To our Esteemed Sponsors, Brothers, Sisters and Friends,
The NEEPUganda Directors, Nyamabuga Foundation Schools Management Committee, Board of Trustees and staff would like to say HAPPY NEW YEAR and to thank you all for your continued effort to assist us. Though many of our sponsors have again dropped, we thank God for the many blessings He has bestowed upon us through the turbulence of 2013.
Here below is our report of our accomplishment for the year ending 2013.
The Primary School Building
The Primary school building is now complete and the children are enjoying the airy classrooms, clean walls and cemented floors. Attached to the school building we have completed four stanzas of guests’ toilets to avoid school guests sharing the latrines with the school children. At the moment we have embarked on creating a green environment where we are planting green grass and trees all around the school compound where we are going to make a Signs of a Talking Compound as required by the Ministry of Education.
The Secondary School Building
We are once again believing God to bring to us a donor to come to our rescue to start the construction of a well-structured building. As of now we are still accommodating students in a make-shift wooden structure. This has stagnated the growth of the Secondary school, which is not attracting parents to bring their kids to us, but prefer to take them to well-structured school buildings elsewhere. This temporary shelter for the kids has not affected their academic performance, but some parents don’t perceive it that way.
Text Books
Our thanks goes to Bro. Lance and Christie Thollander of Hope Builders In Virginia. In October they sent us funds worth 5k to purchase text books, which was a great assistance for both Primary and Secondary. In 2008, Bro. Roland and Sis. Linda bought most of the text books for Primary and Secondary school. After 5 years, books for the primary kids were already wearing out, and at the same time the Ministry of Education changed the Curriculum. So we found ourselves in a dilemma, as the old text books needed replacement, plus those which the Ministry of Education added on the curriculum. We still need to top up text books and sock Secondary laboratory equipment desperately.
Boarding
We ended 2013 with 86 boarding kids and we are expecting 160 kids beginning with February 2014. The parents who entrusted us with their problematic children, through prayer and trusting God, saw their kids were transformed and there was great improvement in their discipline and academic performance, so the parents are encouraged. God is doing a great work in Nyamabuga.
Through word of mouth and Nyamabuga kids radio programs, where they were invited to air live discussions concerning the problems facing children’s education in Uganda, it has built trust in parents to bring their children to the School. On various Radio stations, they listen to their own kids articulate their voices on air as they contribute, appeal and encourage parents to join Nyamabuga kids to build the nation.
The topic the children discussed which moved people was “good learning environment encourages good performance.” These are the kids who were once vulnerable to all the ills of village, life of parents living in abject poverty and of drunkards.
Once again in November our secret donor in Baton Rouge funded the boarding house for the Secondary kids, who have been accommodated with Primary kids, which was not appropriate. The two big boarding rooms for boys and girls, matron and patron extension, four stanzas of bathrooms have been constructed and we are now flooring and plastering. The dormitory will be ready for occupation by 1st February 2014, at the beginning of a new term.
Clean Drinking Water
Since my last communication we reported that our same secret donor funded the construction of an Under Ground Water Tank to hold 100,000 liters of water. To our advantage, when the contractors were excavating, they extended it by an extra 58,000, as God saw that we needed a 158,000 liter water tank. The water is harvested from the School building roof all around. We finished all the underground work and attachments late and missed the September- November rain season, but we are expecting the March-May rain season to do us good. We have also constructed another 10,000 liter water tank to support the cistern.
Grain Mill
After all the contributions and offering I collected on my April – June trip to the U.S. and that which was sent to me later, the Grind Mill House is complete. We are in the process of a 3 Phase power instillation. We have already lodged our application and a survey was done, now we are waiting for the Power Company to come and start wiring. We hope to mill our corn of this season in our own Mill.
Again our gratitude goes to another secret donor lady in Baton Rouge, from the beginning I under estimated the grain Mill house. As we started to construct it more expenses were coming in and I was shy to appeal for more money but took it in prayer to the Lord. This lady had her ears to heaven; she sent us the right amount to complete the flooring, plastering and power installation, and pay for charges for the 3 phase power installation. We are now left only with constructing the Grain Mill workers quarters and a chain link fence to keep the intruders out.
Computers
We had Pastor Dennis, Sis. Jill and a team during the first week of November 2013, they brought us four lap tops and a projector for the school computer Lab. The team was with us for three working days, it was tremendous. Bro. Kirk trained secondary kids and their instructors in computers.
Clinic
The team brought us a good stock of drugs where Sis. Jannelle set us a clinic and trained our staff to dispense drugs. Now we are proud we have a functioning clinic with a register. We are grateful to you all in the States for your generosity since 2007, 2008 and 2011 when we started receiving medical and dental teams led by Sis. Teresa Skinner. Nyamabuga Primary School has never been the same.
Furthermore, since 2012 when we opened the boarding section in the school, the challenges multiplied, because we have to take care of children who are away from their parental care, so your assistance of stocking us with drugs has worked miracles. In March 2013 when the team from Maryland, led by Pastor Matt Hall and Sis. Alisa Albers, brought us a good stock of drugs and vitamins, with all these we experienced a breakthrough: our kids never got sick throughout the two terms, they looked healthier than when they first came from their homes and their performance was livelier.
Evangelizing/Training
In the November trip there was blessings upon blessing, Pastor Dennis and Sis Jill brought us training Manuals which were left behind and now they are being translated into our local Dialect. Bro. Dennis trained the men and Sis. Jill trained the women; this was the first time for people in the village to have a training like this. It was such a blessing. Many people are going to benefit from these manuals as they will read and understand the pros and cons in their own language.
As a school programme we have continued to lead, guide and direct our children into the ways of God and the results so far are good. Many children from Islam and cults have completely changed and now have formed groups of praise and worship teams. They pray daily at 5:00 in the morning to start the day, and at 8:00 pm as they retire for the night. They have chosen their own leaders to conduct services with the supervision of the matron. On Sunday’s after service we have special sharing hours from 11:00am to 2:00pm and in these sessions I conduct Biblical questions /answers or counseling and prayer, alternating every Sunday, which has caused children to open up for prayers and deliverance. This in particular is for boarding kids only.
From 21st – 25th January 2014 we are going to hold a 5day residential Seminar for Church Leaders and Youths. The evening of the 24th and 25th we will hold a big crusade in Nyamabuga Trading Centre to evangelize all people in the community and neighboring villages. We have a key Christian district government official and a strong Anti-Gay Pastor who will be one of the Seminar facilitators.
Sponsorship
In our last report we mentioned we had 50 children with committed sponsors. At this time the number has dropped even lower, we are now remaining almost with 40 serious sponsors since we have changed from Sponsorship to Scholarship, according to the last report I got from California. Our gratitude goes to our beloved sponsors who continued to send their sponsorship, though they were informed that either the kids they were sponsoring graduated and left for higher levels or left the school for one reason or another. God has used you brethren to save us the embarrassment, the teachers’ salaries have been paid up to December and we have no arrears.
The Farm
The farm work has gone on steadily closing 2013. We have plowed more acreages of corn, we are going to triple the harvest this season, already in the first field all the corn has been dried and cut down. We managed to grow more sweet potatoes, cassava and have revived our banana plantation, which we had undersized to minimize the cost of laborers. We are planning to give a cup of porridge to our day school kids when our grain mill starts operating.
We have sold the goats as their yield was so low and were making loses and increasing expense to pay for herdsmen, so we purchased a cow and some sheep which are easy to keep. Now we cleared a piece of land and placed the cows and sheep there.
Our farm has been a blessing in many ways: it supports the boarding section, feeding program, the community and evangelization. Whenever we have big evangelical gatherings, and funerals, we have food available to feed people.
We are thankful to God for the wisdom He gave us about the monkeys and porcupines, which used to destroy the crops after putting in much effort, time and money. These animals could eat more than what we harvested, however, this time we managed to rear dogs and tie them in strategic corners of the fields. For two years now we have rested, our crops are not destroyed. The porcupines have been killed and a good collection of quills gathered to make my beautiful jewelry, except my fear is that the porcupines are getting less and less. In the next years to come I will have to look elsewhere to get quill material which is the main component in my jewelry making.
Crafts
This has taken another big turn. We have turned the basket weaving from the women to the school kids, as my time with women was getting divided into many programs in the school administration, evangelization and farm. But now the emphasis is put on the girl and boy- child training in crafts. In our NEEPU manifesto, we wanted to start a school to change the norm and culture of government schools who considered educating a kid and forgetting that not all children were going to join college or go to work in offices. Therefore, our idea was to train a girl and boy-child in craft skills too, in case if they do not make it along the way, they can produce something out of their hands for survival.
Now Nyamabuga boys and girls have been trained in mat weaving, basket weaving and paper beads skills. We are training the kids to collect and produce local materials themselves, design and create the finished product.
Finally we want to say “THANK YOU” for standing with us, otherwise we would not have experienced all these achievements without you.
May the Good Lord bless and keep you in this New Year.
Gertrude Kabatalemwa
On behalf of the NEEPUganda Directors, Nyamabuga Foundation Schools Management, Board of Trustees and Staff.