A report from Moses Kamya, Director of Mustard Seed School:

“Thanks to help from UHST supporters from East Anglia and elsewhere we were able to buy uniforms for our scout troop and pay for them to attend the national scouts competition held between 8th and 14th August 2014.

Out of more than 40 patrols from over 50 districts of Uganda, our patrol comprising exclusively girls (called the Cranes) emerged in 2nd position. Our scouts are very grateful for the support from friends in the UK which enabled them to register such a brilliant achievement.

As a result they have been chosen to represent Uganda at the East African zonal scouts jamboree to be held between 27th Dec 2014 to 8th Jan 2015 in Kigali, Rwanda. The children are very happy with their achievement. It has made them more than confident that the Mustard Seed school in Busota has the potential to face a greater challenge from scout groups from other countries in the region: Rwanda, Burundi, Congo, Southern Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania.

However, given our limited resources, these scouts will not be able to go to Rwanda without financial assistance from our supporters abroad. It wll cost 8,620,000 Uganda Shillings (£2,200) – to process immigration documents, transport, register, feed and maintain 13 scouts and 3 staff for the camp which lasts close to two weeks in Kigali.”

UHST can justify finding part of these costs from current reserves, but we will need to raise at least a half of the costs from new donations. If you would like to help us to send the scouts to the East African Jamboree then please send cheques to: UHST Scouts Appeal, 31, Greenmeadows Road, Madeley, Crewe, CW3 9EY, UK. Please add a note with your name, address and email so we can acknowledge your donation. If you are a UK tax payer it would be helpful if you would write to say you give us permission to reclaim gift aid on your donation.

Alternatively you can donate through the donation page of this website. Please add in the message space “Use for Mustard Seed Scouts“.

Work is now well advanced on two new hostels for boy students. One is being constructed on the site of Isaac Newton High School (Kateera, top) and the other on the upper school site of Mustard Seed School (bottom).

There is a strong demand for school accommodation. Many students live a long way from school and families believe that boarding on school premises offers a safe environment with access to study facilities, including the library and computers, in the evenings and at weekends. Experience from the girls shows that the performance of boarding students in national examinations is higher on average than that for day students. Boarding is essential for the most needy students, especially for those orphans who have lost one or both parents.

While each school already has a good quality hostel for girls, 40 or more boys are currently using make-shift sleeping arrangements in rooms designed as classrooms. However, after a successful infrastructure appeal, our supporters have provided sufficient funds through many small donations and a small number of substantial donations to construct the two hostels. Each hostel will have 10 small rooms – 8 for family groups of 6 students and two sleeping rooms for supervising teachers.

The boys will be able to use the toilets and wash rooms that have been constructed over the past year.

Moses Kamya says, “The boys are very happy seeing their dormitory under construction. Many are booking rooms in advance. Those in S4 and S6 are lamenting that they may not sleep in the new hostel before completing final year UNEB exams. I am however assuring them that before leaving, the hostel will be complete. We are being bogged down by the heavy rains coming almost daily but, hopefully, we shall reach there.”

Here is the latest message from Peter Kisirinya, Director of the Isaac Newton Schools, on how he has been working hard to fight the threat from evil spirit rumours at the Humanist School at Mbute.

“The situation has calmed down and since the incident reported in the previous post.

I have been sleeping at the school, on the floor of the kitchen storeroom* to demonstrate that there are no evil spirits to fear. The concern goes back many years when Mbute Hill used to be the site where witch craft and rituals were performed – long before the school was built.

I have had several meetings with parents, students, teachers and local government leaders of the area. They have shown a lot of support for the school and we have set up a committee headed by the PTA chairman to visit the homes of our students to reassure families.

We have invited the local community to an open meeting on Friday next week. At this meeting they will have talks from lecturers in Psychology from Kyambogo University school of Education. The Education Department at the university has set up a team to allay the fears of the general public on issues such as witch craft and exorcism in Ugandan schools and to share research findings. In some parts of Uganda there are still instances of children being abducted from schools and taken away for ritual sacrifice. The government is fighting a national campaign against such practices (see campaign poster).

The meeting will be attended by the Mpigi District Inspector of schools and the Head of the CID at Kammengo Police. Moses Kamya, from Mustard Seed School, will also come to give his support by speaking about the rational and caring philosophy of Humanist schools.

Now the school is well fenced there is little worry about security. However, I am proposing that as a matter of priority we seek funds from supporters to construct some teachers’ housing on the school site. Having people sleeping on the site will reassure local people that evil spirits are not still in the place.”

*When sleeping on the floor of the kitchen with no bed net, Peter was badly pestered by mosquitoes and he is currently suffering from malaria.