School appeal brings smiles to Uganda (From Warrington Guardian)

School appeal brings smiles to Uganda

12:52pm Wednesday 24th November 2010 in Where I Live

GENEROUS donors in Warrington have helped put huge smiles on the faces of poor schoolchildren in Uganda by supporting a charity appeal for school equipment.

The school packs scheme, run by international children’s charity Global Care, asked for stationery basics to help break down barriers to education for poor children in Africa.

In Uganda children have to provide their own equipment for school, and because many families can not even afford pencils, youngsters go to school empty-handed with their opportunities for learning severely reduced.

A range of groups and individuals, including St Joseph’s Primary School, 2nd Warrington Boys Brigade, and the Methodist Ladies Fellowship at Penketh Methodist Church, donated more than 120 packs that have now been delivered.

The packs were handed out to pupils at the Ron Newby Memorial Primary School in Angorum, in the rural northern district of Soroti, by a team of UK volunteers who visited the region in October.

Acra Daniel, chairman of the PTA at the school, said: “I want to appreciate you for the great heart of help you have given us. You have really helped us with some little burden, because of the packs you gave, the book and pens, which we have not been able to provide.

“Our school is deep in the villages and we were wondering how the message reached our friends in the UK and it seems that maybe God has seen us!”

A school pack contains five pens, five pencils, five exercise books, two rulers, two erasers and a pencil sharpener.

The appeal will be running again next Easter and anyone who would like to join in can contact volunteer Margaret Bennett on 072237 or charity chief executive John White on 02476 601800