As I mentioned in the previous chapter there have been several young people before these three who have gained various qualifications and/or have been helped to start up small businesses. They would never have been able to do this without all our help. Amongst them a car mechanic, a tour guide, a nurse also qualified in simple dentistry, a market stall holder and a young disabled father of two, who was knocked down shortly after qualifying as a car mechanic leaving him with a paralysed arm that just hangs limp at his side and a damaged leg with a pronounced limp. With our help he now manages a small Mobile Money business. And of course there is my good friend and project manager Innocent who gained a degree in business and now has bar and piggery businesses.

Although we get help from several wonderful people to pay the fees for the students, plus for other requirements for school such as clothes and books, my husband and I are the major contributors and could always do with more people to support us, in particular with Emma. So if you fancy helping on a regular basis, a few pounds a month, please let me know. In exchange you get regular updates about the student you help including termly report cards. Also I report back to you when I spend time with them when I go to Uganda each year and of course, the satisfaction that you are giving such a precious gift, an education. Another important fact about giving young people in poor countries an education is that having gained an education themselves they will do their very best to make sure their own children go to school too, gradually lifting whole communities out of poverty.

I was really proud earlier this year to find out that Innocent, while attending a family burial had met a young relative whose family couldn’t afford to keep him at school for the last year of his primary education, the most important year where he would miss the chance of taking his Uganda 🇺🇬 National Leavers Exams. So Innocent, though he struggles to make ends meet for his own family, brought Alex to live with him and put him back into school at Brain Trust Primary. Alex, along with millions of other 14 year olds will be sitting his National Leaving Exams in November.                      Enjoy the photos! Please cleck on the first photo to scroll through.

Bosco qualified as nurse in 2018 and will shortly be attending his graduation ceremony. Unfortunately I will miss it. The stethoscope around his neck was a gift from our daughter Nicola

Fazie who only has the use of one arm and walks with a bad limp has been such a help to me over the years. He can still fix a car by instructing others!

My very good friend and project manager Innocent who I stay with. Here he is helping to complete the desks sponsored for Brain Trust PS

Innocent with his wife Betty

Here he is with his son Norman who is ‘helping’ him clean out the piggery!

Family – from back left Judith Innocents mum, Grandma, Me and Betty. The two men of the family Inncoent and Norman Reginald, named after my husband Norman Reginald”

Norman Reginald on his 1st birthday. Norman is named after my husband Norman Reginald!

Innocent looks after Alex like a son and Alex respects Innocent

Alex fetching water from the borehole

Alex with one of the Poynton Pebbles that made its way to and from Uganda!

When this live cockeral ran away before the head teacher had time to present it to me on my last day at Brain Trust PS Alex chased it, caught it and did the presentation!

Alex is so proud of going to school and of his school books.