Changing Children’s Lives
Children are at the heart of our work. We have come a long way since the opening of the first nursery class in 2012, which provided very small children somewhere safe to play and learn while their parents worked in the fields.
Child Sponsorship
One of our primary aims is to help the many desperately poor and vulnerable children in the Rwanyana area. To achieve this, we have developed a child sponsorship programme, which started in 2012 has grown to now provide vital support for 70 children.
The sponsorship enables the children to attend Bevan Community School where they receive an education and two nourishing meals every day. This is life changing for the children, who often have no other source of food. The children thrive from feeling supported and send grateful thank you letters about themselves to their sponsors.
£25 per month provides schooling, food, uniform and emergency medical care for a child in desperate need. Learn more about our child sponsorship programme here.
Special Needs Group
In 2022, we got to know some of the children in the area with special needs and from this a weekly supportive play group was started in the village. The group is run by Nurses Brenda and Juliet with help from George and Dinah. They run a friendly and welcoming group where children of all abilities are valued and cared for. The group supports 17 children and their carers and offers play activities, one to one therapeutic exercises, peer support, health checks, porridge for breakfast and a simple lunch.
This is innovative practice in Uganda where disability is often taboo and people with disability are not supported by society.
Blessing comes to the group every week with her mother from their home on the far side of Lake Bunyoni. Blessing loves the group and her mother says she is now able to do more for herself, such as eating and drinking, sitting up and now starting to stand and take steps using bars for support.
The Hostel
We are immensely proud to support a hostel which provides a loving and secure home for sixteen vulnerable children who are either orphans or come from families who are unable to care for them.
For a number of years some of these children had been living in the family home of Rwanyana Community Project Director, Spencer and his wife Peninah. Then, in 2018, a very generous donation from an individual supporter enabled us to build an annex to house them.
The children range from age 6 to age 18 and live as an integral part of the family, happily sharing chores and eating evening meals with them. All of the hostel children attend Bevan Community School where they are happy and thriving.
Sanitary Provision
One of the issues for girls in developing countries is getting adequate access to sanitary provision when menstruating. Disposable pads are expensive and difficult to dispose of and as a result, girls often do not attend school for up to a week every month.
We have, in the past, trialled homemade, washable pads but these are difficult to dry in the humid mountain air. We now have an initiative to provide menstrual cups to the girls as a sustainable solution, which is being led by Brenda, the community nurse.