Would you like to help them?

Send them your heart.  Lend a helping hand

After living in Gulu for 2 years, I have not been more certain that their biggest problem is quality of education. It is just 3 years ago that Gulu is coming out of a 20-year war. Not too long ago, the problem was access to education. But then Uganda introduced

Sister Angelina teaching

free Universal Primary Education, which keeps her at par with the rest of the world insofar as providing free primary education is concerned.  But the quality of what the students get in their

Ground-breaking of  building

formative years leaves much to be desired.  Feedback from organizations that are helping in the education sector in Uganda says that teachers are absent most of the time doing sideline work to augment income.

Roof coming up

They leave the brightest student in class to be their substitute.  Teachers' methods are archaic,  monologic; no interaction.  Students are trained to memorize with less opportunity for thinking.  Books are outdated.  Development and charity organizations that send

Temporary building coming up

modern teaching aids are disappointed that the materials that they have collected from abroad remain untouched and rotting for several years in some decrepit storehouse. You see the result:  young graduates have difficulty reading and writing.  I suspect that the reason why voice calls are used here more than text

Sowing seeds; sowing education

messaging comes from the difficulty in writing and reading.  Even in talking, the teacher's poor influence is showing.  Talk like.... this is a...... what?
Now, there is something that we can do to help in our small way.   Let's help Sister Angelina of the Little Sisters of the Mary Immaculate of Gulu build her nursery and primary school in a place where nursery kids have nowhere to go or those in primary school now have to walk more than 6 kilometers to the nearest school.   She needs books, dictionaries, bibles, and money.  She runs a nursery school in the church grounds and I have seen the difference.  The children speak English with the correct accent and goes beyond the sing-song How are you?

This is where our help can go

The pictures above will tell us the story of why she needs help and open our minds and hearts on how we can help. If you have something to share (ideas and/or material things), please send me an mail at eve2000_ph@yahoo.com with subject: Mary Queen of Peace Building. Just an idea of how far a little help could go here in Gulu: One U.S. dollar (43 Philippine pesos) is equivalent to 2,500 Uganda shillings. It can buy 12 tubers of cassava for one meal of 12 small kids.

Recess time with corn porridge.  No spoons to scoop.

I volunteered in Africa because I was inspired by Michael Jackson's composition, We are the World.  I hope it will inspire you, too, to help.
There comes a time when we hear a certain call When the world must come together as one There are people dying and it's time to lend a hand to life The greatest gift of all. We can't go on pretending day by day That someone, somewhere will soon make a change We are all a part of God's great big family And the truth, you know, Love is all we need.

Temporary school in a chapel

We are the world, we are the children We are the ones who make a brighter day So let's start giving There's a choice we're making We're saving our own lives it's true we'll make a better day Just you and me Send them your heart so they'll know that someone cares And their lives will be stronger and free As God has shown us by turning stones to bread So we all must lend a helping hand

Children hike from afar to attend Saturday school

When you're down and out, there seems no hope at all But if you just believe there's no way we can fall Let us realize that a change can only come When we stand together as one

Physical education time with teacher Grace