We started in Baale by organising transport to the nearest government medical clinic, and are continuing to work on the health of the village with a regular visit from a doctor.

The provision of clean water, and the re-commisioned toilets, should help reduce the incidence of dysentery and water-borne disease.

But long-term solutions to poverty must come from education, and there is no school in Baale, and the nearest one is well over an hour’s walk away, and is fee-charging. Very few of the children were going to school, as the fees were beyond their reach. We started a sponsorship programme for these children immediately after our return from Uganda in 2013, and now have about 20 56 (2017 sponsorships) children going to school. There are plenty more in need of help …

For primary children, a year’s school fees, and copy books and pencils, and uniform, and a mug of porridge every morning, costs €55. We arrange that the sponsor gets a report from the school each year, and if the child is not attending they lose their sponsorship. When we visit Uganda we take photos of the children to give their sponsors, and get them to write a thank-you letter.

Some children are in boarding school, and although it is more expensive, it is educationally better, and for young girls safer. Sponsoring a child in boarding school costs €150 per year.

If you might be interested in sponsoring a child, use our contact form to ask for further details.

For the younger children school is too far, so we have put up three four temporary classrooms in the village – poles, a tin roof and papyrus matting walls – and have employed  three four teachers. God willing, we will replace it with a permanent structure in a year or so.