This is Lucy Alastair and Tom handing over to the manager of the Mulago Child Project a donation of $350 from money collected by their fellow pupils at Wootton Lower School and Holywell (CofE) Middle School.
The project supports over one hundred 5-18 year olds from homes in a slum area of Kampala, Uganda's capital. It is run by FOCUS Uganda, the umbrella organisation for university Christian Unions here, which St Mary's Wootton helps to support. (Beatrice Langariti, the wife of FOCUS's general secretary Vincent, lived and worked in Wootton as parish assistant at St Mary's around seven years ago; and Vincent spoke at a Wootton Lower assembly when he was in the UK last year).
There are two main elements of the project's work with Mulago's needy children. First, it contributes to the cost of school fees (state schooling is not free in Uganda) for families which would otherwise be unable to send or keep children in primary and secondary education. Second, it gathers these children every Saturday for a programme of teaching and games, in which they are taught life skills, English, health care (personal hygiene, healthy living, basic medical expertise, diet, etc), vocational skills which can help them to earn a living, and biblical studies. They also eat: a nourishing mug of sweet maize-meal ('posho') porridge half-way through the morning, and a substantial lunch - for many of the children, probably the best meal of the week. (Most families of children on the project would be able to afford only one meal a day, eaten in the evening - ie the children go to school hungry every morning).
In addition to the full-time manager, Audrey, and her assistant, Nelson (pictured with a couple of the children), the project is staffed mainly by Christian student volunteers drawn from Kampala's universities.
Last Saturday, we spent the day at the project, visiting the classes, drinking the porridge (popular with Peter and Tom, mainly!), and meeting the children. It was especially interesting to meet five 'graduates' from the project, 18-21 years of age, who are now in higher education but still living in Mulago. They told us that without the project's help they could not have continued at school, their lives would have been completely different, and their futures bleak.
The project receives no public funds and is supported by churches and some foreign donors, including sponsors of individual children (it costs £150 to sponsor a child for a year, enabling him/her to stay at school and attend the project). The gift which Lucy Alastair and Tom handed over will go towards the weekly Saturday lunch - in fact it will feed the whole project (over 100 children plus their helpers) every Saturday for nearly nine months!
Thank you Wootton Lower and Holywell Schools!
