Happy New Year to you and your family. We are now in our third national lockdown and I’m hoping that it will be ‘third time lucky’ for us! I hope that you and your family will not find the forced ‘isolation’ too difficult and that you keep safe to welcome in the spring. The good news from my garden this week is that the snowdrops are just showing their snowy heads! Love to you all. 🤗
Alex was ‘adopted’ by my friend and Project Manager Innocent two years ago. Alex’s father abandoned his family due to his mental health issues and his mother didn’t have the money to feed her family and pay school fees for her children. Innocent, who appreciates all the help he has had from my friends and family over the years, felt he wanted to ‘give something back’ by helping young Alex and welcoming him into his family which he has done wholeheartedly even though life is a continual struggle for him.
Alex has been a great help to Innocent and his wife Betty since he arrived, doing jobs around the home compound, collecting water from the borehole, looking after the pigs, digging in the ‘garden’, and being big brother to young Norman while there has been no school. Actually he had only just started at secondary school when Covid struck! Alex struggled with all subjects because he didn’t understand English so we got Innocent to hire a teacher to give him lessons in preparation for his return to school as soon as schools open so we hope he will find learning easier now. At the moment Alex says he wants to be a car mechanic and he’s been gaining experience at the local car repair shop. Innocent says he is enjoying his work experience a lot but has reminded him that he must go back to school and pass his exams if he wants to go to college which is his aim. Hopefully schools will open in February. Through me telling Alex’s story, I am pleased to say that another wonderful donor came forward to help us help him with his education. I’m so grateful. x
Now an update on the young people my husband and I support, along with help from several wonderful sponsors. Paul, Emma, Alex, Nico and Innocent.
Firstly Paul: Since March when the virus hit Uganda, and up until three months ago, Paul had been at home in his outlying village living with his mum but was continually worrying about missing out on his uni studies and training. He is studying Clinical Medicine and Community Health. The university was sending out study notes but the remoteness of Paul’s home is such that it’s often difficult to get a signal for mobile phones and especially not to download lots of material. This, added to the problem of charging his laptop, was making it very difficult for him. Though his mum and little brother Emma love having him at home and he’s a great help in the garden (farm), he jumped at his older brother Bosco’s suggestion that he move to the large town of Jinja and work alongside him at the hospital. Bosco is a nurse who has also previously had our help with his education.
At first I was a bit dubious as it would be taking Paul into a less safe environment with the Covid situation. But after talking to Paul and hearing how he felt I realised he couldn’t just sit back and wait for this pandemic to pass. I’m happy to say that Paul is finding the work at the hospital very interesting and fulfilling. I was amazed that within a couple of weeks he was giving immunisations and doing procedures such as attaching cannulas! He tells me he was particularly nervous giving a vaccination to his first baby! I am sure all the experience will benefit him in the future. Importantly he is now able to keep up with his studies too and is preparing for his return to university in early January, though I’m still rather doubtful about this actually happening but do hope all goes to plan for him.
Firstly, I’m sure you remember my friend Patrick who was one of the initial people I worked with when I first went to Uganda in 2002 and who, over the years, has become a valued friend of mine. In fact he manned his first child after me, Gerry Mukisa (Mukisa means Blessed. What an honour! It’s Gerry Mukisa’s 12th birthday today!
The first time I met Gerry Mukisa in 2008
Patrick and his wife Kevin now run a workshop in Kampala, for women who for some reason or other were denied an education when they were younger. They teach their students basic reading, writing and accounts and also give them skills such as simple tailoring so they have a better chance of gaining employment.
Two years ago, as well as making the usual items of clothing, I had asked Patrick if the ladies could make reusable sanitary towels which I gave out to those in desperate need when I delivered the mosquito nets earlier this year. They were a great success and put smiles on lots of faces as managing without sanitary pads is a nightmare as you can well imagine! During the pandemic Patrick tells me he has, very sensibly, made the production of masks a priority and I’m sure will keep this up for as long as they are needed. Amazing work on behalf of the people in his community and beyond. I would like us to support him in this vital work if possible by giving him a donation towards the material for the masks.
We also support four students. Paul and his younger brother Emma at primary school, Alex at secondary school , and Nico who is profoundly deaf. News about these young men next.
Busy making masks for the community
Gerry's Uganda Projects 