"Green meals" help 170 kids in Uganda study

As the year winds up I have good news to proclaim; the kitchen for which so many of you have made a contribution has been completed! We were able to give it a big push when we got an important contribution of a visitor who came to see us at the school. Combined with the money we raised through the global giving site we managed to get it all ready before the end of the year. A few weeks before we finished the school year (December 10^th), we were able to try it out and everyone and especially the cook, is very happy with it. No smoke, no open fire, easy to clean and secure so that pots and pans can stay inside, these are some of the great advantaged the cook mentioned. Of course the kids are happy and proud too and they love queuing to get their plate. Have a look at the pictures to see for yourself! Next year when the school has started again I hope to post a video clip of the kitchen in action on youtube. I will keep you posted.

In the coming year I will modify the project a little bit as we will continue to need money for the meals and to support some of the kids from extremely poor families.  Over the last year we have made considerable progress in many areas. Very few kids left school, the overall performance has improved greatly, parents and guardians get more involved and staff is highly committed.

Other great news is that we got funding for a pre-primary class we hope to start somewhere next year. Many of our children in the first year are not really at the entry level of primary one. Fine motoric skills, understanding of basics like many/few, big/ short, heavy/light are lacking and very are able to recognize numbers. Our primary one teacher has a hard job teaching kids who have so different levels of understanding. With our pre-primary we will be able to prepare children well for primary school.

Financially we also managed to raise all the money (30.000 $) to run the school. The financial report will be available shortly and I will gladly share it with you. In February a Dutch school teacher who came twice before, will come again to help us for a few weeks. At the request of our teachers her focus will be on teaching mathematics this time as well as some new creative ways of engaging children. We look forward to having her around.

Let me end by wishing you health, inspiration and friendship for the year 2011 (and beyond of course) and once again thank you so much for your ongoing support. Do not hesitate to let us know if there is anything you would like to know more about. I will be more than pleased to give you the information you want.

Warm regards,

Theo Groot