Holiday Break in Serere

22 Sep Holiday Break in Serere

Yoga Noi! Greetings from Village2Village Project!

Typically I have been using this blog around the times when I am traveling to Uganda, however, I am going to begin publishing more consistent Village2Village Project “goings on” here. I hope this will provide another way to keep you informed, and give you a picture into the life changing work we are privileged to be apart of. You will be able to find notifications and links of these posts by subscribing to this blog, through our Facebook page and Twitter @V2Vproject. I welcome your comments and feedback.

The Village2Village Project children have been on holiday in Serere for several weeks in August and have just completed making their way back to school. (Different schools start at different times so our staff is busy for weeks shuffling children back to their schools.) On holidays, the children have the opportunity to visit with their guardians and family members, help around their compound at home, and visit with their friends-who-are-family at the Village2Village Project site.

Please keep the children in P7 (primary 7, or seventh grade) and S4 (senior 4, or eleventh grade) in your prayers. They will be studying for their National Exams and will take them before their school year ends in December. The scores from these exams determine what secondary schools the P7’s are able to apply to, and what “track” or course selection the S4’s will receive for Senior 5 and 6. So, for example, if you are hoping to be an engineer, but do poorly in maths and sciences, secondary schools will not offer you an array of courses to continue pursuing that education and future career path. These are very important for our children, so your prayers would be wonderful.

For the primary students, we have hired a tutor during holidays to come to the site to help the children work on some of their basic skills and fill any gaps they may be missing in school. This helps them prepare for what is to come in secondary school and their P7 national exams. VERY exciting!

Here is a picture of the blackboards our team devised for the classroom.

And, the best part of all (in their minds) connecting with their friends, and having permission to “be kids” and play.

Here, the secondary students are helping the primary students to write letters to their sponsors. The primary students sometimes have difficulty writing in their second language, English, or articulating what they want to say. It’s a great opportunity for the two groups of children to work together supporting each other. If you are interested in partnering with Village2Village Project in our work, or becoming a child’s sponsor, click here.

Everyone pitches in to help around the site, mutually contributing to the Project. Here staff and children work together to help plow the garden for planting. The food grown here is used to cook for the children.

And, speaking of planting, you will be happy and thankful to hear that the rainy season has begun in earnest and has been bringing consistent rain (but not too much). At this point, some cassava is able to be harvested for those with low stores of food, and fast growing “greens” that Ugandans use in their cooking are also ready. So, this is a blessing!! (For those of you who weren’t aware, our region of Uganda and further east experienced flooding when crops were seedlings, then a severe drought — stunting any crops that had survived the initial floods. The result was that people were beginning to suffer from lack of food, including starvation. So, everyone is very thankful for the rain, allowing people to plant and start over. Approximately 86% of Ugandans live in rural areas and rely on subsistence agriculture.)

As the children prepared to return to their schools, Village2Village Project purchased their required supplies, and the secondary students worked together to divide and distribute them. QUITE a project!!

Here are some of the secondary students with their supplies.

Thank you for your prayers, love and support for the Village2Village Project children.
Together we are giving them an opportunity they otherwise would have never received. Additionally, the sense of community they experience as “Village2Village Children” gives them confidence, support, love, guidance and a safe place to turn. To join us in changing the lives of the children in our program, impacting the future of their families, community and country, click here to go to our “How to Help” page.

With thanks.