Provide Education Opportunity for Fifteen Children

Greetings to all our donors, friends and well-wishers. I hope this report finds you well. I took time off to re-read some of the reports that we have posted in the past and realized that sometimes we use concepts that might not mean the same things to different people. As a result of this, I would like to use this report to highlight the issue of food at the Children's home. 

For most of the year, our main food is cassava flour bread as the base and beans and groundnuts as source (gravy). The children do have beef stew once a week preferably on Sunday if the budget allows. Fish and chicken never make it to our menu because they are expensive. Some times, we prepare cassava roots, Pumpkin, sweet potatoes, and green bananas as the base. Each meal is accompanied with some vegetables, usually cabbage and dodo. We also maintain a small vegetable garden but this depends entirely on the rains so as to avoid the water expense of watering the garden during the dry spells. The children eat basically to survive and there is nothing fancy about the food at the home. 

We prepare our food with the help of a charcoal stove and sometimes use firewood on the open fire stove outside the house when we are not in position to get the charcoal. Yes, I am well aware of the environmental concerns associated with charcoal and firewood but gas and electricity for cooking are way beyond our budget. Besides, most households in Uganda use charcoal and firewood to prepare their meals. 

All the children who live at the house have breakfast and lunch at school and it is not much different from what they would have at home. This comes at an extra fee but it is so worth it because the children are sure of lunch unlike if they had to walk back home and there was probably nothing. Over the weekend, the children have sugarless maize porridge, lunch and supper at the home. Depending on the food situation, sometimes the children will have a cup of porridge to double as breakfast and lunch and then wait for supper in the evening. All the chi9ldren have the weekdays supper at the home. Food items like bread, butter, sausages, hotdogs, eggs and many more are never on our food menu all year long. The children sit on the floor and eat "communally"  (as indicated in one of the pictures) save for the two young ones who may not be able to cope with the eating speed of the bigger children. 

Food is a very big component of this project and there are times when the source of the next meal is a nightmare! That is why your donations mean so much to the children and the project because you help us provide the children with much-needed food items. During the school term, It is important for us to be able to get food for 12 people and this number raises when the children in boarding school come home for holidays. the next time I make a food request or talk about food at the home, you are now in a better position to understand what I am trying to put across. Always help us to keep our food store stocked. We appreciate your support.  

I would like to extend my greetings to all our donors, friends and well wishers. As you might already know, I have been away to Sweden since August 2017 and I am happy to report that I am back to Uganda, and to the project and the Organisation having graduated with a MSc. Development Studies of Lund University. I am looking forward to utilising the knowledge acquired to further improve on the operations of NAF.

My time in Sweden was very productive and beneficial to me as an individual, the project and the Organisation at large. As a Swedish Institute scholar, i directly donated over half of my stipend for the entire time i was away for studies to ensure continuity of the project. I must admit that we curently have fundraising challenges partly as a result of inadequate manpower. We are continuosly trying to have this challenge adequately dealt with in the near future.

Since my return, I have been trying to reconnect with the children, staff, suppliers and now the donors. We are currently laying strategies for improving on our online fundraising for the project and dealing with some of the current challenges such as school fees as we map a way forward for the project. The project remains relevant to the beneficiaries and I am happy to report that we grown the number of the beneficiaries  to 20 children, 13 of whom are residential  and the other 7 are being supported from their respective homes. It is with your support that we are able to continue shaping these childrens future and we thus are grateful and request for your continued support to the project.