Sunday, September 23, 2007

Great News From Sylvia

Today was a VERY special day ... Tony, Claire, Joe, Doug and I had a whole church service to promote Sylvia's Children! (Michele was racing, but did all the graphics and display boards which were wonderful.) And, we served an African dinner and sold many of the Ugandan pieces that we were given by the school. The total money was $11,130 with one check for $10,000 to be used in any way we see fit!

This covers the land that we purchased and I have HOME AWAY FROM HOME ACADEMY raising 1,000,000 pennies which will give us $10,000 for the books! Now, we need to get 123 of the children sponsored. Michele has been working on the brochure and her friend will be sending me a final pdf that we can print in 8-1/2" x 14" which I will then forward to you for printing. She is also having them printed and I can send some to you.

Special thanks to our wonderful travel agent - Sally - who made the rice and beans for today's feast! Thanks, Sally, for your love and kindness and generosity. And Doug is vindicated ... everyone LOVED the Matoke which he made!

Lastly, Tony has applied for a grant from Met Life for books for the library. It will be anywhere from $250 to $1,000 ... keep your fingers crossed it's the top number!

Thanks to all of you for continually thinking about and helping Sylvia's Children.

With love, Sylvia

Monday, September 3, 2007

Update On Sylvia's Well!

Currently Sylvia's Mbiriizi Primary School in Masaka, Uganda, Africa has 805 students of which 205 are orphans who live "on campus". Their current water supply is rain water or sending children with large yellow water cans to a local stream.

Our plan is to put in a well (a deep one so the water is clean) with a hand pump. For those of us in the U.S. a hand pump is a thing of the past; for Africa it is a luxury. The school had a recent outbreak of dysentery (bad water) which necessitated hiring a nurse. With the well, we can eliminate that problem.

According to estimates the total cost is $9,500 which covers all permits, permission from the government, drilling, installation of pipes and, of course, the pump. This work will be done in December during the "dry" season.

Prototype Of Sylvia's Well

The kindness and generosity of the folks we are are working with is deeply appreciated by Sylvia and, of course, the schoolchildren and its headmaster, Geofrey Kawuma.