Thank you for donating to our Covid Relief Fund! 💛

At the beginning of June, Uganda re-entered a national lockdown as Covid cases were rapidly rising. All schools had to close again, which made an already difficult situation even more challenging for those at St Paul KAASO.

One of the biggest challenges facing KAASO in this lockdown period is the ability to retain its excellent teachers.

Pre-Covid, KAASO sustained itself through an impressive balancing act where fees paid by those who could afford it covered the costs of orphans attending the school, as well as helping to meet some of the school’s running costs. However, since the pandemic set in, many of those who did pay can no longer afford to do so. This has put KAASO in a difficult position as they no longer have the same level of income they once relied on to keep the school in operation.

Dominic, Rose and others at KAASO put a huge amount of time and effort into mentoring and developing the teachers, but when the school is unable to pay a reliable salary, the teachers are often headhunted and go elsewhere.

In light of this, we launched a Covid Relief Fund that will go directly towards covering the costs of teacher salaries and wages for non-teaching staff at KAASO (matrons, cooks, gardeners and administration staff) during this difficult time.

Some of the funds will also be used to help set up income-generating projects for the staff to get involved in, which will be managed by core staff at KAASO. These include:

• Piggery and goat keeping
• Poultry
• Brick/block making
• Nursery bed for coffee and eucalyptus seedlings
• Crop farming – passion fruits and other fruits

We’d like to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to everyone who has donated so far. We’ve been completely blown away by your support.

In under two weeks, we raised £3,363.39!
Thank you so much!

2020 Accounts published

We’re excited to let you know that our first set of accounts and Annual Report are now available to view on the Charity Commission website.

Please do have a read through and let us know what you think. We’d be very interested to hear your comments and answer any questions you may have.

You can get in touch with us any time at info@unityisstrength.org.uk.

The Boys’ washroom is nearing completion!

In our last post, we included an update on the funds transferred to St Paul KAASO in May to help with repairs to the Boys’ washroom. It is great to see it taking shape in these photos. The roof is now going on!

Between Two Worlds – have you got your copy yet?

The book, Between Two Worlds, written by Emma Outteridge (the KAASO volunteer coordinator) is in bookshops all over New Zealand and can be ordered online from the Book Depository or on Amazon Kindle.

Spanning a decade, Between Two Worlds chronicles Emma’s journey from wide-eyed volunteer to someone whose life is deeply rooted within her Ugandan village community, with St Paul KAASO at the heart. She finds a way to marry her two worlds, building a bridge between the international sailing community and a rural East African village.

If you do get a copy, please send us a photo so we can see how far and wide the KAASO story is reaching!

A portion of the proceeds from each book sold will go towards St Paul KAASO. 

Finally, Dominic and the KAASO community send their thanks and good wishes from Kabira village

Dominic and some of the staff at St Paul KAASO working in the gardens due to the school closure.