We’re not going to detail all the work done by the wonderful team during two weeks in June, just highlight a couple of activities, though we may add more later.
Our little school has grown to three classrooms. The new one had no blackboard, so we organised that. The papyrus matting walls on the older part were looking very sad, with holes in places where the pigs were running through, so we bought and put up new mats, and on the kitchen. Last year’s fence was obviously not doing the job of keeping out the roaming livestock, so we put chicken wire around it. We also put up a new gate on the schoolyard, and little half-doors for the classrooms. In the kitchen we put up a serving counter, to keep the little children away from the hot fire and porridge pot.
We still get really annoyed at the school days lost each month by young girls with no knowledge of, nor facilities for, how to deal with their periods. Even if sanitary towels were locally available, they seldom have money to buy them. One solution is home-made, reusable towels, so we brought out patterns and materials, and taught the mothers how to make them. We also brought out a lot of towels that were made by volunteers in Ireland, and gave a set to the each of the young girls, with lessons on how to use them and look after them.
Sewing those pads by hand is not easy, so we bought the ladies co-op a sewing machine, one of the old Singer-design treadle-operated ones. They need some skill to use and maintain, so we organised a tailor to come from Masaka for a week to teach them, and also to teach basic dress-making skills. We hope that, from now on, the school uniforms will be locally made. Subsequently, we bought them a second machine and arranged further classes.
In the slideshow, if you put your mouse over a photo it will show a caption. I think you only get proper captions with the pro version of NextGen Gallery.