October 2022 Masindi at last!

Back in Uganda after 3 years!

Summary of our October 2022 trip

We arrived, the 6 of us, Hattie, Katie, Molly, Anne, Katrina and Karen with our 13 bags of luggage to a warm and welcoming Masindi homecoming!

We spent two days working collaboratively on a wall hanging for the school with the children before the trip to the Budongo Forest .

Kamurasi pupils proudly showing their completed collage

Budongu Forest!

The trips to the Budongo Forest were on two consecutive days with two different groups of 65 children. Each day was filled with great excitement and anticipation from everyone involved. Both trips were inclusive of children with disabilities. They were educational, thought provoking, engaging and fun. The guides were all knowledgeable & inspiring. Some comments from the children - ‘The tour will always remain in our minds’. ‘With the new knowledge we got from the Forest we are ready to stand to conserve and protect our nature’. ‘We, as a school, would like to partner with the Budongo Field Station in conserving wildlife and the entire environment of Budongo’. ‘Together we can make the world a better place for all living things’.

Molly a natural history film maker who came out with us is making a film based on our trip to the Forest. We are very much looking forward to viewing her film sometime next year.

Excited pupils and teachers arrive at the field station in the budongo forest

Building the boys’ washroom

Funds were used to complete the construction of a 7 cubical washroom for the boys who are disabled and board at the school.The boys had been bathing outside with little privacy.

New benches for the Masindi Hospital

We paid for 4 benches to be made and secured at the hospital for visitors to use as well as patients - 2 benches for maternity ward, 1 bench for paediatrics, 1 for post natal ward. They were made by Robert, who is deaf and who was a pupil at the Kamurasi school. He is now a successful carpenter.

The Vocational Unit

The wonderful and dedicated staff work with disabled children either in the vocational training unit or teaching Braille or sign lessons for deaf children. Some of the profit from the vocational training is now paying the wages of 4 staff. Two staff members were once pupils.

This year we bought this new knitting machine from Kampala for the vocational training unit. Here is Innocent one of the visually impaired trainers, who was a pupil at Kamurasi, He trains visually impaired children to make school jumpers to sell at the school.

Innocent demonstrating the new knitting machine

Fresh Water for the Boarding children.

Previously, the children had to cross a busy road to fetch water from a bore hole, which was often contaminated. This new tap brings fresh, safe water and is for drinking and cooking only.

We reinstated a water tap on the site of the Boarding Hostel that had been repressed and not used for many years due to not being able to pay the monthly water bills. This water will only be used for drinking and cooking. The water tanks that collect rain water will be used for bathing and washing only.

Having the tap water will provide the children with daily drinking/cooking water which will be collected in jerry cans in the morning. The use of the tap will be monitored and padlocked at certain times during the day to help reduce the monthly cost of the water. The tap will reduce the many trips the children often have to make crossing the road onto the school site to collect water from the bore hole on the school grounds.

Karen with Joy, the head of Special needs, as the tap is turned on.

A number of other jobs that carried out during the visit.

Repaired the chimney in kitchen - until the repair there was a lot of excess smoke inside.
We gave out new clothes, shoes, bras, glasses, learning resources and toys.
We bought mattresses and mosquito nets and secured the net frames to the beds in the boarding.

This is just a snippet of some of some of the incredible moments and things we achieved during our trip. In addition, we had a meeting with the Educational officer in Masindi, collected work for Horfield School, had a tea party and witnessed some amazing singing and dancing from the Kamurasi school Choir. We were also invited to the P7 campfire.

Your support and kind and generous donations do really help to make a difference.