October 2011

Dear Friends and Supporters

It is hard to believe that Christmas is just around the corner – yet again! Shops have been displaying Christmas cards and other seasonal goods for some time now and it just seems like last month when we were celebrating Christmas 2010! However, perhaps time flying is simply a symptom of the hectic pace of our modern life style. However, we trust that you had a good summer and that you are prepared for colder and shorter days ahead, whatever the weather may throw at us this winter!

For a variety of reasons we were not able to pay our usual visit to Uganda this year though we are planning to travel there in February next year. In spite of this, we are glad to report that all the partner organisations with which we work are doing well and they continue, with your help from this end, to make a real difference for those in need in Uganda and Rwanda. Thankfully the famine in East Africa hasn’t caused a shortage of food production in Rwanda or Uganda but it has still had a major impact – especially when food is sold to neighbouring famine-hit countries, leaving shortages at home and hiked prices for what is still available. Fuel prices have also risen, as they have world-wide, and this has the result of increasing transport costs and the inevitable price rise for all commodities. So life in Rwanda and Uganda continues to be a real struggle for the majority of people who are now endeavouring to stay alive by eating the most basic of food which may not be very nutritional. Somehow, such situations help to put our own recession problems into perspective!

Just to bring you some news from some of our partner organisations.  Students at Daystar Christian Secondary School, Hoima, continue to work hard and gain encouraging results in external exams. Thankfully they are still able to offer “O” and “A” level Sciences due to the help they have received from RMNIT to purchase the necessary laboratory equipment. The school farm has been producing maize at harvest time which is so useful in feeding both day students and boarders and helps to save a lot of money. They have future plans to install a milling machine for their own use and also for producing bran which could be sold for animal feed but this depends on the provision of the necessary finance. Next growing season they hope to grow some beans as well. The bakery is now operational, producing bread, scones and cakes which can be sold to raise some useful finances for the school. They have registered with the Department of Food and Nutrition to allow them to produce such bread for commercial consumption. Some of the students are hired to work in the bakery during the holidays. Again, there are plans for expansion when finances are available.

At Butangaala, His Grace Ministries continues to expand under the leadership of Charles Mukungu. The little Primary school is providing a wonderful education opportunity for an increasing number of children and their newly built accommodation is making such a difference. You may remember that some of the classes had no classrooms of their

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His Grace Primary Construction                Pupils At Jinja Agricultural Show                    At Radio Station For Debating

own and had to meet outside, some under a tree, which was not very comfortable when the weather was wet or windy. Thanks to the generosity of our supporters they now have 2 blocks, providing 5 classrooms, in use and a third block only requiring roofing. This latest block is designed to be multi-purpose which can be used for church activities/assembly hall and can also be sub-divided to act as classrooms during the week. Under guidelines emanating from the Ministry of Education, they have started up a number of extra-curricular activities, including scripture union, a writing club, debating, scouting, guides and music/dance clubs. The debating club recently enjoyed a visit to a local radio station where they took part in a debating competition. Also some of the children had a real treat when they visited the Agricultural Show at Jinja where they learned about farming methods and saw some snakes, lions and ostriches for the first time. A Community Day saw the children visiting local families where old and needy members were helped with fetching water, cleaning around their compounds etc This is a wonderful opportunity to teach the children to be responsible citizens. Of course, there are still many needs and challenges such as the need for the completion of the interiors of all classrooms, a security fence around the school, the provision of first aid materials and trained personnel and the provision of lightning conductors due to recent lightning strikes at schools in which some children have been killed! Again all these needs are dependent on finances becoming available.

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           HDU’s Chicken Project                          Nutritious Eggs For The Children                    Surplus Clothes For Sale

We wish to thank those of our supporters who provided such a bountiful supply of really good quality used children’s clothes which are being sent to Hope and Dignity Uganda where they have been so much appreciated. They have been distributing these clothes to needy children and the surplus has been sold to raise extra income to help with the children and families under their care. Their chicken project is doing well and it allows them to provide nutritious eggs for the children and sell off the surplus. Here they have plans for setting up vocational training schemes for children who are less academic and could benefit from learning a skill which could sustain them in later life. The vocational route is something which we are encouraging at all our partner organisations as we feel that it is not fair or cost effective to keep paying academic fees for less able children. We trust that our sponsors will be happy to fund this option rather than continuing to pay school fees when we explain the situation to them.

At Compassion Driven Ministries, a Children’s Day has recently been held whereby as many of the children as possible who are sponsored through RMNIT had the opportunity to come together. They were able to write their Christmas cards and present their school reports for their sponsors, play games and, of course, have a meal together. This gave the children the chance to socialise and made it easier for the sponsorship feedback materials to be collected.

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      Writing To CDM Sponsors                       Enjoying Lunch At CDM Party                        Quenching A Big Thirst!

We are currently encouraging our partner organisation to look to the future where they could sustain their sponsorship programmes independently. With this in mind they are all looking at possible projects/ventures which could be established with a view to self-sufficiency. We trust that we may be able to support them financially in any viable projects which they feel they could establish through time. Such projects would act as a type of insurance for the future operation of the various organisations and, ultimately, the sponsorship of the children.

Adam Hayes had a most successful return trip to Uganda earlier in the spring and we are grateful to him for his efforts to raise finances to help some of our partner organisations when he visited them. He provided a wheel chair for a disabled girl at Butangaala as well as providing a water tank for use by the church and school at both CDM and HGM. At Ggaba, he bought chairs for a church women’s group and visited Loving Hearts Babies’ Orphanage where he was able to supply some nappies/wipes as well as food. Last year, Adam was part of a group which provided a new home for a blind lady and this year he was able to pay a return visit and bring her some bedding and food supplies. You can read all about Adam’s visit on our website which is now up and running again, thanks to two of our friends, Brian and Jonathan. Please do have a look!

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Supplies For Babies’ Orphanage          Adam Presenting The Wheelchair          Headmistress Proud of New Water Tank

Just to let you know that you can now donate to our charity by text – any sum from £1 up to £10 at a time. So if you are wondering what to do with that loose change which you have been saving, here is an idea. Simply text RMNI11, followed by a space and then your amount to 70070. Your donation will either be added to your phone bill or deducted from your phone card as the case may be. Simple as that and, remember, every little helps! Details can also be found on our website.

Another new fund-raising idea is Cash For Clobber, a Cookstown based recycling organisation which pays cash for all types of clothing - www.cashforclobber.com.  We thought that we would make an appeal from our more local supporters for all types of clothing, bags, shoes, hats, belts, towels, curtains and bed linen (no soiled items, duvets, blankets or pillows). If you have any such items which you are wishing to dispose of and would be willing to donate to our charity, please get in touch and we can arrange to receive your goods. Good for the environment as landfills are reduced as well as pollution! We will enclose a leaflet which gives more information about this for our more local supporters. Please note that this is a separate collection from our good quality children’s clothes which we are still collecting to send to Uganda. Just a reminder also that we still take your used computer cartridges and old mobile phones for recycling.

Yes, Christmas is coming again! We would encourage you to use our Alternative Christmas Gift Scheme again this year – order form attached. If you have not used this scheme before, perhaps you would like to try it out this year? It is sometimes hard to know what to buy a friend/relative who already has everything , so here is the easy solution – buy a needy family/child in Uganda a gift and receive a card explaining what you have done on their behalf instead of giving them a present. Why not go down this route this Christmas and bless someone in real need? We look forward to receiving your order form! We would also take this opportunity to thank you most sincerely for your interest and support throughout 2011 and to wish you and your family every blessing for Christmas  and the New Year.

Ian and Phyllis

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To download a PDF file of this newsletter, please click on the link below. This will allow you to print it out to pass around friends or colleagues, or allow you to email the newsletter to others. Look out for the next newsletter issue, due early next year.

newsletter attachment: 

October_2011_Newsletter.pdf