Guildford and Uganda Schools’ Link Celebrated

Published on: 6 Oct, 2016
Updated on: 6 Oct, 2016

A link project between schools in Guildford and Uganda has held its annual reception, hearing all the latest news of what has been happening.

The Mayor of Guildford, Gordon Jackson, with some of the students who attended the annual reception of the Guildford Mukono Link.

The Guildford Mukono Link event was held at the Guildhall and hosted by the mayor, Gordon Jackson.

A long-time supporter and lover of Africa, Cllr Jackson spoke in glowing terms about the successes of the link over the past 13 years, sponsoring students through university, supporting music, sport and environmental projects.

Those who attended were treated to wonderful tales of adventure from students at St Peter’s School in Merrow. Ten students and a teacher travelled to Mukono in Uganda to visit their link school and spent time with their student counterparts.

It proved to be a life changing experience for the group. Each student had to raise their own funding for the journey, one student was sponsored to shave off her hair. When they got to Entebbe they discovered their luggage was delayed en route and as it included their camping equipment the first 48 hours were an enlightening experience of make-do.

Their stay at Lutengo United Secondary School was an overwhelming success and not just for the visitors. The Guildford students’ project was to build a chicken house for the school, using hand-made bricks. The Lutengo students couldn’t resist getting involved and the building became a joint project with everyone working as a team.

The Wendy Shephard Education Sponsorship Fund was launched by its founder, Kate Nathoo, in memory of her mother. The fund will support children through primary school who would otherwise be unable to continue their education. A child’s education in Mukono costs £80 a year for books, uniform, lunch and registration fees. To date, funds have been raised to support 11 children for five years. The children will be chosen from the five linked primary schools in Mukono and reports will be sent to the sponsors.

Guests also heard about Lunch4All, an initiative to enable every child to be able to afford a school lunch. In some of the linked primary schools 80% of the children cannot afford lunch.

Lunch4All is reducing the cost of lunch by planting trees for fuel and fruit in every school, 60,000 have already been planted, raising funds for fuel efficient stoves and putting in resources to improve school farms. Awareness is also being raised of the importance of lunch for children’s development.

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