NEWSLETTLER FOR THE MONTH OF APRIL 2015.

Hello everyone!

Greetings from Miryante! Hope you’re all fine. Lots of updates here in Miryante.

April has been a month of wonderful things through out. New people visiting the children and the school. This includes the first lady of Uganda, political leaders and many others. The first lady’s visit started like a joke but thank God at last it happened. Before the first lady’s visit we hosted the woman member of Parliament that represents Kyegegwa District in the parliament of Uganda with other women councilors of Kyegegwa district. They had enough time to talk to the children, dancing together and later donated clothes and pairs of shoes to the children and the children were so happy. It was such a great thing the community to play their part in supporting of the children and the children feeling accepted in the community. The girls got netball wears from the woman Member of Parliament’s office. Here are the pictures!

Before the women leaders talked to the children. They first moved around the home to see how the children sleep.

The woman Member of Parliament addressed the children then later dressed them up and she opened up a dance with them.

The girl from the technical school on the sports wears donated by the woman member of parliament.

The first lady’s visit.

It was a colorful day. The children and the community around the home were all filled up with joy. The visit took place on the 10/4/2014 in the afternoon. This day was first of its kind in Miryante to host a big political leader of this kind. It took us two months to organize for this day and we are so grateful that it took place. We are so grateful for our Woman Member of Parliament who played a big role in this. The children were filled up with joy. The children had time to dance for the first lady and later she addressed the children and other guests. In her speech she first thanked the children, staff members and the board members for keeping the place very clean and later she thanked us for the good work done in the place and also the good works we are doing in the children’s lives especially by giving them the skill that they will use when they leave the home. She later thanked the donors that are supporting the home for this noble cause and also the Catholic Church for starting up such a project especially the Bishop. Below are the pictures!

The arrival of maama the first lady and then later the Director received her and introduced the board members to the first lady before moving around the dormitories to see how the children sleep.

She visited one of the girls’ dormitory that is St. Francis and she loved the arrangement of the beds in there.

The children entertaining the first lady and other guests

The director opened up with the speech giving the first lady and the other guests the history of the place, what we do with the children and how we get them and later the first lady addressed the children and a few guests from the community we had invited to attend the ceremony. In her speech she mentioned the things she had donated to the   children which included: 100 blankets, ten saucepans, 100 mosquito nets and 2millions to buy to cows that can give milk to the children.

Peter pausing in front of the gifts from the State house.

Taxi

Our new Taxi started working last month. We extend our thanks to Laura and the other donors especially Jon and Shawn who have played a very big role in sustaining the project. Laura has played a very big role in looking ahead for the project. We started on this late last year and we are grateful for this achievement. We now have two Taxis working in Kyegegwa to Kampala.

Front and the back of the taxi

Coffee project

We have started on a coffee project this year. We were given 6,000 coffee seedlings and we are expecting more 4,000 because we applied for 10,000 seedlings at the district. Since this is a short season we have planted very few and we made a bed for the remaining coffee seedling such that it can be planted the coming season of August which is long. We are so grateful for our District that is Kyegegwa District for the grate support so far in this year and we are expecting more in the coming season.

Our agriculture officer in the coffee necessary bed that we made.

Children update

The children are in good health. Their performances were good in school. The children who go to King Solomon secondary school performed very well which was so encouraging to us. The ones that go to the Technical school most of them are leading in their courses. The little children who go to the primary in Migogwe also performed well. During this holiday the children are doing a lot of work at the home. These include different vegetable gardens including a play ground for the little children.

Play ground for the young ones.

Vocational school

We are glad to inform you that this year 2015 the turn up at the vocational school is good. We have 75students and we are expecting more children from the community to join this coming term of the year, our target is to have 80students by the end of the year. The term closed on 24/4/2015 and the children performed well. We have introduced different activities to make the school so active like games, debating club and etc. We closed up the term with a party welcoming the first years and the leadership body of the school.

The function started with the swearing-in of the students’ leadership body.

The children had fun and the staff. We did this to encourage the other young children to have interest in the technical education.

Hair dressing students during exams and after exams.

Currently our animal husbandry project is booming!

We are up to 18 cows. One of our cows gave birth and the piggery has also grown big. Animal husbandry projects are a great way to teach kids responsibility and the importance of having something to take care of.

Thank you for all of your support and may God bless you and your families,

Director and all the staff and children at Miryante!!!!

Hello Everyone! We wanted to give some quick updates for the month of March.

Catechism books donated by the Bishop

All the dormitories were renovated including having the walls repainted and the doors repaired.

Bishop Flaget School's 5th grade class and kindergarten worked hard to earn money to donate to Miryante to purchase a milk cow.

Our caregivers and nurse were issued Miryante uniforms. The nurse is dressed in purple.

Our new caregiver Kellen Tumuhimbise. She is a grade 2 teacher and she is helping the little children with the English lessons after school.

Nurse and other caretakers giving out clothes, towels, bed sheets, shoes and blankets that were donated by Jon Sill. Below are the children.

Due to the local secondary school being closed because of administration problems, children with high scores were able to join the King Solomon Boarding School located 15 kilometers away.

Here is the school.

Thanks very much for all of your support for the project! God bless!

Greetings from Miryante and we hope that you’re all well!

Thanks and appreciation

Firstly we would like to start off by thanking all of our donors for their generous donations towards our projects at the orphanage and the school.

Our first graduation ceremony was on 6 December 2014.

Our Bishop Rt. Rev. Robert Muhiiwa was our guest of honour, he awarded the students with certificates in their respective courses.

The Vocational School offers courses in Computer Studies, Tailoring, Bricklaying, Hairdressing and Carpentry. The majority of our students who graduated completed short courses in hairdressing and computer studies.

In total we had twenty four graduates: eleven from the orphanage and thirteen from the community.

Before the Bishop awarded the certificates, he had a meeting with the board members, then mass and lastly the award ceremony.

Pictures during mass!

Graduates during mass and children from the orphanage ushering

The children from Orphanage leading the choir and the vice chancellor giving a speech.

The Bishop awarding certificates and the graduates after mass.

Bishop with the Graduates and the tutors

Board members with the Bishop and the donation of spiritual books for the children from the Bishop’s office.

All graduates from the vocational school

Some of our grandaunts who graduated from the orphanage below are their names.

Oliva Kemirembe hair dressing

Jacinta Natugonza hair dressing

Rose hair dressing

Restetuta Asingizibwe hair dressing

Amina Atuhaire hair dressing

Phionah Niwabiine hair dressing

Evelyn hair dressing

Mark Mwesige computer studies

Javira Alicwamu hair dressing

Jacinta hair dressing

Lunch for the grandaunts children from orphanage then last dance for both the graduates and children from the orphanage.

Christmas:

We are looking forward to a big Christmas celebration with fun and games for all the kids.

We also want to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year and look forward to sending you photos and updates from our Christmas celebrations!

Thank you!

Thank you to all our donors and sponsors for your continuous support and for making 2014 great year for our children!

DECEMBER NEWSLETTER 2014

Happy New Year to you all. Greetings from Miryante Orphans and Miryante Vocational School! Hope you’re all fine. Lots of updates here in Miryante! Early last month we celebrated our first graduation ceremony at Miryante Vocational School.

Children update

The children are in good health. The children had fun during the Christmas festival with new clothes, toys and shoes. Which every child yens for on such days. Thanks very much Bishop Flaget School especially Mrs. Kessler and Ms. Carrier who worked tiresomely with the pupils to help us raise money for a heifer, Avocado tresses, toys and clothes for the children in Miryante during the Christmas season.

Below are the pictures!

Children on shades

Children playing with the toys

Children holding their dolls

Children Blowing Balloons

A big smile with new watches

The boys playing games

One of the board member who joined us during the celebrations with her family.

The above is also the shirts that were bought as part of the donations from Bishop Flaget School.

The avocado tresses that were also donated by Bishop Flaget School.

Lastly was a dance that left others on the ground that was our Christmas.

Thank you for all of your support and may God bless you and your families Doreen Tigah and all the staff and children at Miryante!!!!

Welcome from Miryante

Hello everyone!

Greetings from Miryante Orphans’ Home and Miryante Vocational School

We are grateful for the continuous support given to the project by our donors. The children are all fine in good health.

Our primary seven children are taking their final exams to be promoted to senior one next year. On Saturday we had special prayers for the candidates and mass was led by our director.

This picture was taken after their two exam papers

Our director during mass for the candidates
We are in preparations of our graduation ceremony early next month at our vocational school. About 20 children from the orphanage will be graduating.

It’s such a great day we are looking up to for our children. We believe the skills these children have acquired will help them to gain employment when they leave Miryante.

Tailoring class pupils having their practicals in October
In the last week of October we hired prisoners to put marram on our road. The road has been in a terrible state especially during the rainy season.

The road has been impassable with running water and soils down to the main road. After the construction work was completed, our road is now in a good state with so many trenches to get hold of the running water.

Road works in October

Donation boxes

Early last month as management we requested the boys from the carpentry class to make box that we would put in banks and hotels for well wishers to donate Christmas for our children.

We wrote to management of some banks like Stanbic, Equity and Centenary bank. We were allowed to put our boxes in these places and we are encouraging people to donate towards this noble cause.

The donation boxes are delivered in the local banks

We would like to thank you for your continuous support, God bless you.
The Management

Hello everyone!

Greetings from Miryante Orphans’ Home
and Miryante Vocational School

We are grateful for the continuous support given to the project by our donors. The children are all in good health and we are grateful for that. Third term started at the beginning of August and we are very glad to report to you that all our children are in school except Joseph Guma who stays at the home with the caregivers.

The Vocational School

We are happy to report to you that the school is doing well. Our children are gaining skills in their courses which we believe is going to make their future bright.

Carpentry class

In the last week of September, Mutebi Samuel, one of our children who attends thecarpentry class at the technical school, surprised us when he repaired our roof. We believe the skills these children are acquiring will give them opportunities for employment in the future.

Farming and Donations

During mid-September we received five hundred coffee seedlings from the sub-county.
We are grateful for the seedlings that we will plant at the end of this month.

During the last Sunday of September, during the fundraising at Migongwe Catholic Church, the Bishop bought sweet potatoes, avocados and cassava for the children at Miryante home. We really feel blessed for the care people have towards the children.
Thank you very much our Bishop Akiiki.

Following the advice from Laura and Dr.Craig in August, regarding planting fruits for the children, we bought thirty orange seedling from Kampala and five mango seedlings that were donated by Laura and Dr. Craig to the project. This is now our home’s new look and we are expecting to harvest the fruit in one year’s time.  We planted them around the compound, guest house and the school. The sticks around the seedlings are to protect them from being eaten by the goats.

We would like to thank you for your continuous support, God bless you.
The Management

Hello Everyone!

We have had a very busy few months and we are excited to share our developments. This past month we welcomed two volunteers from America- Craig Conard and Laura Corcoran. Craig is a sponsor of one of our children and Laura is a former Peace Corps Volunteer who has been working with the project since it started. They were able to engage in several activities with the children while they were here.

A special thanks to Karla Kensey who organized and donated materials to make reusable sanitary pads for the girls. Pads are very expensive in Uganda and most girls are not able to purchase them and must improvise with local materials. Some girls miss school when they have their periods due to lack of materials, so this was a very important project for the girls. Laura worked with the older girls to teach health education classes and then the girls spent several days sewing the pads by hand.

Craig Conard, who works as a pediatrician in Ohio, and Laura, who works as a nurse, spent a great deal of their time completing well child check-ups on the children. They were able to purchase medications for several of the children who needed them. A special thanks to everyone who made donations for medical supplies.

In addition to providing medical services, Craig took four of the children from Miryante on safari in Queen Elizabeth National Park. Many children in Uganda never get a chance to see the animals that live in their own country, so this was an incredible opportunity for the children selected. The kids selected were Kangume Katherine, Anthony Kayla, Alex Mugisa, and Oliva. They had quite the time touring the park.

Another special thanks to Amanda Zurface and Jon Sill for their donations which allowed for us to purchase 72 jackets for the children to wear during the colder rainy season. Their donations were also used to purchase clothing, seeds for the vegetable garden, and food for the 5^th year anniversary party with the kids.

Miryante celebrated its 5^th year anniversary on August 15^th. We celebrated with a mass at the campus and a big meal where all the children were able to have meat and rice. Thanks to everyone who has supported this project and allowed us to reach this point!

There have been several children this year who have graduated from the technical school and left the home. Many younger children have moved in to replace them, so there will be an update of children available to be sponsored on the website for anyone who is interested.

As always, we want to express our thanks to all of those who continue to contribute to make this project possible.

Together in Christ,

Miryante Management.

Miryante nibabaramukya (Greetings from Miryante)

Hello to all our friends and supporters from sunny Miryante.

The children are doing well, there are 110 children, and they have returned to school for the next term - from June to September.

In June we have a new volunteer with us - Violeta from England has joined us for 2 ½ weeks. Violeta learned about Miryante from her friend Michael who volunteered here last year. She got in touch with Doreen and Laura in March and has been promoting our charity via the facebook page 'Miryante friends' and by sending regular emails.

In the coming months we will have more volunteers - Petra will join us in July, and Laura is planning to come in August, so it will be an excellent summer for the kids!

The children gave a very warm welcome to the new volunteer by performing the traditional Rutoro dance and songs. They were dancing all evening, and all age groups performed really well. There is a real talent and lot of potential at Miryante - all children are excellent at singing, dancing the traditional dances and playing the drums. So, we decided to form the club 'Miryante dancers' and to encourage the children to practice regularly so they can take part in dance competitions and events during public holiday celebrations and hopefully become the future Uganda dance and music stars!

Our volunteer Violeta is very impressed with Uganda - having spent a couple of days in Kampala before arriving here, she loves the city and the beautiful countryside with the amazing national parks, the hospitable locals and above all the amazing Miryante children. Violeta said: the children are fantastic - they are hardworking, happy children, very well behaved and they all contribute in all activities of the daily life at Miryante. They learn about gardening and farming from an early age - early on her first Monday here, they were picking beans in the vegetable garden and brining large loads to dry, and even the small children were carrying the heavy loads.

Children preparing beans for supper

There are various after school activities, such as the 'cultural exchange evening' - Violeta brought biscuits from England so the children could have a taste of the traditional 'five o'clock tea'!

On another evening we organized board games' competition, and there are regular football matches - in keeping up with the world cup spirit!

Thanks to our new friends and donors from England we will be organizing cinema nights (Violeta brought a projector, laptop and films), but currently the power is unreliable as there are only few solar panels. So, if you are considering making a donation, please give generously towards our solar panels fund!

We would like to thank all our friends, supporters and sponsors and to wish you a very happy summer and relaxing holidays.

THANK YOU from Miryante children and staff!

April NEWSLETTER 2014

 Happy Easter season! Greetings from Miryante! We hope you’re all fine. Here are a few updates from Miryante.

Vocational school

We are glad to inform you that our vocational school is growing very fast. The turn up at the vocational school is good. We have 75 students and we are expecting more children from the community to join. We do courses in hair dressing, Computer studies, carpentry, brick lying and concert practice.

Students in Hair Dressing Class

Uganda’s National Social Security fund has expanded to now include Non-Governmental Organizations. Miryante held a training for their employees at the home and school.

This Easter season, we had fun and it was real blast for the children at the home and school. It has been the first of its kind at Miryante. We hired a music system for the children to have fun to celebrate the resurrection of our survivor Jesus Christ. The children had a lot of fun. At least each child got two pairs of cloths and danced with the staff. We had goats roasting at the home.

 Children update

The children are in good health. Their performance in school was fair compared to last year’s performance. A few girls at the home finished their courses and these include Christian Obedi, Amina Atuhaire and Rose. The three girls are still working at our salon but are trying to get them jobs in the community so that they can live on their own. It’s so exciting having our first students graduate from the home since the school started last year. The official graduation will be in December this year 2014. Below are some of the pictures.

Children Enjoying Dancing at the Easter Celebration

The older students graduating

Children finishing their studies

Enjoying the Easter Dance

Thanks very much for the continuous support and happy Easter season from the home, school and staff!

Miryante Management

Newsletter FEB 2014

Hello Everyone!

Hope all is well. We appreciate for the continuing support towards our home and school. The children and the care givers are really grateful.  This is our planting season; it’s so cold out here.  The children are in good health. Students in the 7^th grade sat for their final examinations. Those that passed the examinations allowing them to continue on to secondary school were given school bags because of the good performance.  This was done to encourage the rest to work very hard.

Vocational school

We are so glad to tell you that our vocational school is really doing well. Currently we have 62 students.

Former directors’ handover to the incoming director.

Fr. Maniragaba Aloysius was transferred and he handed over to Fr. Erine parish priest Wekomire.

Donation from NAADs program

We received four goats from the sub-county under NAADs program. This is a National Agriculture Assistive program that supports people with starting agricultural projects.

Thank you to all the donors for their continuing support!

Miryante Management.