Cows, music and honey!

This month we have news of more additions to KAASO’s growing sustainability projects and some news closer to home that you may find interesting (especially if you have a sweet tooth!).

KAASO cows

KAASO has welcomed eleven cows to their grounds, including three calves. Three of the cows came as gifts from parents of children at the school as thanks for all that KAASO has done. The cows’ milk is being used to enrich the students’ diet and some of the animals will be later used for meat instead of purchasing from the local butcher.

KAASO cows

One of the animals is a mature bull donated by another parent. They made the donation after learning their daughter had won the school’s head prefect election (no small feat!). The cows are free to wander the area surrounding KAASO, grazing the bushes roundabout and sometimes visiting KAASO hill.

The music festival continues

Following our mid-month email about the Uganda Primary Schools National Music, Dance and Drama Festival, you will be pleased to hear the children of KAASO are raring to go!

The competitions started in Kyotera on Monday 25th July and will be running over the next month. The finals will be taking place from 14 – 21st August and KAASO are hopeful they will be able to repeat their amazing performance from previous years – taking 7th and 8th places in 2018 and 2019 respectively.

Check out the video below for some footage of their training:

In partnership with the KAASO volunteer co-ordinator, Emma Outteridge, we launched an Appeal to help KAASO cover the costs of participating in the Festival.

Everyone at KAASO has been working hard to pull together the funds needed to make this dream a reality for the students and enable them to travel firstly to the local rounds in Kyotera, and then to the later rounds across the country.

The ‘KAASO Old Students’ gathered on KAASO’s Visitation Day and contributed 4.2 million Ugandan shillings (~£900), the school itself has been able to contribute 8 million (~£1,700) and the parents have so far contributed 1.3 million (~£300). There is still around 14 million UGX remaining (~£2,800) to enable them to compete in the festivities which include the whole group staying away for 8 days over the finals.

We have already raised an incredible £1,014 thanks to your generous donations and for sharing the message with your networks!

Let’s help get KAASO over the line and enable them to participate right up to the national level!

Honey time

We are excited to share the news that for the month of July, we’ve had some bee hives on our farm in south Shropshire. We were approached by West Coast Apiaries who were looking for some sites for their hives over the summer before they move them onto the heather. The bees have been very busy and have produced 340kg of honey!

We are trialling selling some of the honey and giving the proceeds to Unity is Strength. To kick off this project, we are running an event at Pollardine Farm with West Coast Apiaries on Sunday 14th August from 2-4pm as part of the Shropshire Love Nature Festival.

There will be talks on hive management and a demonstration of honey extraction, with a chance to try and buy some of the Pollardine Honey in aid of Unity is Strength!

For more details and how to book, please visit our Eventbrite page >

Honey event poster

Bunk bed fundraiser – complete!

Last but certainly not least we are delighted to let you know that the bunk bed fundraiser started last Christmas is now complete 🎉 Thanks to your generous donations, the amazing work of Emma Outteridge, and brilliant efforts of Luke and Carly who recently volunteered at KAASO, there are now 240 double decker metallic bunk beds installed!

Bunk bed fundraiser