What an amazing week. Just back from co-leading an Edukid - Education for a Brighter Future trip of 33 students, aged 15-18, and 3 teachers to Uganda.
We spent 4 days meeting the staff, students and parents at Wilacic Primary School in Gulu, in the north of Uganda.
Whilst there we visited families living in extreme poverty.
Of the two visits I made, I met an 82yr old grandmother who was looking after 3 children after their father had died and the mother (her daughter) had died in childbirth.
The grandmother was too old and infirm to work, and relied on sporadic monthly payments of 20,000 shillings (about £4) from her son to provide for herself and the children.
The other family was a mother with 7 children from 20 down to 5 years in age. She had lost her husband to malaria.
She had had to take her elder children out of school to work to raise enough money to buy food and clothes. Each family ate just once a day, twice if they could make dinner leftovers stretch to breakfast.
We bought all families emergency supplies consisting of rice, maize flour and beans, and we were able to improve their quality of life by buying foam mattresses and blankets (most slept on the floor with a sheet).
We also paid to have a Banda roof replaced which was leaking. And to help provide a longer term income we bought goats and left each family with a banana tree to plant.
But most importantly, across the whole group, we were able to secure sponsors for 16 students which is humbling and amazing.
Education remains the single most important solution to breaking the cycle of poverty from which these families are trying to escape.
We met families who were prioritising school fees over food, such is the importance they place on the opportunity of education, something we take for granted.
As they say, one person can’t change the world, but you can change the world for one person. The students and teachers we took to Uganda did that 16 times over and leave with lasting memories and friendships! Fair play.
And on the way back we squeezed in a trip up the Nile and a morning safari. Hippos, crocs, lions, elephants, buffalo, giraffes, wart hogs and a hyena amongst others…..
Always a privilege and a pleasure to lead trips for Edukid. Next stop, Cambodia in October. If you’d like to learn more or join a future trip to Uganda, Cambodia or Peru, drop me a DM.