Dear Friends
The children at St James have returned for the second term of the school year and James tells me all is going well. He has just registered the older children for their National Leavers exams which they will sit in November, all hoping to qualify for secondary school. This year there are 30 candidates which is great news but brings with it a challenge of how to pay for their registration to the government. Only 13 of the candidates pay the 27,000 fee, the other 17 make small contributions in food etc. Finding the money is always a challenge for James and I often wonder how he manages it! One thing he won’t have to pay for is ‘sitting’ fee or transport as St James is now a Registered Exam Centre so hopefully several other schools will pay to use our facilities!

St James has a new uniform! James was getting comments from some of the parents that their children ‘disappeared’ in the chocolate brown uniform which I do agree with as often in my photos they were almost one colour! James and the PTA have chosen sunshine yellow to replace the dark brown. The girls wear a yellow dress with a khaki collar and the boys a yellow shirt with khaki collar and shorts. The dress and shirt have the school emblem printed on them. I must admit they look very good and very sunny! I have made this photo into birthday cards to sell for St James!

New desks in the new classrooms! The children love the new desks in their new classrooms that many of you helped to provide! For just £20 you can sponsor a desk too and have your name or
the name of a friend or loved one painted on it just like the one in the photo!

Ceiling, solar and paint for Hambridge Hall!

The school authorities have told James that we need to put the ceiling in the four classrooms plus paint it before the children sit their exams in November. This is a bit of a challenge as the
ceiling alone will cost over 6million UGX (approx. £1500) which doesn’t sound a lot but it is in
Uganda and is a lot for us to raise! We will plod on, brick by brick & hopefully succeed!

Progress on Joy Clinic. Below is the latest photo of Joy Clinic. The walls of the treatment and delivery rooms are up and recently the roof went on. I learnt recently that Joys father was a doctor and when he saw her struggling to help the Nakakabala community, delivering babies in the tiny home where she and James lived with their six children, his greatest wish was for a clinic to be built. Lets hope he is looking down and seeing what is happening now! The photo is of Joy as a midwife. Everyone misses her so much!

We are still a long way from completing Joy Clinic with lots of fund raising still to do but once again we are receiving help …………Geminy Maw, a 26 year old from Macclesfield, who found us funds for the borehole last year, has taken on a challenge to cycle solo to  ‘Berlin and Back on a Bike’ to raise awareness and money for Joy Clinic. Her motto is ‘Spreading Smiles Across the Miles’ and with her smile she certainly does that!

The children at St James have returned for the second term of the school year and James tells me all is going well. He has just registered the older children for their National Leavers exams which they will sit in November, all hoping to qualify for secondary school. This year there are 30 candidates which is great news but brings with it a challenge of how to pay for their registration to the government. Only 13 of the candidates pay the 27,000 fee, the other 17 make small contributions in food etc. Finding the money is always a challenge for James and I often wonder how he manages it! One thing he won’t have to pay for is ‘sitting’ fee or transport as St James is now a Registered Exam Centre so hopefully several other schools will pay to use our facilities!

St James has a new uniform! James was getting comments from some of the parents that their children ‘disappeared’ in the chocolate brown uniform which I do agree with as often in my photos they were almost one colour! James and the PTA have chosen sunshine yellow to replace the dark brown. The girls wear a yellow dress with a khaki collar and the boys a yellow shirt with khaki collar and shorts. The dress and shirt have the school emblem printed on them. I must admit they look very good and very sunny! I have made this photo into birthday cards to sell for St James!

New desks in the new classrooms! The children love the new desks in their new classrooms that many of you helped to provide! For just £20 you can sponsor a desk too and have your name or the name of a friend or loved one painted on it just like the one in the photo!

Ceiling, solar and paint for Hambridge Hall! The school authorities have told James that we need to put the ceiling in the four classrooms plus paint it before the children sit their exams in November. This is a bit of a challenge as the ceiling alone will cost over 6million UGX (approx £1500) which doesn’t sound a lot but it is in Uganda and is a lot for us to raise! We will plod on, brick by brick & hopefully succeed!

Inter-School Activities The children at St James are becoming more and more involved with competition with other schools, most recently with sport and drama, in both cases doing very well. They wear with pride the donated football strip from Richmond Rovers and Poynton Football Clubs. This term they are taking part in singing and music events though they are lacking musical instruments, another challenge for us when the buildings are complete!

The pigs go on holiday! In February at the beginning of the school year James had to find temporary homes for the pigs and their offspring because he has employed two teachers and a cook who are Muslim and they were living at the school. Julius, the local brick maker and a close neighbour to the school, looked after the pigs. James has now found the staff accommodation elsewhere so our pigs are back in their rightful home in their recently built piggery. James is a very busy man having the big responsibility of looking after the children, the teachers and the animals, keeping them all happy!

George’s Den fills up again! My recent stay at St James was during the dry season in Uganda and James heard that a disease amongst chickens was spreading so he sold off all the chickens as they were likely to get it too. The risk has now passed and James is slowly re-stocking the chicken flock so those of you who have sponsored chickens will shortly be receiving a photo of your bird! He is trying a new breed of chicken called Kuroiler which apparently grows faster and lays more eggs! They are free-range, need no suppliments which would cost money and never stop to rest! Thanks for your sponsorship of the chickens and for those of you who sponsored goats and pigs too. The animal projects are crucial to St James and were started by Vernon buying ten goats way back in 2008!

Happy for rain! There has been a prolonged wet season which has enabled more planting of cassava, maize and sweet potatoes on the school land to help feed the children. All the land between the buildings will be cultivated, even inside any unfinished buildings will be used temporarily to maximize the growing area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately much of the land around St James is swamp and gets water logged during the rains and during drought the texture of the soil is sandy and salty so not good for gardening! One day we hope to buy some additional land so that we can grow more food especially fruit and vegetables that we cannot grow at the moment.

Mangoes in Gerry’s Square! One fruit that is in plentiful supply this season is mangoes. They are everywhere so no-one is going hungry. Even the two big trees in Gerry’s Square under which James first started the school, are heavily laden. I hope they come again in December when I return to Uganda! Once you have tasted a mango straight off the tree the ones you buy in the UK are never the same!

Snakes! James reported that it had been so wet that snakes that normally live in the swamp are coming out onto the school compound and that they had already killed three poinsonous ones! The children keep the compound swept as clean as possible to prevent snakes hiding in any debri and I can see now just how important it is to do this!

Parents help! The parents of the great majority of the children who come to St James are very poor and a few are destitute and unable to pay the tiny school fees so they come and help with the gardening and animals, or donate such things as firewood in exchange for their children coming to school. James is going to identify more parents who need this help and get them involved in other jobs around the school.

Official Opening of St James postponed! James and I had proposed to hold the official opening of St James In February 2016 but we now realise this would not be a good idea as it is the Ugandan Presidential Election and a time of possible unrest or worse. I had the unfortunate experience of travelling through Kampala to the airport a few days before the 2011 elections and it was very frightening! I will let you know when we decide on another date for the opening.

James has become a grandad again! Faith Joy Elizabeth was born last month, the third of James’ granddaughter to be named after his late wife Joy.

My friend, James Mutyaba. Without James’ love, care and sheer hard work many of the children in Nakakabala would still not be going to school. James sends his thanks to you and all his other friends in the UK for standing by him all the way. And a very big thank you from me too!

Dates for your diary! Saturday 18th July and Sunday 19th July (12-5pm)

167 Bramhall Moor Lane, Hazel Grove, Stockport, SK7 5BB. 0161 483 2704
Angela and David Brannan, friends and supporters of St James, are opening their garden as part of The National Garden Scheme to raise money for St James! I will be there serving tea and cakes and generally enjoying myself so please come along and join us for an hour or two in their beautiful garden.

Thank you once again for your interest and support for St James. It is now over seven years since it opened its ‘doors’ to the children of Nakakabala who were not getting any education. Many of these children went on to secondary school and all of them, without doubt benefitted from however long they attended and I am sure that when the time comes they will make sure their own children go to school! Education IS the route out of poverty!

I would love to hear your comments on our St James and our wonderful achievements so far and if you can sponsor a desk or an animal, or offer a donation for Gem’s bike ride to Berlin, then I and all those at St James and in the community with be very grateful.

Asante sana!

Hope to hear from you soon.

Love Gerry