Presents with a Purpose! Our Alternative Gift List this Christmas

It's that time of year again where we offer you the fabulous opportunity to purchase a present with a purpose!

We are still fundraising to develop our site to be a Children and Community Centre that will be a beacon of hope for Nyendo! Brick by brick we’re moving forward... We have now agreed full Architectural Drawings for the whole development, which is a major step forward. Our number one priority is to raise funds to build a secure perimeter wall in time for the February 2011 elections, so plenty of bricks, sand and cement are needed to keep the children safe! Please consider making this a Christmas to remember...

You can visit out special River of Life Alternative Gifts Justgiving page here

Or you can download the PDF flyer by clicking here

Down on the Farm - November update

Just a quick update on the farm progress. This is from Emily's monthly report on the White Eagle Project:

The farm is going well. They finished planting elephant grass (for the cow to eat) all around the edge of the farm. The workers now pray together daily. The beans are looking very healthy, and have brought out flowers. The eggplants have flowered also. The surveyors from the government administration came to see if it’s possible to irrigate the farm. It is possible and they are making a budget for us.

To see a birds-eye view of farm, and some pictures of what's going on there, click here to view our map

November WEP Report: the busiest month of the year - so far!

Emily (White Eagle Project Director) reports on November...

November has been the busiest month of the year for me, so far. It has been a very difficult one, especially with Pastor Duncan being very sick. There have been a lot of challenges but God has been faithful, and has guided us day by day in each and every situation we have faced.
It has also been a very busy month for all the children, especially those in the candidate classes. Most of our kids have finished school now. James and Roderick finished P7 at the beginning of November after taking their Primary Leaving Exam, and Namatovu came home in mid-November after finishing her O-level exams. Dennis, Robinah and Fred are finishing their A-levels in early December, and we are expecting good results.

Emily also met with the Probations Office, the Family Protection Unit and the Community Development Officer.

In the meeting with the Probations Office, they informed us about the Child Community Programme Committees (CCPC’s) that have been formed. Five CCPC’s have been formed in Masaka municipality to look into children’s issues in the locality and there are about 5 people on each committee. Each of the committee members is responsible for a particular category of children e.g. children involved in grasshopper issues, children who go to the film places, girls and boys who are living on the streets, children abused in homes and children in conflict with the law etc

.

This is a major step forward in Masaka, and we're going to be working hard to ensure it helps coordinate interventions among Orphans and Vulnerable Children.

In the meantime, we've had a couple of serious incidents this month. Our night guard at the Girls Home discovered two men trying to get into the compound. He called back-up and very impressively they were dispatched to the police station with the minimum of fuss. We've had a computer keyboard stolen by someone reaching in a broken window, and we've had a small fire in the Boys home which again was impressively dealt with by two of the older boys. These things are sent to trial us - what's encouraging though is that through the Security and Fire training we're able to deal with it. God is good!

We've also welcomed an American visitor from Saudi Arabia this month - Katie - and our auditor has finished preparing the 2009 accounts and produced an interim report on the 2010 accounts.

LIke Emily said, it's been a busy month!

Sarah's Story - Grasshoppers, Jackfruit and the year to come...

Sarah keeps us updated on the latest chapter in her Ugandan story, in her own, inimitable stlye:

Helloooooooooooooo! How are you? I'm really well, and continuing to have a fab time here!!!

It's "Grasshopper Season" again here in Uganda (I think there are 2 a year), so I've been eating grasshoppers the last day or two. And it's also been the season for jackfruits, which are one of my favourite fruits ever! We have a jackfruit tree in our garden, so we've been eating plenty of them! If you don't know what a jackfruit is, see the photo. They're gorgeous!!! (The best way I can describe the taste is that it tastes a bit like Tutti Fruiti flavour Chewitts used to taste like!)

It's the wet season at the moment (there are 2 wet and 2 dry seasons a year), so everywhere is very soggy, muddy and slimy all morning, until the sun dries it all up again by mid-afternoon. The power continues to be a problem, but the water supply has improved slightly over the past 2 weeks, so that's VERY good! Kitibwa (see photo, when he decided to come and help us with the washing up!!!!) was scared of all the shadows thrown by the paraffin lamps at night a month ago, but he's getting so used to the dark every evening that he's become a lot braver now, as power cuts every day (and so paraffin lamps each evening) are just a way of life to him now!

He's getting cuter by the day!!! His vocabulary has progressed from "Alleluia!" and "Amen!" (said each time with a punch in the air!) to saying "Auntie Wala" (which I think is Auntie Sarah/Ronnah/Tinah!), "Teddy", "Kisakye", etc. (...all the girls' names). He has learnt to sing a song called "Baby Jesus", and is soooooooooooooo cute when he sings it!!! I'm trying to capture it on video, but he gets stage fright every time I stick a camera in his face!

The girls have all been doing exams over the past 2 weeks, and Robinah has now started her A-levels. Apart from Robinah (who finishes in December), they all break up from school in 2 weeks' time, so we'll be into the holiday programme again soon. It'll be really nice to have them all around again!

My Mum and Dad came to visit a few weeks ago, and I had a FABULOUS time with them! The only bad thing was that I didn't get all the hot baths and showers I was anticipating, because we had several days when the hotel had no power and no water! So my Mum and Dad had a REAL taste of Uganda (including bucket baths!).

Now that my Mum and Dad have been, and we have had a chance to have some long chats, I can officially announce that I'm coming back to Uganda next year! Yeah! I'm SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO incredibly excited about coming home and seeing all my family and all my friends!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (- You would not believe quite how excited I am!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) But I'm also very excited about what God has for me to do here in Uganda next year, and about spending another year with the girls and all the kids here in Uganda! Yeah!

Anyway, that's enough for now! As usual, I've written more than I intended to!!!! I hope that you are all really well, and I hope that when I come back I can see as many people as possible!!!

Loads of love to everyone!

- Sarah

Down on the Farm - October Update

Here's this month's update onthe farm, from Emily's monthly report:

"We thank God that we got some rain this month. About 110kg of beans have been planted, but we need more rain for them to grow well.  We’re praying for more rain.  The young matooke is coming out well now, and they have finished all the weeding, but we need more rain for the beans and the other things that have been planted."

To see a birds-eye view of farm, and some pictures of what's going on there, click here to view our map

October WEP Report - Mentoring, Meetings and Matoke

Emily, our White Eagle Project Director has sent her monthly report - here are the highlights!

We've spent a lot of time this month in intensive mentoring, as the need has arisen. I believe we need to spend more time in this area - I'm encouraging the staff to focus on mentoring so that we can help our children develop into productive and responsible members of society.

The White Eagles donated some of their old clothes this month. The clothes went to needy children known to the church and to another local charity - Child Restoration Outreach (CRO). The manager was very happy and thanked us for our thoughtfulness. The clothes are particularly appreciated at this time of year, because it is cold and the children helped by CRO often spend the night sleeping rough.

Emily has focussed on developing relationships with other agencies this month. She's met with teachers at various local schools to talk about discipline; the Manager of CRO to arrange meetings with local Government, including the Community Development Officer, the Family Protection Unit and the Probation Office; the National Coordinator of a charity called Kings Sports Ministry Uganda to talk about sports outreach in the community; and the Director of a new project in Nyendo called Helping Children and Youth Counselling.

Lastly, the programmes have continued at the Boys and Girls home, and we've enjoyed having Sarah's parents to stay again.

Do get in touch if you have any questions - email us here - and thank you to all our supporters that help us help our orphans and vulnerable children to Fly High!

Sarah's Story - Luganda Learning, Policy Planning, Sponsorship Support and Erratic Electricity!

Hello everyone!!! How is everyone? I hope you're all doing well! I'm doing great!!! But the last month has been busy!!!

I've been REALLY trying to learn some more Lugandan over the last month, as it will make such a difference if I can speak a bit more.... And it's going ok-ish. I'm not really gifted in learning languages(!), but I'm having fun because the girls are teaching me, and it's creating a lot of laughs round the dinner table (I'm trying to speak only Lugandan every evening during dinner, which is a bit of challenge with my limited vocabulary - so I just make most of it up!!!). Also, apparently, I keep on saying rude words by mistake, which always creates a lot of screaming laughter! - My pronunciation leaves a lot to be desired, it would appear!!! Ah well!!! At least I'm trying!!! When I go on the Hospital Ministry every Monday, I try out little bits now and again with the patients, and they seem to appreciate my efforts (as well as laughing at me, of course!). I'm also trying to learn to cook some Ugandan dishes, and the girls are my teachers again... so that's been fun too!

I've been very busy with the staff each week, developing some policies with them for the White Eagle Project, which has been interesting - I never thought I'd do anything managerial like this, and find it weird that I'm now doing this stuff!!! I'm learning a lot...

I've also spent a lot of time working on getting background information on very needy kids who live locally that we've identified as needing urgent help, so that we can try to get sponsors for them. So I've been doing lots of interviews, lots of typing, etc. to try to get all the important information down about them. (....So, if you'd like to sponsor anyone, let me know!!! There are a whole load of reeeeeeeally needy kids in difficult situations that we're looking for sponsorship for!!!).

The kids on the project are all doing really well at the moment, although some of them are working far too hard (in my opinion!!!) because they've got their exams (O-levels and A-levels) approaching. I can't believe the hours they do at school!!! Some of them leave for school at 6am, and don't return home until 7pm. It's crazy!!! I'm glad I didn't go to school in Uganda!!! But just to prove it's not all hard work, here's Kyesake as a puppet (for some reason...)

We had some visitors from America about a month ago, so we had fun when they came, and they took the kids to the local (and the only!) swimming pool, so some of the kids got a chance to relax and have a break from their studies that day at least.

All the usual stuff has continued, like the evening sessions with the kids, the youth group, church, prayer meetings, hospital ministry, staff meetings, etc, etc. So, life is full and interesting! ......And I'm still loving it here!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm very excited at the moment, because my Mum and Dad are coming to visit me next week!!! Yeahhhhh!!!! They're coming for a week, and I'm taking my week off while they're here so that I can spend all my time with them. I'm particularly looking forward to staying in a hotel for a whole week which has hot running water!!!! I'm going to have about a million hot baths, even if the weather's boiling outside, just to make the most of it!!!

We had over a week with virtually no electricity at all, a week or so ago (it would come on for a few minutes every couple of days, then go off right away again!!!). It was a bit frustrating, but also fun, because we had to make our own entertainment in the girls' home (due to the lack of a TV and adequate lighting), and so we played lots of silly games, and spent some evenings rolling about in hysterics!!! Kitibwa (the little toddler who lives in the girls' home) was terrified, though, every evening, because he found all the dancing shadows caused by the lanterns we used really scary, so he spent every evening clinging to anyone he could!!!

Anyway, I'll go now! Loads of love to everyone! Sarah