Education for Poor Children!

To all our sponsors,

We are happy to continue receiving your support, which has managed to take us to Superstar status on GlobalGiving and also helped increase our search ranking on their site from a position of 3,000 to 300; a remarkable improvement!

This August, 2018, the Organization was blessed to host GlobalGiving’s project evaluators, Chris and Jamie. We received an email about this opportunity from Hannah, one of GG’s administrators and we gladly accepted them to come and see the work we have completed (with your support) to benefit the disadvantaged children and surrounding community of Pallisa. The visit also brought many learning opportunities to SHARE as an organization, and to the teachers and children of the Hammerslag School.  Please find an excerpt of Chris' notes from his visit at the end of this report. And if you have the time, read GG’s full field report to hear their opinions and suggestions for our project.

Namely, our evaluators report a dire need for more funds to help us complete our facilities to an adequate standard, and to maintain the health of the children (e.g. food, shelter, school supplies). In the meantime, the children are in high spirits and learning more every day. We hope that with the continued support of GG and generous donors such as yourselves, that our students will become educated, productive citizens whom may uplift their communities and Uganda as a country. Thank you for helping them and believing in us.

Below is a more specific breakdown of the spending of funds received between January and June, 2018, as well as our remaining areas of need.

Hosting of GG evaluators:

First off, funds helped us to host Chris and Jamie and provide them with food, transport and accommodation, as follows.

• Paying for fuel and transportation costs to and from Kampala Airport to Pallisa (a distance of about 500 km, along with movements within Pallisa (e.g. from office to school, a distance of about 20 km)
• Visiting beneficiaries and families. in the community
• Preparing and providing sufficient food and accommodation 

Food and boarding:

As always, the funds have continued to help us provide food for the boarding children. However, we do not have enough to feed all the children 3 meals a day with GG funds and Good Neighbors food donations (a charity which sponsors 33 of the children) alone, and so at this time, parents are asked to contribute a small amount to maintain this service. Nonetheless the children are healthy and we have managed to make ends meet with our current supplies/funds.

Improvements to the Hammerslag School:

With the funds, we were able to put up a wall between the baby room and the primary one and two classrooms, making for a better learning environment. Previously, learning had been difficult as all three classes were sharing a single room. With future donations, we plan to partition the upper-school rooms as well.

Another area Chris and Jamie noted was of great importance for us to improve was the sleeping and living conditions for the children. The school has very few mattresses and children mainly sleep on dirt floors, with inadequate blankets and bedding. We will need funds to buy mattresses and/or mats for every student, along with more blankets and pillows. Secondly, we are in need of scholastic materials and clothing for the children. We were able to replenish some of these supplies with recent donations, but with so many children, the need is still great.

Finally, we remain unable to pay our teachers a living wage, especially considering the difficult working conditions at the Hammerslag School. Alas, we need your support to be able to pay each teacher the proper shillings per month so that they may continue to provide valuable teaching and care for the children, as well as their own families. In line with national standards, this only equates to $70 USD.

NGO Registration by Government of Uganda:

These funds helped SHARE to pay the legal fees necessary to register as a NGO in Uganda, Previously, we were operating as a Community Based Organization (CBO), which meant each year we had to process a new certificate; a costly and time consuming procedure. Now that we have internationally recognized NGO status, many more opportunities are available to us.

Our next guests:

As the new school term begins, we plan to host a guest from Peace Corps USA, and another from Home of Good Hope. These two guests are coming to see if SHARE and the Hammerslag School would be a good organization for them to send volunteers to. We are hoping for the best, as outside support is needed now more than ever.

Thank you again for your sponsorship. Your help and ongoing donations have made all our progress possible.

Sincerely,

Charles Olupot

SHARE Project leader

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Notes from Chris:

Note from the In-the-Field Traveler
Charles and his team went out of their way to welcome us to Pallisa and ensure a comfortable stay. They were very responsive to our queries and were very happy to tailor the itinerary based on our requests.

Recommendation for how to better use GlobalGiving
It would be great if SHARE was able to increase the number of people donating to their organisation, in particular, to cover the running costs of the school. Please see our full report for more detailed recommendations on how to achieve this.

Feedback on your programs
The team are enthusiastic about expanding their activities and the school, which is wonderful to see. We do recommend that they should focus on consolidating their current position before stretching themselves too thinly.

Quote from the In-the-Field Traveler
SHARE PROJECT is a small, committed organisation which has made great progress in a short space of time. The team are enthusiastic and determined to do their best for the children they serve.