I have been in Uganda for a month now – we have around 250 children aged 3-10 attending our Ruhanga Development Nursery & Primary School. Nursery School is registered and Primary almost completed all the required sections for registration

Most children have a uniform – thanks to kind donations of unwanted items from UK schools (black/navy skirts or pinafores, white shirts or poloshirts, black or dark grey shorts and royal or navy sweaters – proudly displaying a variety of different UK school badges – we leave those on for photos – but the shirts have our own RDNPS badge sewn on

Long sleeves shortened and trousers are cut to shorts by our resident sewing lady.

One young volunteer who recently left after staying  3 months put almost £5,000 of his own money & what he collected  from friends and family and hired large machinery to grade and level out the large school playing fields – formally it was impossible to play games etc – in another few weeks the grass we planted will have completely covered the area and they will be able to host football matches and so on

We have 7 classrooms completed and two more still need windows doors plastering and floors rendered for use at end of  January. All would like glass in the windows but that is not top of the priority list,

A second toilet block needs to be completed – the pit and down part is all done – ready for walls and roof.

Registration people said we also have to have a bigger headmaster /office room and we need more storage for games equipment

The water project is finished – we have somewhere approaching 20 taps in place and water at three schools and many hundreds of people are already benefitting

Now others on the edge of our area are requesting taps – and I am getting quotation – as there is plenty of water to go further afield.

At the Lodge itself – for those who may contemplate a visit – we have FLUSH TOILETS now we have water.

Volunteering is not just for Gap years – I am well past pension age as are a number of our other visitors and the cost of just £10 per day for all meals and accommodation  makes it an affordable possibility for a holiday with a difference

Older visitors also can enjoy a short safari to Queen Elizabeth national Park for an extra £200 – or even go on a gorilla trek if you are reasonably fit.

We have just come back from Ruhanga SW Uganda and what a trip.

We had a Xmas party at the Ruhanga Development School  and then there was the Walk 4 Water and official Turning on of the taps.

The community came out and got involved, I really can’t begin to put in words what this all felt like.

Austen- volunteer coordinator

With the water out of the way our attention turned to a great need that most of us in the west take for granted access to a toilet. As I explained in this post on BIRDS ON THE  BLOG  our girls are getting to that age when they need a toilet of their own and without which they will drop out of the the education system altogether. Without an education the  girls’s choices are limited almost always to an early marriage, being trafficked into prostitution and a life of poverty.

This problem is not unique to Ruhanga and according to the 2.6billion people worldwide are without a toilet. But it need not be this way and with direct action we can make a difference one community at a time. Our effort in Ruhanga is already under way and a few people have heeded our call to provide a girls’s toilet at the school, to join them please make a donation at http://www.mycharitypage.com/ethnicsupplies

Folk in these photos have supported our campaign to bring water to the people of Ruhanga SW Uganda through various means. the lack of access to clean water impacts economic development in the village as folk spend several horus a day in search of clean water. In addition it impacts the health of folk in the village. You can join this campaign by joining our walk for water in November or making a donation

Volunteers at Ruhanga School

I don’t know about you fol but it does seem to me that Xmas appears to come earlier and earlier each year. A few days ago I saw a woman with gift wrapping paper and my heart sunk! Is it that time of the year again I asked? I could help but wonder too how super organised she must be if she is already wrapping gifts! And the clocks haven’t gone back either! Phew!

Anyway that concentrated my mind a little- The children’s Xmas Christmas party is on 2 December 2011 and I have not done much by way of prep work! We had such fun with the children last year as you can see from the photos so we can’t let them down. The children laid on a concert for their parents, a local councillor visited and addressed the parents about the importance of sending children to school, supporting the school teachers as well as the spread of HIV

A Xmas party for 280 children isn’t cheap even in Uganda, so wonder if you would please help us out by making a donation. To make a donation please click on the donation button below

We would love to have you join us to and the day after you can take part in our #walk4water campaign

We are pleased to announce our first ever Annual General meeting which is to be held on Saturday 8 October 2011 at the

Walton on Thames Travel Lodge  Ashley Park Road Walton on Thames Surrey KT12 1JP at 4:00PM. There is no need to book just turn up. The nearest train station is Walton on Thames 28 minutes from London Waterloo (you can also come via Surbiton, Clapham Junction and or Wimbledon). The hotel is across the road from the station.

village children carrying water

Why Attend

We will take on a journey to Ruhanga SW Uganda so you can catch up with our work and learn first hand the impact of that work from the people behind the scenes and those that benefit from what we do.  You will also hear about the future of the project and perhaps help shape it

We look forward to seeing you there

Dear Minister

It is with regret that we announce the death of Ayebazibwe Witness (pictured with her twin) a 4 year old girl from Ruhanga Development School.  Witness   was hit bya car on 13th September 2011 and died instantly, she was nearly home but as she crossed the road a vehicle speeding through the village hit  her and the driver failed to stop.  Her mother is part of our women’s group that make and sale crafts and this happened right in front of her crafts stall!

Twins Ian and Witn

Witness was a bubbly and likeable girl  with a bright future ahead of her and here is as a Flower girl at a wedding in the village only a few weeks ago.  We are saddened by her passing.

Witness as a flower girl at a wedding last month

What makes this death more tragic is that this is the 8th  child that has died on this stretch of the road and we understand that you have no plans to install traffic calming measures in this area.  We would be grateful if you would please reconsider this decision for you see 2 years ago a father of  these girls http://www.birdsontheblog.co.uk/our-girls/ was hit by a car in the same spot leaving 6 children without a father and a wife without a husband.

What will it take to improve Road safety in this par of Uganda?

To our friends and well wishers a fund has been set up in memory of Witness  the details are here http://www.mycharitypage.com/InMemoryOfWitness&cp=1#donations

Please join us on the ‘Walk for Water’ in Ruhanga on 3rd December 2011 from 10:00am.

Funds are being raised to continue with the installation of a new pipeline to supply fresh mountain water to the villagers of Ruhanga, in SW Uganda. Participants are invited to take the guided walk to the source of the water located in the beautiful hills above the village, and see some of the construction already completed.

After this 1-2hour hike there will be a BBQ at Ruhanga Community Development School, with the chance to meet local villagers and school children who will benefit from the pipeline once it is completed.

The walk is organized by UK registered charity ‘Let Them Help Themselves Out of Poverty’, both to raise money and awareness of the great distance folk in Ruhanga have to travel to access clean water.

In June 2011 I and some of volunteers went out to Uganda and covered this trail and you can see how we got on in these two video clips

1. Bottled water (min 1litre)

2. Walking stick or pole if you are at all unsteady on rough ground

3. Camera to remember the fantastic views!

4. Camping facilities will be provided in the school grounds

5.A good pair of Walking boots

6. sun lotion

Or visit their website directly:

http://lethemhelpthemselves.eventbrite.com/

Like most folk that grew up in rural Uganda/Africa we didn’t have running water, you can read about by personal story here .  My friends and I have therefore dedicated the last 2 years to bringing clean water Ruhanga a village in SW Uganda  and work finally got under way in January of this year.

Our task was to pipe water from the hills above the village  to the valley where the local school we founded is as well install two taps in the village so at least 10,000 people in the village could have access to clean water.  You can follow that journey in  this post. It was all hands on board as the community got behind the project by signing the contract with the water engineers, supervising the contractors and digging the trenches were the pipes would go.

All of that seems like a distant memory!

School Children turn on the taps

Water finally arrived at the Ruhanga community Project School and as you can see the children were very keen to try it out themselves

Clean water supply to Volunteer accommodation

Our work is supported by a large number of volunteers who travel from all over the world to come and spend time and the village and up until now the women in the village have had to carry water on their heads for use at the volunteer accommodation . This will no longer the case as the accommodation has its own water supply

The first tap in the village

Finally one of the taps for the supply of clean water to the village is also up and the locals were quick to take advantage of this.

We are not quite done! In order to cover the entire village we need to install another tap. We cannot tap into the current water source so we have to find another stream up in the hills, dig trenches, lay some pipes  and bring the water to the valley. We therefore still need your support to achieve this and if you can get to Uganda on 3 December 2011 please join us on the Walk 4 Water Campaign  http://www.lethemhelpthemselves.org/walk-for-water

We were fortunate to attend the 1st Uganda Convention in the UK that brought together Ugandans from all over the world. The best part about this day was that our charity was amongst those selected by the Chairman of the organising committee to receive a donation on the day

That donation has gone towards the education of 5 girls from our community school and

Ayebare Stinia

Pracious

Nagasha Naturinde

Nayebare Burian

Aijuka Tarent

The man that has made all of this possible is

Willy Mutenza    the Chairman of the Uganda Convention UK.  He has extensive experience in working in the community and knows his local community very well Mr Mutenza is an enterprising Ugandan who has lived and worked in London for the last 16 years. Having graduated in 2002 with a BA in Digital Arts and Multimedia Computing from Thames Valley University, London, Mr Mutenza put to good use the skills he learnt in Information and Computing Technology. His host of certificates and diplomas in courses such as Computer Design, and Printing & Publishing has resulted in a number of successful business ventures. Besides his business skills, Mr Mutenza is one of the leading advocates of development issues in the Ugandan community both in the United Kingdom (Europe) and in Uganda. He is also an Ethnic consultant for the Western Union and Brussels Airlines on Africa. Awards: 2009 BBI Innovative Award (British Black Initiative)

We would like to take this opportunity to thank Willy for his generosity and hopefully many more will follow his example. To sponsor a child at Ruhanga Community Project costs £3.50 a month. If you are interested in sponsoring one our children please follow this link to download a form http://www.lethemhelpthemselves.org/projects

Michael is one of the volunteers that stayed with us at the Ruhanga community development project. This video is a collection of his memories there