I’ve now visited 110 countries. I often get asked about my favourite place and that is a very hard question to answer as everywhere is completely different and has it’s individual charms.
If you asked me who my favourite humans were then Ugandans would spring straight to my thoughts, they are so welcoming, humble and kind and go out of their way to look after their neighbours. The world could learn a lot from the Ugandans.
One of my dear friends in Uganda appeared in my life when he was working at the campsite my overland tours used. A lot of people visit The Kabale region en route to trek out to the Gorillas.
Mathew has now been involved for 10 years with a community primary school up in the mountains. There are around 500 people in the surrounding villages and 220 pupils at school, part of the the katungu needy and orphaned children’s project.
With the COVID situation and lockdown continuing, many Ugandan residents are fearful they will die of hunger rather than the virus. The residents are hand-to-mouth and live off the ability to travel into town centres every day, something they can now only do in an emergency.
30 of the schoolchildren are orphans, with ten currently sleeping in a small dorm at the school and the other 20 living with families nearby.
The people in the villages are very poor and running out of food, even the simple maizemeal porridge they live on. It costs just US $1 or 80 pence a day to care for a child, that’s just enough food, with a little for medications and soap and sanitizer.
I’m asking you as my friends and travel buddies to reach out and help these villagers.
I myself have visited the school on three occasions, the last time in 2014.
Mathew and his team of teachers do an amazing job for this community and right now they are struggling as the funds have almost run out.
People like myself sponsor the children, and as very few tourists hear about and then walk up to the school there has been some funding through social media to build more permanent classrooms that won’t be washed away by the next heavy rains. Building work was halted at the start of lockdown and the money raised for building has now been spent on food and supplies, not only for the orphans staying at the school but for the poorer families in the community who desperately search to find food. Maize porridge mixed with water.
Please I ask you my friends to share a coffee or a glass of wine with me, but as we cannot meet up can you please offer that small amount of a coffee or small lunch to help these lovely kind and desperate people in Uganda.
The reason that I plan to collect any monies given and then forward it on to the project is that I discovered when I was sponsoring 5 year old Emmanuel last year that if I transferred $50 monthly, it would incur $20 of bank fees each time from the Ugandan bank.
I paid a yearly amount and that gave the project more cash and the bank only $20 and not 12x that.
Thanking you all in advance and hoping to see you all and travel with you again soon.
Uganda is one of the worlds most impoverished and least developed countries with many people living below the international poverty line.