85 Maria’s Care pupils of KPPS Primary School took part in the five days of Final Competitions at The National Theatre Kampala in early August, and were delighted to be  placed 3rd out of 31 entries from all over Uganda!

Maria's Care pupils performing in competition

They had worked so hard practicing for hours after school and at week-ends with Supervisor Jacky Oba, their music teachers and their new Headteacher, Henry Waikere.
The competition covered a wide range of skills including speech, drama, poetry, creative dance, Traditional dance and singing. Their enjoyment is obvious from their faces! Some of the best selected soloists were CRU sponsored children.
The first rounds of the competition started weeks ago and there were various rounds through to the regional round of Busoga, and  Maria’s Care children came 1st in all of them. The five day exciting experience in Kampala for the Finals  was the first visit to the capital for nearly all of the children.
Donations from Kamuli District, parents  and generous Ugandan donors helped to pay for accommodation and food and transport.
The final marks were close. 1st = 855; 2nd = 837; 3rd = 835. The winning school was Namilyango Junior School from Kampala.

Receiving the award

The 2011 Festivals were sponsored by UNICEF and 6 of Maria’s Care children were selected for sponsorship by UNICEF for their education  from primary to University level.
This is what it means to give opportunity to Maria’s Care children- and look what they achieve when they get the chance!

As in some of the surrounding countries of East Africa, there is drought and increased hunger in Uganda, hand-in-hand with escalating food costs.  Please spend a few minutes reading this blog – we really need your help, if at all possible.
Uganda might not be at the epicentre of the drought and famine in the Horn of Africa, and hence not on our television screens, but it is being very badly affected by events there.  N.E. Uganda has been through a lengthy drought, which has caused crops to fail and children to go hungry.
In an emergency, international relief agencies import food from the surrounding countries, as well as from further afield. Not surprisingly Ugandan traders are crossing the border to Kenya to sell their grain and other foodstuffs at inflated prices, leaving a shortage in Uganda where prices are continuing to soar as a consequence.  To add to the problem we are informed that lorries arrive regularly in Kamuli from South Sudan to buy food for that new country – further reducing availability and forcing prices up in Uganda.
The cost of feeding the children at Maria’s Care has shot up in recent months and so, as a consequence of the spiralling cost of food, have the boarding fees of our secondary school children.  With inflation reported to be running at 18% nationally, but higher in drought affected areas such as Kamuli, people are struggling to find the money to pay for children’s school fees and requirements.  Teachers, and others, are struggling to cope with rocketing prices on their fixed salaries.  How do you cut back when all your salary goes on everyday basic necessities?  The concept of ‘disposable income’ does not exist in rural Uganda!
Translating the price of bread into its British equivalent, imagine if you went to your local bakery to buy a large loaf and you found that, instead of costing its usual £1.30, the price had shot up overnight to £3.25!  That’s a 250% increase!  Imagine supermarket prices here going up by 25%, or more, in less than a year!  That’s what is happening in Uganda.
In order to ensure that the children that Maria’s Care supports are properly fed, and that they continue to receive a good standard of education appropriate to their needs and talents, we need our income to increase in line with inflation.  We know that times are hard in the U.K. but they are so much harder in and around Kamuli.  Please could we ask you to help if you possibly can?
You can make a one-off donation through this website via ‘Donate Now’ using ‘Just Giving’.  Better still, if you wish to become a regular donor, or to increase your present level of giving, please contact the Treasurer, Mike Collett, for a Standing Order form.  If you could also Gift Aid your donation that would make an enormous difference.  Thank you.
Mike Collett, 13 Bladon Crescent, Alsager, Stoke-on-Trent, ST7 2BG.
Email: crutreasurer@hotmail.co.uk

Over 300 pupils and staff are fed daily at Maria’s Care. 80 of these pupils are totally supported by CRU through education.  Another 80 are supported at secondary school and vocational college, where it is normal for pupils to board and so students’ fees rise term by term.
Rising prices of food in Uganda have dramatically affected what CRU pays for all these supported children and Supervisor Jacky Oba says, ‘For many of these children the school dinner we provide will be the only food they have till the next morning. Parents will go without food regularly in order to pay the necessary fees to send their children to school. Rising food prices are causing great hardship.’
Cooking at Maria’s Care is done on wood stoves. Wood costs are rising too.
Please could you help Christian Relief Uganda to meet this need? Click on DONATE NOW if you are able to help. Thank you.

July 2011

‘It was a ‘surprise’ visit by an Inspector from the Ministry of Education and Sports in Kampala in early June,’ says Supervisor Jacky Oba, who has been also acting as Headteacher to the Primary School at Maria’s Care since the start of 2011.  ‘I did not know he was coming and he just ‘dropped in’ as a ‘prospective’ parent wanting to be shown round the school. Once he had been round the school with me  he revealed his identity, apologising for the disguise but saying it was the best way to find out what schools were really like! He had visited many other schools in Kamuli too. His report of K.P.P.S. was glowing and very encouraging!
He was most impressed with our pioneering work integrating deaf and hearing pupils in the older classes, and said he would like to see this happening all over Uganda.
His final verdict was that this is one of the best schools in Kamuli.’

Jacky has been well supported throughout the past six months by the strong leadership of  the school’s two Deputy Headteachers and the Leader of the Deaf  Unit. The staff work very hard, preparing lessons and the term’s schemes of work during their holidays.

June 30th 2011

In April 2010 an email was sent to some of the Ugandan students who used to live at Maria’s Care.They were asked if they would like to learn to swim on Sat Oct 16th in the pool at the Triangle Hotel. Of course many of the students jumped at the chance.

One email sent said “I love the October idea so much. Its so funny how I can say I love swimming when I do not know how to swim, I’ve actually never gone for swimming lessons and whenever Maria would take us out, we would only play with water at the very shallow ends. I would really love so much to go for swimming lessons but of course no one would think that’s important. Besides it costs some money….. I am so happy looking at the day we will be there….”

We asked local people at Church to donate swimming costumes and buoyancy aids. By the time we left Manchester and flew to Uganda we had more than 50 costumes for men and women, buoyancy aids and money to pay for all the students to swim. On Oct 16th we had a wonderful day. People from Maria’s Care joined us including a lady who used to help Maria Maw in 1994 called Aunt Rose, her daughter Julia and granddaughter Peace. They hadn’t seen some of the other students they had lived with in the orphanage for over 12 years. The shrieks of delight were heard as more and more students arrived from all parts of Uganda. Aunt Rose ruffled the hair of many students, she could hardly believe how tall they had all grown. We had a wonderful day, Moses and Edward learnt to swim, Mohammed, Nevi, Godfrey, Aunt Rose, Juliet, Peace,  Robert, Tom, Richard, Alex, Rebecca and her two daughters, splashed around and had a great time trying to swim. The whole day finished in the Upper Room at the Catholic Church having a time of Praise & Worship and food & fellowship. A great time was had by all during this wonderful reunion.

Katagwa Moses

Congratulations to Katagwa Moses and Kasenke Godfrey who recently graduated from Makerere University, Kampala. Moses was taken into Maria’s Care at a young age and did very well at school. He achieved good ‘O’ levels but then had to miss a year of schooling as at that time, no funding was available for him to continue further studies. Moses writes…” But as always God hears and answers our prayers. After a while two people came into my life and accepted to sponsor me. I talked to them of my dream to become a doctor…” So Moses was enabled to study for ‘A’ levels and to go on to University studying a Biomedical Laboratory course. “ I can work in hospitals, research organisations and standard medical clinics as a lab technologist and researcher,” he says. Although many years have passed since he was a boy, he has never forgotten the early days of Maria’s Care and the opportunity given him as an orphan in his life there.
He writes, “ Maria’s Care laid the foundation for us in Uganda and we are proud of CRU, Maria and Rhona. God is good as he creates a way in the desert and in the wilderness.”
Godfrey gained his degree in Information Technology, going on to work with computer software repair and secretarial work. He is pictured here in his new electric wheel chair which was taken out by CRU visitors last July. Their smiles say it all!

Moses and Godfrey Graduate

‘Seeing Maria’s Care environmental improvements was one of the joys of our visit to Maria’s Care IN September,’ say Roger Hand and Audrey Bomford – CRU Trustees.

New trees and shrubs planted, new paths and buildings painted

‘New trees and shrubs have been planted, new paths laid out and buildings painted. An air of excitement awaited the start of the new school term. We spent two weeks at Maria’s Care, visiting secondary and vocational schools to check on progress of CRU’s supported students.’  Teaching staff at KPPS, our Primary school at Maria’s Care, were preparing lessons. 98 of our supported children are pupils there. Supervisor Jacky Oba is doing a great job leading the whole staff and managing all aspects of CRU’s work to provide first class education, as well as support for needy children.
‘Our pupils are encouraged and taught how to care for their environment,’ says Jacky Oba. ‘They clean their classrooms at the end of each day and share the responsibility for plant care.’

Audrey Bomford and the Maria's Care staff

CRU sponsored pupils at Bugiri High

CRU sponsored secondary students enjoy the start of their third term at Bugiri High School. Here are some of the 31 students with Maria’s Care Supervisor Jacky Oba and CRU’s education co-ordinator Audrey Bomford, who visited Uganda in September. “The students you have sent us are doing very well,” says the Director of the school, “and they are well behaved too!” The school sends a bus to collects them from Maria’s Care each term, along with their donated requirements, for the 2 hour ride out to Bugiri. Most of these children have been sponsored by CRU since the early days in primary school. Funding for their education increases year on year, so thank you again to all who are involved in our sponsorship scheme.

Extra holiday lessons for the deaf and hearing children of Primary 7 at Maria’s Care KPPS school help prepare them for the November leaving examination certificate. Staff willingly come in throughout the holidays to do this. This science lesson is an example of the integrated learning of deaf and hearing pupils which is being pioneered at Maria’s Care. Michael teaches and Denis signs and helps individuals. Denis has recently joined the staff and is a great asset, being one of the best signers for the deaf in the country.
The curriculum is highly structured and there is pressure on all pupils to gain their Leaving Certificate with good enough marks to enable them to continue through Secondary Education. Deaf pupils have to take exactly the same exam as the hearing. The present P7 class has 57 pupils, which in UK terms may seem very large, but for Uganda, where many classes are over 100, it means children are more able to be assessed and helped in learning. Science equipment is usually cleverly improvised!

Extra lessons for deaf & hearing for P7 exams

The Library at K.P.P.S. Maria’s Care is in used daily and since its refurbishment, reading has improved dramatically especially for the younger classes. It’s a long journey to turn an empty room into a well equipped Library, but great progress has been made over recent months, thanks to supporters. Classes use the books regularly, including the deaf children, and clearly enjoy doing so! More furniture is needed, and the list of books required is unending!
These are bought in Kampala, gradually building up stock of literature and reading schemes appropriate for Ugandan pupils.

Library at Maria's Care Aug 2010