Cannes Youth group volunteering in Uganda

UGANDA 2019

In July 2019, it is the hope that we can raise enough funds to send nine young people from Holy Trinity Cannes, aged between 14 and 18, to Uganda to work as volunteers in Ruhanga Development School. If we can raise enough support they will be flying via two countries and then travelling overland for over 6 hours, taking supplies and equipment for the school. Ruhanga Development School is a non-profit making establishment, which caters for the educational needs of 550+ pupils. The school has over 250 boarders living on site. These children are those who either live over two hours away or are in their final years of schooling and live without electricity at home to assist with homework. If you want to read about the school at a later time, the link is below:

http://www.ruhanga.com/ruhanga-development-school/

Farming is the main source of income for the families in this area and for many of the children it is their life and future work. Awareness is growing in the area, as to the value of an academic and vocational education for all children, both to educate the current generation and to raise standards in the region for the future generations. The school asks all families to make a small contribution for the education of their children, but no child will be turned away due to lack of money. For some children, if it were not for the mug of porridge provided by the school for breakfast they would not have anything to eat until they return home for their evening meal.

The school relies heavily on the financial support of donors for their building projects and (minimal) teachers’ salaries, and it is also dependent on the physical help of volunteers. For that reason our nine young people, accompanied by four adults, hope to be spending 16 days volunteering at the school and the neighbouring Medical Centre. They will be helping with English teaching, homework, crafts and sport. If our young people can raise sufficient funds they will also be helping build a vocational kitchen in which vital cooking skills can be taught by local people, to local people with the potential of creating an income generating road-side restaurant also run by locals which will help fund the school.

Building friendships and sharing across continents is an important part of learning about, and respecting each others cultures. The school is keen for our young people to visit and share in the life of Ruhanga, and we believe this will have a lasting impact on them and provide a wonderful opportunity for them to help and learn from the people they meet.

Our nine young people are a dynamic bunch – Anglophone and fully bi-lingual. All are throwing themselves into fundraising activities in order to make this trip happen. Fundraising is including selling bacon sandwiches and Sunday dinners, gardening and working to raise money. They are doing their best to raise enough funds on their own but we will also need your valuable support in helping them reach their goals. The flights are reserved but as yet not paid for and without help this trip cannot happen. We would be so appreciative if you would please consider supporting our project financially and in doing so bring help and opportunity to the children of Ruhanga.

We will do our very best for this project to be a success and with your help we believe we can do it. Thank you very much.