Children grow up fast. I saw the children in Pastor Geoffrey’s house on zoom last week and they’re getting taller all the time.

It was November 2019 when I was last there. I’m still hoping we’ll be okay to go in November but nothing is certain these days. 

The school was gradually opening up by year group and by the end of June the Primary School would have been fully open. Unfortunately Uganda suddenly received a notice of closure on Sunday 6^th June.

School uniforms ironed ready for Monday……then Presidential directives on covid-19:

1. All churches to close for 42 days starting tomorrow
2. All schools to close for 42 days starting tomorrow all teachers must be vaccinated if they are to teach.
3. Public and cultural gathering suspended for 42 days

This came as a shock and at some schools children turned up to find the school closed.

On the 19^th June covid measures were further tightened causing great hardship.

Like the UK, this second wave has hit harder than the first and we don’t know when things will ease. So far all our children, teachers and families are well but again this lockdown makes it difficult for people to work. 

Transport is not allowed so we can’t access the food we have on the farming land.

School Bus

Thank you for your support, your donations  – monthly and otherwise.  It is very much appreciated.  It’s life changing.

Helen

In the February Newsletter I showed you pictures of two new classes being built. To comply with social distancing regulations, the classrooms have to be bigger for the number of pupils we have.

The good news is that building work can continue in lockdown so this is an ideal time to build more classrooms.

We’re going to build another five classes so that we will have P1 to P7 classrooms all compliant with the regulations.

What’s happening to the original classrooms?

They were part of the large building we have and were divided up by wooden partitions into the classes.  This is no longer suitable. 

This building was also church with the partitions pushed back but now we have to separate because of covid regulations. 

It will now be used as church and the education authorities have agreed that it can be used as an examination centre for the area because of its size.

Church is part of school and school is part of church

This is what we built according to our vision. They exist together.

We wouldn’t have had a school without the church as vice versa. 

The church and church family have been the mainstay of the school. The hand of God has been upon everything we’ve done and will do.

Prayer has been behind every success.  We do it by faith and God has been faithful.

This is the architect’s drawing of the new school block situated on the level piece of land that you see in front of the school. The plans have been approved by the local council and the engineer is ready to proceed. We’d like to do this work before the school reopens in September.  Once this has been built we can apply for an examination centre licence.

The cost of these 5 new classes will be 50 million UGX which is just over £10,000.

How are we going to do this? We need a miracle. 1 million UGX is about £200 so we need 50 people to donate £200 or 100 people to donate £100 but whatever you are able to donate, please help us to do this. It’ll make a massive difference and be a huge milestone.

We plan to have three fundraising events in the near future to support the school in its day to day running: 

A wine and cheese charity evening at Karin Affi’s home on Thursday 29^th July from 7.30pm. 57 Huntsfield Close, Lymm, WA13 0SS. Tickets are £10 each. We need to know numbers so please email to confirm.

Tea/coffee and cake charity afternoon and evening event at The Brewers Tap in Lymm.
Dates to be decided after we open up and I’ll contact you with dates when I can.

The object of The Helen Margaret Owen Foundation is to advance the education of the children attending Kirinya Children’s Centre by the provision of funds for education, training, and by prevention and relief of poverty.