Project updates and the grand opening of KAASO Main Hall 🎉

We’ve had some great updates from KAASO over the last couple of months which we’re excited to share with you. 

The income-generating projects continue to thrive!

We are delighted to let you know that the income-generating projects (piggery, poultry, brick-making, to name a few!) that were set up in July 2021 in response to the ongoing national lockdowns in Uganda are all doing well.

Despite the challenges the piggery faced earlier in the year, this project is back on its feet and KAASO are bringing in some money from sales of pork. There are now 26 pigs and 17 piglets, which are all doing well. In October, they sold four pigs for slaughter for 1,365,000 UGX (approximately £323), which is a good price in the area.

KAASO Music Festival

The brick-making project is going from strength to strength. Dominic used the money made from the sale of bricks so far to buy more land and expand the project. This is land that he will own entirely, reducing the burden of renting the land to run the project and increasing the project’s security. An added bonus is this new bit of land is also better suited for brick-making. 

Finally the rains have started so work can begin in the gardens. Normally, the rainy season starts in early September, but until last week they’d only had a bit of drizzle. KAASO had stayed strong and held off planting the coffee seedlings before the rain came. Now they can be confident the crop will do well. 

With food costs sharply rising in Uganda, it is more important than ever for KAASO to grow its own food to supplement the students’ diet.

The teachers and staff at KAASO now have a chair business! This is a project that Dominic has wanted to run for a long time. Community events are popular and there’s always a need for chairs. We provided the funds to buy 200 chairs which they can rent out to bring in additional income for KAASO.

We had a catch-up with Rose about how they were getting on with it so far and she said, “It’s such an amazing project, we thank you very much. They have been rented out twice and it’s going so well.”

Nothing is ever wasted at KAASO!

It is brilliant that KAASO is now wooden bunk bed FREE! The children and staff are so excited and so thankful for all of the support and donations made and will now have a good night’s sleep in their new metal bed frames. 

The old wooden beds will not be wasted; they are being put to good use by friends of KAASO making them into chairs, tables, wall rails and bookshelves for the school. 

Emma’s Outteridge’s visit, September 2022

We loved seeing the photos of Emma Outteridge’s recent trip to Uganda. Emma (the KAASO Volunteer Coordinator) was there with two volunteers from the organisation KATKiDS to officially open the KAASO Main Hall, the new hall latrines and the 8-room teacher housing block. 

Read more about her visit in her beautiful blog post.