SOOOOOOOOOOOOO quiet and peaceful – people keep saying it’s never been like that before in Masaka during the elections, so that was great!!!

The kids were all off school (and came back from boarding school) during the elections. We couldn’t go out much (just in case of violence starting up suddenly while we were out), so we had to entertain ourselves and think of things to do.... and we at the girls’ home decided that on the Saturday after the elections we would have a feast of chicken and chips, which is a rare treat indeed!!! (- it was funded by my brother!). The girls were sooooooooo excited all week, and there were whoops of excitement whenever anyone mentioned the coming Saturday, and then we spent ALL of the Saturday preparing our food – we had to kill the chicken and pluck it, etc., and we had to peel and chop a whole load of potatoes, and then do the cooking, which took us hours and hours and HOURS on the charcoal stove, but it was good fun as it occupied us all day and everyone got involved! And then in the evening, we had our feast!!! Yeah!!! Aunt Tinah is an AMAZING cook, and was in charge of all the cooking, and managed to produce the most wonderful tasting chicken ever!!!!!!! We stuffed ourselves silly (Hee hee hee!!!), and then sat there very happy and very full, talking into the night!!! We had a few chips left over, which the girls had cold for breakfast the next day, so as not to waste even a single one! It has gone down in girls’ home history as “the Big Feast of February 2011”, and the girls are still talking about it now!!! It was a fab day!!!!

I’ve been keeping on going with trying to learn Lugandan, and whilst I remain not very good at all, and can only say a few sentences, I have learnt some specific sentences.... these include sentences I can use when I go on the hospital ministry, e.g. asking how people are and what’s wrong with them, and can I pray for them, etc..... and so this month I managed without a translator for the first time at the hospital!!!! Yeah!!! I was so happy!!! I still prayed in English, but the rest was in Lugandan!!! When I didn’t understand what someone was saying, I just nodded and said “Bambi” in a sympathetic tone (which means a lot of different things, including “I’m sorry for your situation”) and that seemed to go down well when I said it, as people thought I understood every word!!! Ha ha! So that was good, and has given me a boost to keep on learning little bits.

I’m very tired at the moment, because Teddy has been borrowing my alarm clock to wake up in time for school (she has to wake up at 5.30am) and is getting confused about the time.... Let me explain... Telling the time in Uganda is a bit different - because the sun rises at about 7am and sets at 7pm all year round, they tell the time by the number of hours into the day or night there are. So what we call 7am, is the first hour of the day, or 1 o’clock... And this can cause some confusion, as I discovered this week when Teddy kept coming to wake me up in the middle of the night to tell me that the alarm clock didn’t go off and that she’s missed school - because when she sees it saying 2am she thinks it’s 8am and that she’s late!!! It’s very hard to be patient when you’re woken up in the middle of the night every night for a week!!!! Ha ha! I don’t know how people with young babies manage being woken up for months on end!

Anyway, I’ll end here, as this is a VERY long e-mail! It was soooooooooo lovely to see so many of you when I was in the UK over Christmas and January!!! I’m sorry for anyone I didn’t get to see!

Lots of love!

- Sarah

What a month at the White Eagle Project...

The 2010 Sponsorship Challenge is well underway as we try to recruit more sponsors to help the children of Nyendo - if you know anyone who would like to sponsor a child, please get in touch!

In the meantime... March has been quite a month! First of all we had a small fire in the Girls Home - faulty electrics meant a light fitting started behaving more like a firework. The girls were petrified, but thanks to the quick thinking of Thirsa the electrics were quickly switched off and no one was hurt. The Girls Home is rented, and although definitely one of the best houses in Nyendo, in Uganda there aren't the strict standards for Landlords to keep to so we're at risk. The good thing is that our Fire Drill has been tested (and improved upon!) and everyone now knows how serious the risks are, and all the electrics have been checked out and fixed. Then poor Ernest, one of the White Eagle Boys, was knocked over by a car on his way home from school - he wasn't badly injured but did stay the night in hospital under observation. Roads and driving in Uganda are an absolute nightmare, but that incident has driven home how careful we need to be. We're thankful that noone has been badly hurt - it's a testament to our staff and to the White Eagles that these kind of things happen so rarely.

However, twice in one week's a bit much, and it's prompted us (along with other recent events) to get cracking with something we've wanted to do or a LONG time - set up the River of Life Prayer NET - a network of people praying regularly with and for River of Life, the White Eagle Project and particularly for Duncan and Mary. You can read more about it here, and if you're interested, please do get in touch by email.

As well as the accidents, there's more positive news. Mercy and Jonah and settling in well at Nursery (don't they look smart in their uniforms!), and we enjoyed a fabulous visit by Sarah's parents for a week. As it's school term time the staff are getting plenty of training in, and we've introduced new practices that help the White Eagles develop. We're also working on a new Team Document that sets out the vision, our goals, our values and all the rules and procedures that make us tick along nicely!

Where is he now - Jjunju Fred!

Jjunju Fred was one of the first to be supported by River of Life Uganda back in the 1990s - his is an exciting tale! We wrote about his fabulous wedding to Liz last year, so what's he been up to since..?

In October 09 Jjunju, after studying for a BSc in Computer Science at Makerere University and working for the British Council's Commonwealth Business Solutions on their ZIPP Program, was one of only six people to be accepted by the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) for a fully-funded PhD in Electrical Engineering - rock on Fred! He's found studying there pretty demanding, but has risen to the challenge. I caught him on skype today, and asked him what he thought of KAUST:

KAUST is a house of wisdom where minds from all over the world meet and interact to apply science and technology to solve global problems... Sometimes (to be honest) it's a little boring, because we only are studying and eating (!) But all I can say is I thank God for giving me this golden chance to part of KAUST - it is a global community with a diverse culture.

So in one breath he's solving the world's problems, and in the next he's saying it's a little boring...! Anyway, Jjunju is working on a research project on Visible Light Communication and will become a Visiting Scholar at Oxford University this summer!

He was orphaned at the age of 14, but through the love and care of Duncan and Mary, and all the people who gave so generously to get him through school and university, his is a real rags to riches story. A man of many words, but little punctuation, he has this to say:

First and foremost I would like to thank God for giving me all these opportunities and then helping me through out this journey till this point to be successful in what ever I do and I would like to really thank all who sponsored me through my studies up to this point - thank you very much for giving me so much and for your immense faith and confidence you entrusted me with for this continuous unfathomable support you gave me through out my studies and my research work!

And we'd like to add our thanks to everyone that has supported Fred over the last 15 years! He's now not only standing on his own two feet, he's standing on the shoulders of giants...

Flying High! The White Eagle Project spreads its wings...

We've had a really exciting, if challenging, start to 2010. Emily, who has been our manager since we started back in 2000, is now fully taking the reins as our newly appointed Director, and she's had a baptism of fire!

We've been looking very closely at how we can serve more orphans and vulnerable children in Nyendo and Masaka. Government statistics indicate that there are well over 3,000 orphans on our doorstep, and we are ideally placed to be helping more of them - we've got a good team, good experience and the appetite to take on some of our community's roughest diamonds.

So we've prepared a new brochure that outlines what the White Eagle Project is all about, and how you can help! If you already sponsor a child through us you will have received your reports, photos and letters recently, and you'll have already seen the 'Join the 2010 Sponsorship Challenge' brochure.

But for those of who you haven't seen it yet, you can view the new leaflet here, and see if you can become part of the 2010 Challenge to reach 100 more of Masaka's most vulnerable children! You can also read a previous post about it by clicking here.

No water and no power... what's a girl to do?

Sarah's continuing to settle in as Team Leader in the Girls' Home, responsible for all aspects of their care and wellbeing, as well as getting involved in the Hospital Ministry and Youth Work. She had a bit of a traumatic week last week as she was introduced to the horrendous consequences of the unreliability of Uganda's utility services... I'll let her tell you all about it:

"One of the things that has left a deep and lasting impression on me this month was when there was no water for a few days in the whole of Masaka (where I live). It made me appreciate being able to wash my hands and flush a toilet so much!!! We had to use a pit latrine... This was not fun!!! The pit latrine stank - it was disgusting. And it was so dark as well, especially in the evenings - I thought I would be clever and take my head torch with me so I could at least see a little bit... this was a big mistake, because when I switched it on, I saw that there were loads of giant cockroaches all over the walls and floor! Eurgghh! - Blissful ignorance would have been better, I think!!!

We also had to visit the pit latrine in groups of 5 or more when it was dark, as the latrine is on a banana plantation just behind the compound where I live, and apparently "Night Dancers" like to frequent banana plantations at night - "Night Dancers", I found out, are dodgy characters involved in witchcraft who get high on drugs and alcohol, then dance around naked - and they are not very pleasant if you meet them.... luckily for me, we didn't come across any!!! While the water was off, we didn't even have enough water to bathe or drink.

The girls and I had to walk with our 2 jerry cans each for 30 minutes to find water - we initially went to the local well, but the water had run out because there had been over a thousand people all getting water from it earlier that day who wouldn't usually get it from there.... so we had to march to a "water hole" instead (which was actually a big dirty muddy puddle as far as I could see). I had a lot of comments from people as I passed by - apparently they'd never seen a Mazungu carrying jerry cans and getting water from a well or water hole before! But we got our water and then boiled it to try to clean it, and then I had a wash, so it was well worth it!!! So that was exciting for a few days (not!) - I was so thankful when the water came back!!! I don't know if I've ever been so happy!!!"

White Eagles excel in Primary Leaving Exams!

You are not going to believe this - when Emily (the White Eagle Director) found out she was so excited she didn't sleep all night! One of the major achievements for children in Uganda, and especially for the children we work with, is to complete your Primary Education by taking the PLE - Primary Leaving Examinations. For many of the White Eagles the despair of believing they were never going to be able to achieve something like that is still a not too distant memory... so when we get results like this we shout with joy from the rooftops!

Because let me tell you, we cannot BELIEVE how good the White Eagles' PLE results were this year. We had 7 lads and 1 girl doing the exam... Ivan, Daniel, Earnest, another Ivan, Joseph, Gerald, Hussein and Judith. And here are the results:

Both Ivans, Daniel, Earnest, Joseph and Gerald ALL passed in First Grade - that's a distinction in our language - with Big Ivan getting some of the BEST results in MAsaka District. C'mon! And Hussein and Judith both passing very very well in Second grade - that's a Merit!

We are so proud of them all, so so proud and although there are big congratulations in store for them, we've also got to thank our brilliant, dedicated, compassionate staff, who let's be honest don't have the easiest job in the world looking after 30 odd children and all the fruitiness that can bring - so here's a big shout out to Emily, Julius, Ronnah, John, Margaret, Kayima, Grace, and Tina - and a big welcome to Sarah who has just joined us!

Join the 2010 Sponsorship Challenge!

Could you, or someone who know, provide sponsorship for one of the White Eagles?

This Christmas and New Year has marked the 10th Anniversary of the White Eagle Project, and what a ten years it has been! From the original 21 boys that we took off the street on Boxing Day 1999, we have grown to be helping 50 orphans and vulnerable children in Masaka, through our boys home, our girls home and where possible in their families. From 2010 to 2015, we want to significantly boost the number of children that we're helping.

Our vision at the White Eagle Project is to love and empower our children to excel in all areas of life so that they can grown up to be responsible and productive members of Uganda - which means we focus on quality education and quality mentoring, so that the White Eagles may become tomorrow's nation-changers - like Fred, Charles and even little Mercy!


Could you, or someone you know, help us help more children?

There are an estimated 2.3 million orphaned and vulnerable children in Uganda - we estimate 2,000 of them are on our doorstep in Nyendo. We know we can really help give these children a hope for the future - could you help it happen for Jonah, Mukisa, or Shadia?


If you would like to find out more about our Sponsorship Program, please send us an email by clicking here

Can anyone sponsor Daniel or Veronica?

It costs on average just £60 per month to provide a home, an education, care, spiritual guidance, and of course decent grub for each White Eagle. We're looking for sponsors who can contribute any amount towards the costs for quite a few of the White Eagles, but we'll start with Daniel and Veronica!


Daniel is in P7 - the final year of primary school. With the all important Primary Leaving Exams coming up in December, he's buckling down to work harder than he's ever worked before!




Veronica is currently at secondary school. She joined us in 2008, we think the victim of a child traffiking attempt. She's wonderful - very helpful and kind!

If you can help, please get in touch by emailing us!

Big Charles goes to YWAM Uganda!

Big Charles is one of our first - he was the ring leader of the gang when the boys were still on the street. In February he was the first to pass his A Levels, and in March he joined the Disciple Training School at Youth With A Mission (YWAM).

He's had some tough times, but he writes: "God can pick you up from anywhere... He is able to do wonderful things to those who depend on Him!" Although it was hard at YWAM at first, he didn't want to leave by the end - "When I reached the school I asked myself when the six months were going to end because I was missing home a lot. But to my surprise when the time came, I never wanted to go home..."

The first half of the course was devoted to studying, and then he was let loose on the people of East Africa. He'd never left Uganda before, but he says "God started changing me... and he also used me to change other people. I went to Tanzania and I managed to preach to different churches and the last church I went to had 700 people!"

Charles has returned to us grown in wisdom and stature! He's extremely useful to have around, and has now started his Certificate in Business Administration.

Do you know someone who can sponsor Shafic?

We need a sponsor for one of our new lads called Shafic - or Nicholas as he's just changed his name!

Shafic's a wonderfully friendly chap who has proved to be really helpful and willing to get stuck in. Sadly he suffers with a mental health condition. Mental illness is rife in Uganda - you see it everywhere. The tragedy is that so many children and adults out in rural areas suffer such neglect and abuse because mental illness is so poorly understood.

We've been looking after Shafic for nearly a year now, monitoring his progress and making sure we can give him the level of care he needs, and the good news is that with the right medication and support Shafic can lead a perfectly normal life. It's definitely the time to see if we can get sponsorship to get him back into schooling or training, and give him the chance to fly high as a White Eagle!

If you can help or know know of anyone who might be able to help please get in touch.

The newest members of the family...

We've just taken in an abandoned girl who was 8 months pregnant... i say *was* because this week she gave birth to a wonderfully bouncy baby boy! Tim's written all about it on his blog - check it out here

Kelen and Kelvin are doing well, and the other girls in the Girls House are really impressing us by getting involved and making Kelen feel part of the family.

It's quite a big deal to support Kelen and Kelvin as you can imagine, so if you would like to help, click here to get in touch!

Introducing the White Eagle Family Project!

We have some very exciting news to share - this month we have launched a whole new scholarship program supporting 18 vulnerable and needy kids within their families! That brings the number of kids we are helping directly through our sponsorship program to 52, which is a huge milestone for River of Life and alongside the hundreds of kids that we're getting alongside through our youth work and sports ministry, the people we're visiting and assisting through the Mercy Missions, the work we're doing with agricultural development and the links we're building with Northern Uganda, it feels like we've definitely moved up a gear in the first half of 2008. Hallelujah!

Anyway, back to our new White Eagle Families. We've recognised for a long time the need to support families as much as possible - afterall the absolutely best place for children is within a loving family. The strains and stresses of Ugandan life - poverty, sickness, hardship - often stretches the social safety net of the family to breaking point, and children can fall through the gap and end up working on the streets, or in the markets, earning a few shillings a day to supplement the family income. That's the best case scenario - what also happens is that 'unwanted' children - perhaps from a previous marriage, or from a sister who has died - fall to the bottom of the pecking order and are neglected and considered a burden on the rest of the family: often resulting in them running away.

So what better thing to do than to complement our 'reactive' White Eagle work that saves kids from the street, with 'proactive' work that supports parents straining with looking after large families, including nephews, nieces, half brothers and step-sisters by providing scholarships? Thanks to the generosity of our supporters, that's exactly what we've been able to do! The kids are enjoying going to better schools whilst growing up in a loving family environment - fabulous.

Of course there are many more potential 'White Eagle Families' that need our help who we are unable to support (yet!) so if this exciting new venture has tickled your fancy and you'd like to find out more or become a supporter, drop us an email

Remember that newest member of the Church?

When we first started this blog we wrote about little Mercy, so-called by one of our elders because of the Mercy God had shown on her life. We found abandoned in a saucepan by the side of the road - she was so thin and scrawny and obviously undernourished back then, it was terrible - we have a photo of her but it's too distressing to post it here. Anyway, she joined the big White Eagle family here and she is getting on so well, we just had to write about her. She has everyone wrapped around her little finger, chatters away in English and Luganda and is a really bright little spark.

A total transformation compared to how she was when she came to us, praise God! Here she is with Tim, after a chapatti making session...