Dear Friends, my friend Godfrey contacted me yesterday with this message:

‘Our good friend Moses has passed on. So sad that we shall miss him after we thought he was now back on the road. May his Soul Rest in Peace’.

Godfrey is attending the funeral of Moses today. He continues ‘Thank you very much to all who supported the cause to rejoin dear Moses with his family. At least he could enjoy the love of his family in the last days of his life’.

If you are new to my ‘life in Uganda’ or just want to recall what happend with Moses, please look at my post of November 14th last year which tells his tragic through to happy story.

And yes, at least Moses had a few months of living with his family in a comfortable home thanks to the kindness and generosity of my supporters – you are amazing!

With Moses last June

Laptop needed for Uganda please! Dear Friends, do you remember my friends Patrick and his wife Kevin who live in Kampala and run a group that helps women who never had a chance of an education, to get a second chance? Often these ladies have children to look after too. They are taught basic reading, writing and arithmetic, and also trained in skills that will give them more chance of getting employment and therefore become self-sufficient. Sewing, knitting, hairdressing and simple computer skills are all offered. I witness the good work this couple do each time I visit Uganda and I am very impressed. The second hand laptop we gave Patrick several years ago has been very well used and has now broken and I would really like to replace it when I go out to Uganda on 22^nd February. Can you help please?

The ladies are really happy to be offered this chance of learning new skills like sewing, knitting, hairdressing and basic computer

These girls were using dolls to practise hairdressing

If you learn to sew there are so many opportunities in Uganda because the majority of people can only afford second hand clothes so often they need altering.

Patrick, Kevin and their youngest children when I visited last June

HAPPY NEW YEAR to you all, my lovely friends and supporters of my work in Uganda! My flights are booked for 22nd February when I will be flying off to spend a month in Uganda, living and working with and for local communities. Once again I am asking for your support please to enable me to deliver a little help to those who need it. There are several ways you can help:

Firstly, my ongoing project to provide more people in the area I work in with a mosquito net at £5 each so that they will be protected from the Malarial mosquito is so important, in fact lifesaving as more people particularly the very young and elderly, die of Malaria than any other disease in Uganda and most people are too poor to purchase their own net. So please if you would like to sponsor one or more nets from yourself or on behalf of your friends or relatives I would be so grateful as will the recipients of your gift?

OR help Brain Trust Nursery and Primary School to provide a good education for the four hundred children who attend the school by doing one or more of the following:

Sponsor a desk for £20 so that every child can sit comfortably in their lessons just like our children in the UK do, and have your name painted on it.

or Sponsor a teaching chart or several books both for £5, the school has very few.

To see photos from my previous visits of sponsored gifts being delivered or used please scroll down to the end of this script.

In exchange for your sponsorship you will be emailed a personalised photo of your sponsored net with their recipients. Or a photo of your named desk, books or teaching charts with children at the school, which I will take while I am out in Uganda. Please message on here or email me at gerrysuganda@gmail.com with your name OR the name of the person you are purchasing this gift on behalf of and whose name you would like in the photo or painted on the desk. Also if you wish any greeting such as ‘Happy Birthday’ to be added.

Please see donation page for details of how to pay, by cash, cheque or bank transfer

Thank you for your interest and amazing support for my Uganda projects. Hope to hear from you very soon.

Gerry

Thank you Jeannie for donating mosquito nets to this family

The mother of these children died recently. At least the father knows his children are now protected against the dreaded mosquitoes

These children were given pens and pencils donated by supporters in the UK

One of the new desks donated by Lower Park Primary School in Poynton. They are smart and most important strong!

It’s a bit of a squash with few desks

These children can either sit or lean on their benches, not both.

Thank you Maizze-Grace for donating some teaching charts

They brighten up every lesson

And come in every subject. Just choose your subject and I will show you the choice”

They’re made of hard wearing nylon sacking and indelible markers, and the Ugandan dust can be washed out!

Charles stamps every book with the school stamp.

Charles labels each shelf a different subject and one day I hope the shelves will be full

Still many empty shelves in the book cupboard

Yesterday I watched Food Unwrapped Diet Special, Channel 4, from 3rd January, where they showed how jackfruit, the biggest fruit in the world, and abundant in Uganda, can be used as a meat substitute to make what apparently looks and tastes just like pulled pork and makes great burgers! Text continues below photos.

(I’ve noted down the recipe if you want it!)

Then today I was sent this photo of Paul, one of my young friends in Uganda, who had been working with his mum in the fields and was walking home carrying a jackfruit! He has told me that it is the jackfruit season and there are many many ripe for eating. No one goes hungry during the jackfruit season! Paul has promised that there will still be some for me when I go to Uganda next month! Perhaps I’ll have to have a go at making jackfruit pulled pork while I am there!