WOW ... I HAVE BEEN REALLY REMISS IN SENDING A NEWSLETTER!
However, when you hear all the wonderful news since earlier this year
I hope you forgive me!
All of our dreams can come true if we really pursue them.
Walt Disney
CHRISTMAS IN JULY
This
week the children will be celebrating their Christmas at the school.
(The reason it is so early is their school is over around our
Thanksgiving time.) Each girl will receive a new dress and each boy a
new shirt plus a "goody" bag with sunglasses, stickers, pencils,
crayons, and candy. The children graduating from P-7, the staff and our
children in secondary school will receive shillings. Of course, they
will have a big cake and wonderful lunch to round out the celebration.
MEDICAL CLINIC
The
medical clinic is done and we have added a four unit mini-hospital so
we can handle child births. One of our nurses is a mid-wife so Geofrey
is getting permission to do that. They have a complete staff and are
turning a small profit. Remember my original plan ... to teach them how
to be entrepreneurs and how to be self-reliant? They are on their way
STUDENTS
This
is the exciting report. We currently have 1,024 children enrolled in
the school (12 years ago it was 439), we have 89 in Secondary School and
three in college. Our primary 7 class is 93 students, of which 31 are
orphans. Assuming all our P-7 children pass their country test they will
be going on to secondary school which means we will have 120 children
in S-1 to S-6. The really GREAT news? Our students in college are
graduating this year! Two will be teachers and one will be an
information technologist ... how exciting is that!!!!
CHOBANI YOGURT
Thanks
to Chobani Yogurt we have consistent electrical service in the clinic
because they graciously donated money to install solar. It is in, it is
running and I am waiting for one more picture to send them the full
report.
TRAVEL AGENTS FAM TRIP
As
the retiring President of the NE chapter of the Association for the
Promotion of Tourism to Africa I wanted to share the school with some
travel agents and show them how to promote Uganda and voluntourism to
their customers.
There were five, one of whom was Robert Eilets, an
AWESOME photographer. We covered Murchisson Falls, Queen Elizabeth
National Park, the Bwindi Forest and the gorillas, Lake Mburo and the
school.
Our school was wonderful as usual and what fun it was to see
these faces of the travel agents when they first encountered 1,024
students singing and dancing as we arrived. Then, they did a GREAT job
explaining their crafts and why we have the chicken farm. I was like a
proud mother hen!
AMAZON SMILE
Do you buy from Amazon? If you do they will donate to Sylvia's Children if you tell them to. Just go to Allenconsulting.com and scroll down on the left hand side, click on the Amazon Smile link and you are ready to help! It is really easy!
MONMOUTH UNIVERSITY
Four
years ago Monmouth University had a Sylvia's Children display in the
exhibit hall outside Pollack Auditorium. We will be doing that again in
the fall of 2015 with the focus on the growth of the school and the
various entrepreneurial efforts that are making the school a financial
success ... chickens, medical clinic, crafts and widow's sewing club.
Will let you know when we do the grand opening of the exhibit!
MATTER (FORMERLY HOPE FOR THE CITY)
Thank you Megan and Dennis Doyle and, of course, Mike Muelken.
From the children at the Mbiriizi Advanced and Primary school and those of us at Sylvia's Children (Michele, Tony and Sylvia)
Best wishes for a happy Thanksgiving, joyous holiday season and a happy new year!
Sylvia's Children, 89 Middletown Road, Holmdel, NJ 07733
732-946-27ll/Sylvia's cell 732 241 1144
No comments:
Post a Comment