Happy Christmas 2024

Thank you for supporting Unity is Strength this year. We wish you all the best for the festive season and for 2025! Please read on to see our highlights of 2024. 

We are absolutely delighted with the work we’ve been able to achieve this year. Thank you so much for your support, we couldn’t do it without you. Here are our highlights for 2024.

KAASO purchased 9 acres!

Of course, the land purchase has been our biggest excitement of the year! It was fantastic for Dominic and the team at KAASO to be able to identify a suitable piece of land to invest in. We are so pleased that this idea, which came about when Rob and Lizzie visited KAASO in March 2023, has come to fruition.

Now it is the Christmas holidays at KAASO, the staff are enjoying working the land. With kind support from the Grail Society, KAASO has the funds to start the land preparations. This involves clearing shrubs off the land, digging holes for planting the banana suckers, adding manure to the land for fertilizer, weeding, digging trenches for water and manure retention on the land, and purchasing and planting the bananas.

Following this, they will be ready to plant the coffee seedlings in January just before the rainy season starts in February. Thank you so much to everyone who purchased coffee seedling vouchers for your Christmas cards this year. We raised a total of £680 in vouchers, which is 1,267 coffee seedlings!

KAASO-Dep is now a key part of life at KAASO!

The KAASO Staff Development Association (KAASO-Dep) issues microloans to individuals and groups working at KAASO to run small businesses to supplement their salaries.

At the beginning of August, we received a report from Dominic on how each of the projects were performing, which you can see here (scroll down to second part of blog post).

The part we enjoyed hearing about most in Dominic’s report was that now the Chair Hire project is performing so well, funds raised from that are being added back into the ‘Loan pot’ rather than requesting additional funds from Unity is Strength. This shows the long-term sustainability of this initiative, something we are always working hard with Dominic and Rose to achieve.

Dominic is in the process of writing another report on the KAASO-Dep projects to showcase recent updates. We look forward to sharing this with you in the near future. 

Congratulations to Dominic on receiving this award!

Dominic recently received this Vocational Award from the Rotary Club in recognition of his contribution towards education and economic development in the local community and the country at large. Well done, Dominic! 

Another £25 raised for FREE on Give as you Live!

Thank you for shopping via Give as you Live for Unity is Strength. Another £25 is heading our way for FREE! If you haven’t signed up yet, get started today on Give as you Live. 

A lovely story from Emma’s visit to KAASO

In November, the KAASO volunteer coordinator, Emma Outteridge, visited KAASO with her husband Nath and two sons Jack and Charlie. In her email update while she was there, Emma wrote about Brenda, a former KAASO student she had met in 2009. It is such a beautiful story, we wanted to share it with you. 

Brenda, written by Emma Outteridge

“We met in 2009 when she was 6 years old and she’s now 22 and recently graduated with her Certificate in Fashion & Design. Within months of graduating, she had already opened her own workshop, renting a space in the shops across the road from KAASO where she now sells clothes and does repairs as well as making clothes to order. Her business is going so well that she’s soon moving premises to Kyotera, a town about 20 minutes from KAASO where there’s a bigger market.

As I walk with Brenda through the village to her workshop, her long braids swinging down her back, wearing a beautiful dress she made herself, people call out in greeting to her everywhere she goes and you can see how loved within the community she is. We arrive at her workshop where upbeat Ugandan music pumps out from her little speaker and when Brenda sits down at her new electric sewing machine, gifted by her sponsor, and flashes me her enormous smile, it’s hard to hold back my tears of pride and love. The little girl who, in the years we have known each other, has lost her father, her mother and her beloved jajja, the grandmother that always supported her, has come so far.

I meet Lukia, a young girl of around 16 who, unable to pay school fees, dropped out of school and is now Brenda’s student. Brenda proudly tells me how Lukia pays her to train her so that she too can become a tailor. Together they make their way through the orders that keep flowing in which often have them working late into the night. To say I’m proud is an understatement.”

Dominic and Rose, and all the staff at KAASO work incredibly hard to give children like Brenda a fantastic education. Your support is helping with this every step of the way, thank you! 

Total raised this financial year

Since 1st April 2024, we have raised an incredible £14,782.88! Thank you so much, we appreciate your generous support. 

We hope you enjoy the festive season. Wishing you all the best for 2025.