Bwindi Celebrates Clean Drinking Water!
Thank you so much to everyone who contributed to the water well project. We’ve got clean water!
Children’s Trail
Projects You Can Help with in 2021
We at BUCC are excited about 2021 and the possibilities it brings. We have a number of key projects being planned for 2021 and they are listed below:
- Increase Orphan support – $504 per child annually. Includes housing, school tuition, 3 meals per day, school uniform and clothing.
Sustainable Agricultural Workshops. These will be held in January 2021 to teach villagers how to grow a sustainable garden to feed their families. We are partnering with Healing Hands International to conduct these workshops.- Water Well and supporting infrastructure – See here.
- Medical Clinic with medicine closet, isolation room, water and exam room – $6,500.
- Kitchen Completion – $5,000.
- Playground Equipment – $3,500.
- Toilet Expansion – $5,800.
- Security Fence – varies depending upon the type of fence. $3,500 to $8,000.
None is more important and far reaching than providing the Bwindi ECO Children Uganda main campus with a permanent supply of drinkable water and the ability to share it with the local Bwindi community.
Start Helping The Bwindi Children Today.
Christmas Party
Thank you so much for the special Christmas gift! We were able to buy new Christmas clothes for 100 orphaned children. We can never stop saying thank you for the wonderful support. The photo shows some of the children in their new Christmas outfits.
Blessings,
Francis.
Bwindi Partners with HHI for Workshops
Bwindi was excited to partner with Healing Hands International to host its first two Sustainable Agricultural Workshops in 2021.
The workshops were geared toward help local parents with income training, specifically pertaining to agricultural methods.
“It was an enjoyable training and I am sure our parents will put all they trained in into implementation. It was so nice of you to support us in this.” said Director Francis Byamukama.
We also want to thank Healing Hands International for their partnership in hosting successful workshops.
Bwaswa is located in Bwindi in kanungu district; this village is located 9km from Buhoma where Bwindi junior school is located. It is far deep on the mountains and the entire communities are farmers growing Tea as a major crop and bananas. These particular workshops was mainly attended by women with only few men. Here is the reaction of the participants;
Arinitwe Hope is married with two children and she grows tea and bananas this is what she said “This method of farming has come to improve our financial status and increase our house hold income. For so long we have been growing tea and forgetting food crops because we lack the skills but now we have it we shall now grow both tea and vegetables and also practice the composting method to improve our soil” thanks HHI.
Akankwasa Juliet” I am here for this training because of the pain I go through as a mother to feed the children, my husband focuses only in growing his Tea of which the money materializes after a long time but remember every day the family needs to eat so because of that am happy that I have learn a skill that I can use to grow vegetables for the family and sale Part as my husband grows the tea.
Looking Forward to a New Year and New Harvest
Our gardens are doing very well. We are yet to receive our first harvest, and are anticipating some great savings in food expenditures from growing our own produce. More on that hopefully by the end of January.
Photo 1 is plot 1 with a garden of mature maize ready to be harvested two weeks to come.
Photo 2 is plot 2 maize garden mixed with rice. It will be the next to harvest.
Photo 3 is plot 3 Maize mixed with young cassava. After harvest of Maize cassava will be left in the garden to mature for the next 4 months.
Photo 4 is plot 4 where we have planted fodder for feeding goats.
All the orphans and vulnerable children we have on the list are returning to school. We will share some new photos and info of new children coming to Bwindi in January. New children equal new sponsorship opportunities. Contact us if you are interested in becoming a sponsor.
The seven girls are doing fine. Two of them will be graduating from primary school this year and will be joining secondary school. The other five will still be in primary and their fees do not change. For the two joining secondary school, they will require $900 each for the 2021 school year.
We encourage all sponsors to send their support for fees in early January at the latest, to enable us plan effectively for next year. The next school year begins January 11, 2021.
The staff, the school nurse, the farm manager and the entire school community are all doing well. All of us love you so much. With your valued assistance we look forward to having a colorful Christmas party! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Upper Grades Back in Session
Dear Supporters,
We are happy to inform you that with authorization from district education department our school has opened for 3 upper primary classes, i.e p.4, p.5 and p.6. All other lower primary classes will wait until mid-January 2021. Enjoy these photos of our happy children attending classes.
Covid Update August 2020
Thank you very much for your continued support to our organization. We are forever grateful.
The government has confirmed re-opening of schools effective September 1, 2020, but has given strict requirements for schools, including the following:
1. Utilizing temperature guns(thermometers) for measuring temperature at every entry point of the school.
2. Availability of an isolation room.
3. Availability of enough hand washing facilities.
4. Adequate space for learners to socially distance. Only single beds are allowed and in a radius of 2 meters apart.
5. Disinfectants for daily cleaning of class floors, walls, furniture, toilets etc.
6. Enough face masks for the school.
7. Availability of soak way pits to dispose of waste water / proper waste disposal management.
8. Each school to employ a full-time nurse.
9. Sufficient bathroom facilities with maximum use due to cleaning requirements. Every toilet to be used by a maximum of ten students.
10. Enough cleaners.
In August a team from the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education will visit all schools to vet which ones shall open and which shall remain closed. It’s our prayer that we meet the requirements to re-open, though due to the requirements we shall incur an increase in operating expense.
Warm Regards,
Francis
Land Clearing Started
Clearing and ploughing activities are going on at our new 7.5 acre parcel of land purchased for agriculture to help move toward self-sustainability. We even had some parents participating in the clearing of the site. We have also started constructing a temporary goat shed on the property. We’ll soon transfer some goats and begin planting maize, cassava and vegetables prior to the coming rainy season in September.
We are excited to see all of these projects kick start and are grateful for all the support.
COVID-19 Update and Exciting Upcoming Projects
COVID-19 Update and Exciting Upcoming Projects
We’re happy to report that all the children and staff at BECU are physically doing well and staying healthy, although food is scarce and money is tight. While the virus did makes its way into Uganda and has impacted many people there also, the Bwindi area has been blessed to remain in hiding from the virus and has seen no cases. As a safety precaution, much business and our school and all other schools in Uganda have been closed.
This closing has impacted BECU enormously since the school is dependent upon tourists entering the country and coming to see the gorillas. It has cut off dollars that would supply local jobs and partial funding for the orphanage and school. All schools both public and private have been closed now more than two months. They were projected to reopen June 1 but that has been delayed to July 1.
Uganda now has 688 confirmed cases but no deaths at this time. The country continues to be under a complete lock down. Most of the spread of the disease has been from truckers entering the country from surrounding countries, mainly Kenya. All trucks are stopped, but unfortunately drivers with the virus then escape and spread out into the country. Praise God there have been no cases yet in Bwindi.
If you can help in any way, please do so since it is desperately needed.
Along with this news, we have some other exciting news to share:
1. The BUCC board has authorized funds to convert two classrooms into a boy’s dormitory which will have up to 60 boys. The conversion has been started and will be complete in 30 days. The new boys’ dorm was slated as a future new building project, but due to government pressure, BECU was required to convert classrooms into dorms for now.
2. One more effort in our goal to make the school self-supporting is the acquisition of 7.5 acres of land 7 KM from the school. The biggest expense of the school is the food budget which is currently around $85,000. The land will be used to grow crops which will reduce the food bill by one-half. The goats, chickens and mushrooms will also be moved to this land. A full-time land manager will be hired to manage production. The board has approved and sent earnest money for the land purchase. More details coming soon!