Our Projects...
 

Since Sally and Jayne left Uganda in 2016 they have been motivated to lead many projects in aid of Education, Empowerment, overcoming famine, poverty and building more schools, homes and doctor's surgeries for the Ugandan people of the Teso district. Together, with the events committee, WI, partnership schools and members of the community we have begun work fundraising to make our mission a reality. Please find out about our past and upcoming projects and events below. If you would like to get involved in a future event or have any ideas or support you can offer our cause please do not hesitate to get in touch. Thank you.

 
Education, Children & Teddies

Find out more about our work sending teddies to children in Uganda!

Find Out More

Fabulous fundraisers!

See what individual fundraisers have been doing.

Find Out More

Women Empowerment

Women empowerment work, underwear donations, fashion shows and more.

Find Out More

Community Action

Find out more about community efforts that have been taking place.

Find Out More

Education, children and project teddy
 

We were put in touch with a number of schools in Teso Uganda including a school on a small swamp island. The schools varied from having classrooms and resources to only having sand and trees! We wish to support these schools and their children in a number of ways:

  • We want to help provide homes for the head teacher and teachers at the school
  • We want every child in every school to be fed
  • We want to work with key educators to introduce more creative ways of teaching in Uganda
  • We want every child to be able to drink clean water
  • We want to help many teachers and children's journey to schools. For example, we have now bought a bicycle for a teacher who previously had to walk 20km everyday to school whilst carrying her baby.
  • We want young children to be able to play and explore in a safe and secure environment




    •  



Project Teddy

We took our school mascot from our Ruddington based school (Ruddy Bear) to visit the country and report back to our UK children about what he had seen. The children in Uganda had never seen a bear before and were scared of him (indeed there is no word for bear in the their Ateso language). When we showed the children that they could cuddle him they did not want to let him go. We promised them we would bring them a bear back next time we visited. Well, we have managed to do better than that! ​

The children at our school each donated a bear to the cause. The local WI, members of the church and sewing groups managed to sew little bears which were then sponsored and sent out – each with a message of love tied around it’s neck. Sally’s Mum sewed over 200 of the bears! These bears have helped to raise over £2000 (in addition to the £5 000 we’d raised previously through bake sales and bingo nights) to provide bricks for a classroom and morning porridge (posha) for the school children on the island. It has been lovely for our village children to give something that means so much to them to a third world child. So many lessons have been learnt through this small but important act. Our children are realising how lucky they are not only to have toys but to have clean water and an education. ​

The bears (nearly 1000 of them) were delivered for free by DHL. ‘Project Teddy Bear’ has been on the BBC local news and radio! We have just received beautiful photographs back of the children cuddling their new bears. Certainly a few ‘happy’ tears were shed when the first photos were emailed to us from Reverend Charles! For most, this will be the first time that these Ugandan children have received a gift of any kind. Bears, although not as important as food and water, are so important to these children. Many of them are orphans and need an emotional attachment. They will teach the children how to interact, play imaginatively and the little children can grasp, chew and manipulate these toys. We are hoping to launch Project Teddy Bear again next Christmas. We are already stock piling bears for sponsorship. If you would like to make some bears for us please use this pattern.

http://www.prima.co.uk/craft/sewing/news/a22006/teddy-sewing-pattern/
If you would like to sponsor or adopt your own bear please get in touch via email.


 
Teaching Conferences


Tisai Island School and Surgery

After a moving visit to this area in July, when we witnessed children being taught under mango trees, drinking dirty water and suffering from famine, we have managed to improve the children’s outcomes. Not only have we managed to get a water harvester to the school so the children have fresh water instead of the dirty swamp water, we have also managed to build a surgery and school. No easy feat on a swamp island with few facilities or resources. Not only has this been possible due to the incredible generosity of our community and schools, but also down to the hard work of Reverend Charles and his team. It would be incredibly difficult to drill a borehole to create a well on the island due to the water level so the best means of procuring water is through harvesting rain water, which once boiled, is safe to drink. The wonderful charity TDT, alongside Rev Charles, are looking into further ways of providing water to the islanders. The bricks for the school and surgery had to firstly be hand formed from the island’s rich, clay like soil, mixed with cement and then coated in mud and fired. Charles and his team made over 20 000 bricks over a two week period when they stayed on the island. They wanted to show the people on the island that with hard work the incredible is possible. The surgery now means that medical facilities and medicines can be safely stored on the island. It also means that nurses and doctors are more willing to visit. Previously surgery had to take place within the patient’s mud hut. The school means that learning can take place in any weather! Previously, during the rainy season, children’s lessons were often cancelled. It also means that resources can be easily displayed and secured. We will continue to support this school and surgery. We will be sending out boxes of resources to them at the end of April and fundraising for furniture.​


Church of Uganda Aterai and Olimai Nursery Schools

Rev Charles values the importance of nursery education, and has had the foresight to use the local churches as schools during the day time when they are not in use. This is a new initiative in Uganda and helps ensure that the youngest children develop the foundations for learning. Whilst visiting these schools we engaged in learning through songs, games and fun with the children. We taught them parachute games and number songs. We have been invited back to hold conferences for early years teachers next time we visit. We hope to take resources with us to help promote the concept of learning through play to the teachers. We had a wonderful time visiting these schools and the children’s singing was beautiful.


The Vineyard School – Soroti

We have linked James Peacock Infant and Nursery School with this fabulous school in Sorotiti. Unlike the schools we visited in Teso this school is relatively well resourced and advocates many creative learning styles. We linked with this school because it has the facilities to regularly share ideas and keep in contact with us. Our children have exchanged letters with the children at this school and we have fundraised for a fabulous new classroom and dormitory for them. The classroom is memory of the wonderful and inspiring Millie Etanu who was the founder and director of this school. She started the school from humble beginnings in her front room and now it is one of the leading schools in Soroti. Sadly Millie passed away last year leaving behind a young family. Her husband, Edward, continues overseeing the school. We visited a fundraiser at the school in July 2016 and loved being entertained by dancing, singing and speeches. We made a speech and not only presented the school with a wonderful peacock wall hanging made and overseen by the talented Julie Allen from James Peacock School, but we also donated £1000 towards the cost of the new classroom.

We look forward to lots of exciting links with this school in the future
Further schools we supported:
We visited the following schools during our summer 2016 expedition:

Women empowerment and 'Knickers for knowledge'


“It is no accident that the countires that have enjoyed an economic take off have been those that educated girls and then gave them the autonomy to move to the cities to find work” - Sheryl WuDunn ‘Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide’.

 

Many girls miss out on education in Africa, and this is a particular problem for the Teso region Uganda. Not only are they needed at home to help run the household, and therefore their education is deemed to be less important than a boys’ education, but they often miss important exams due to their periods. Without adequate sanitary protection girls are unable to attend school during their menstrual cycle. They often become behind with their work and miss exams. They are consequently held back a year and eventually drop out of school due to school fees and being held back.

During our ‘Knickers for Knowledge’ Fashion Show we asked for donations of new knickers and bras in good condition. We were truly inundated. DHL are kindly shipping the goods over to Rev Charles to give out to girls in his region and the bras will of great value to the women of Teso. Many do not leave their houses due to lack of bras. Charles is running courses on sanitary protection and with our donations hundreds of girls may now be able to get a decent education.

'Knickers for Knowledge' was a hugely successful fundraising event taken place in St Peter's School in partnership with James Peacock Infant School, organised by the Mustard Seed Events Committee. We organised a fashion show with all proceeds from tickets and the 'Bra Bar' going directly to Uganda. We raised well over expected amounts... so much so we can now afford to build a new school, a doctor's surgery AND feed children for a whole year!

“When women gain control over spending, less family money is devoted to instant gratification and more for education and starting small business'’ Sheryl WuDunn


Links with Nottingham University

We are excited to be involved with an Arts and Humanities Research network bid with Nottingham University, the Institute for Social Transformation in Uganda, and Moi Unversity in Kenya. We will be working with Doctors Masiblo Lumala, Lousie Mullany Green and Roshni Mooneeram. We aim to deliver conferences in Uganda concerning strong, contemporary females in African society, and how these women can be used as a model for empowerment. We hope to do some research on women who have overcome oppression and use the information collected to produce literature in both written and graphic form to disseminate to females in Uganda and Kenya in order to endow them with a vision of empowerment.


Our work with woman empowerment is only just beginning! We cannot wait to see where this project takes us!
James Peacock Infant & Nursery School and St Peter's Junior School.

Sally and Jayne Henson, as well as some members of the Events Committee are teachers at James Peacock Infant School. James Peacock Infant school has partnered with St Peters on numerous occasions to fundraise for Uganda and teach our pupils about a different country, culture and way of life.

We believe educating children in England about children less fortunate or from another country is key to broadening their understanding of the world. Children can learn a great deal about the similarities and differences between where and how they live in comparison to an Ugandan child. In the past, for some of our students, we have sent letters to children in Uganda and these pupils received a reply from the Ugandan children.

We are so grateful for the never ending support that teachers, parents and the pupils give this project. From designing our logo, to baking cakes for our cake sales the fundraising driven from our community is outstanding.

More fundraising events and fabulous fundraisers!
 

Here are just some of the events we have held so far to raise funds:​

  • James Peacock School's 50th birthday raised more money for school building's and a surgery in Tisai Island.
  • Julie Allen and Ruddy Bear were crazy enough to jump out of a plane in order to raise cash.
  • ½ marathons and 10ks – This year we put together a team to raise money by running ‘The Robin Hood Half Marathon’, also joined by children and Ruddy Bear who completed the fun run. Together the team raised just over £3,000 to help support our latest projects. Sally completed 4 ½ marathons and 3 10k races last year, including The Great North Run, and was kindly sponsored by friends and family.
  • We released 'Sing Around The World', a cd of singing arranged by Ali Dee, featuring children from James Peacock School and St Peter's School, Ruddington.
  • Bingo Night – A evening of fun, wine and fab prizes was held at James Peacock School in May 2016.
  • Dressing up days and cake sales during the summer of 2016- Children donated £1.00 to wear what they wanted during a special ‘Ugandan Day’ when they spent the day making African drums, masks and mud huts. We made a wonderful amount at our cake sale for Uganda due to peoples’ incredible generosity.
  • Project Teddy
  • Talks at local churches and at Shelford WI
  • A fantastic fashion show, raffle, and raffle for a fountain of fizz! Wow! This fabulous event in March really touched peoples’ hearts and we were able to fundraise over £5500 to build a school and a surgery on the swamp island of Tisai.