In Someone Else’s Shoes

If you think life is difficult financially, you might like to put yourself in the place of Beatrice Nansamba, who is the head-teacher of our school in Bwaziba in Uganda. Because of an issue with collapsing latrines, she wrote to Raymond recently to say that the school was in danger of closing. All for a lack of £1,900 to complete the project. This is a large sum for a school in Uganda. As Andrew pointed out last week, our congregation had been very generous with regard to our Jar of Grace this year, with record-breaking giving. And, of course, we were right in the middle of our renewal of giving.

So, despite the urgency of the situation, we limited the information about this situation to those who had been to Bwaziba, and those schools which had been visited by Paul Kakooza when he was last in Britain. Would this be enough?

Increasing in partnership

The answer was a definite “Yes”. Haydon Wick and St Francis School together produced over £700 in gifts from parents and children. This was largely the result of a non-uniform day. In addition, the mother of Steph Mundin, the young teacher who recently died, sent £300 in her memory.

With additional gifts from church members, we now have, with tax credits to come, a total of £1,977. This is a remarkable figure, and demonstrates that the first time how our partnership with local schools can have a positive financial benefit in Uganda.

We should not underestimate what has been done. Without this rescue operation, the school would have closed. This would have deprived many children of an education, and the teaching staff would have lost their jobs. So, there is real joy in Luweero this Easter.

One of the wonderful things to come out of this was the story of Freja, a young girl in Haydon Wick school who was upset at the idea of the school closing, that she ran a cake stall and made £10. She gave it all to the project.