Greetings from Uganda!
First of all, a huge THANK YOU to everyone who donated during the Little by Little campaign last month! We managed to raise almost $4500, thanks to your generosity and the matching funds awarded by GlobalGiving. An amazing result! We were also able to inspire 5 new sponsors to support 5 more vulnerable children in our program! Please reach out if you're interested in learning how you can help.
And a BIG thank you to our volunteers who have finally started coming more consistently to assist from abroad - they always have a wonderful time and have a massive impact on the children of Hands for Hope. We also have a wonderful new volunteer who has started to teach STEM classes to our children online every week! This is in addition to the wonderful students at AVS Academy who teach our children online every Saturday morning!
If you are interested in learning more about volunteering with us, please email handsforhopeuganda@gmail.com.
And some more good news... two of the our girls from the primary school received 1st division grades and were awarded scholarships to attend one of the top schools in Uganda thanks to our partnership with HATUA!
And now a bit of difficult news... one of our youngest children has sadly been diagnosed with blood cancer. Hands for Hope is currently providing support by ensuring she receives treatment, food support, transport and whatever else we can do. We are keeping her in our thoughts and will keep you updated.
As always, thanks for your ongoing support!
Until next time,
The Uganda Hands for Hope Team
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Greetings from Uganda!
Thanks to your generous donations on Giving Tuesday last November, our children are learning from and interacting with students from around the world on the new Smart TVs we've installed in some of the classrooms! Having more exposure to the internet (and the rest of the world!) will certainly improve their quality of education. Not to mention the fun they've been having learning Irish dancing online! (See photo below)
We're also excited to report that we've been able to start welcoming volunteers at our site again after a long break due to COVID. Mika and Yoko from Japan helped our children with tailoring lessons and Luana from Belgium was assisting the social workers and teachers. Please get in touch if you have any interest in volunteering with us here!
We've always helped our children and their families with medical issues in the past and we are pleased to report that thanks to our intervention and follow up, one of our children was finally properly diagnosed with blood cancer and is now getting the necessary treatment she needs and is improving. If it wasn't for your support, we would never have been able to help her - so thank you!
Unfortunately though, rising prices and inflation have made it difficult to make our budget work this year. We've had to cut back on some extra curriculars like some sports/dance activities and school trips just to make sure we can keep our basic services going. So, to hopefully help fill in the gaps, we will be participating in GlobalGiving's Little by Little Campaign in April - stay tuned for more details in the coming weeks!
As always, thanks for your continued support!
The Uganda Hands for Hope Team
Links:
Hello everyone!
THANK YOU to everyone who donated on Giving Tuesday! Thanks to your generosity, we were able to raise over $20,000 in just 24 hours and received $5,581 from GlobalGiving in bonus funds!
As mentioned before, we plan to use some of the money raised to purchase SmartTVs to allow our students to readily access the internet and connect with students from around the world through virtual classrooms but we also received a very generous amount from a single donor that will be used to purchase a much-needed van for the schools. Transport has always been an issue for us and a van will help us to take children to medical appointments, boarding facilities we partner with, educational field trips and of course will help with logistical trips like monthly shopping and visiting families in need - particularly those with children with special needs.
We've also been working on some other initiatives lately:
Due to the challenges our children go through and the need for a professional counsellor, we were pleased to welcome a volunteer professional counsellor who provided regular support to the children.
A daily book hour has been introduced when all the students and staff, both teaching and non-teaching, read books and share the book experiences at the end of each week. This is to help develop and promote a reading culture at the high school, develop the students’ vocabulary, confidence and comprehension.
Acacia school students have been coming on campus weekly for student interaction and have been teaching UHfH’s students the basics of how to use a computer.
HATUA continues to provide fully funded scholarships for students that score top grades in their Primary level leaving
certificates. There are currently three students from Uganda Hands for Hope who go to two of the top schools in
Uganda!
We will certainly keep everyone posted as things develop in Uganda over the next couple months!
Thanks again, and Happy Holidays!
The Uganda Hands for Hope Team
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Greetings from Uganda!
We hope this project report finds all of our supporters doing well!
The last couple months have been very busy at Hands for Hope. Our primary school now has close to 200 students and our new secondary school is thriving with 60 students. We are so proud of how well all the children are doing!
As the term came to a close last month, our secondary school students put on a great talent show - the new marching band (thank you Brass for Africa!) performed, and we had cultural dancing, story telling, beatboxing, boxing and more! It was wonderful to see the kids be able to put their difficult home lives out of their minds for a few hours and really support each other in their talents!
We've also launched a new children's parliament initiative that not only allows the students to voice their concerns and discuss issues they might be having (at home, in the community or at school) in a safe environment but it also allows them to learn how to debate amongst themselves!
In other wonderful news, thanks to donations raised by a volunteer, we were able to purchase a custom-made wheelchair for a young girl with cerebral palsy who had been unable to join HfH's special needs program because her mother was unable to carry her to the school every day. Thanks to HfH, the girl is now able to have a safe place to spend her days while her mother runs a small business that HfH helped her start!
And finally, a big thank you to one of our long-time supporters who has started a fundraising page to buy three Smart TVs - one for each of the nursery classrooms to enable the children to engage in online Jolly Phonics songs, games and videos as well as other online educational programs.
Wishing you all the best around the world. And as always, thank you for your continued support!
The Uganda Hands for Hope Team
Links:
Greetings from Uganda Hands for Hope!
We hope that all of you are doing well. The last couple of months have been very busy here at HFH... Here are a few highlights:
Thanks to the donations we received from the AVS Academy's fundraising page on GlobalGiving, we were able to install 2 virtual classrooms that are enabling students from AVS to teach and support our P6 and P7 students every Saturday on topics our students have highlighted they need help with.
The Girl UP Uganda Initiative has continued to provide workshops for our girls and female teachers to teach them practical skills enabling them to earn extra income for their families. They have also held talks on domestic violence, body image and parental challenges.
Our partners from Brass for Africa held music playing and reading assessments for our more senior Brass Band members, all of whom played fantastically and passed - certificates are to follow!
We've also kept up with our weekly physiotherapy sessions for special needs children from the Namuwongo community. We're seeing great results in their physical abilities, flexibility and movement!
We are also happy to report that we are finally able to weclome international volunteers again and currently have 3 with us from the Netherlands. They are providing great support in the special needs, nursery and primary classes, as well as organizing fun activities for all the children. Please reach out to us if you are interested in learning about our volunteer opportunties!
As always, thanks for your continued support - it means the world to us and all of our children!
The Uganda Hands for Hope Staff
Links:
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