Hello Everyone!

Greetings from Miryante Home and School. We really love you all and we do appreciate all that you’re providing to us. Our children went on school holiday on  the 16^th of August 2019, and their performance was really promising compared to first term’s performance. We managed to come up with holiday programs to keep the children busy around the home. These programs run from Monday up to Sunday and these activities include prayers, revision, watching videos, cow grazing, rabbit and goat rearing, planting crops, slashing the compound, digging, and soccer matches every evening. This has helped our children learn more skills and has also helped us as management and caregivers to handle them since they are occupied throughout the holiday.

Education:

The performance of our children is really promising. Most of our children in primary school and secondary school passed highly in grade I and some in grade II.  Also under our technical school, our children are performing very well, especially in practical work. They have learnt a lot of skills in different courses. We held an academic meeting at the orphanage and announced the children with the best performance and encouraged others to give more efforts to their studies since they are left with one term to be promoted to other classes.

 On the 15^thof August we celebrated 10 years of existence as Miryante Orphans Home. This was sponsored by Father David. Stanbic Bank also made for us a cake and gave us 240 plastic bottles of soda. This was also their love month as a bank , and when we wrote to them they welcomed the idea of sharing love with us since it was their love month. We are really thankful   for the great love you show to us as Miryante and the community at large. We had a great meal of matooke, rice, meat, groundnuts, fish, greens etc. Later we cut the cake and they also enjoyed the music. Thank you Father David and Stanbic Bank for making our children smile. Below are the photos:

We are also happy to inform you that Father Erineo was able to trace the bag of donated clothes from Ohio and the airlines found it. Thanks very much Mama Karla and Papa Rich for the clothes. The children really loved the beautiful colors. Below are the pictures of the bag and the children on the clothes.

In the same month, we attended training on how to use menstrual caps. This training was conducted by our Peace Corps Volunteer, Alex Rausch before she left. These were donated to us by one of Laura’s friend called Lauben.

CHILDREN’S HEALTH!

About children’s health, this month we have had over 25 children suffer from Measles and 2 suffering from tuberculosis. This has been very expensive on our side. Several times the kids have been admitted to the hospital. Kindly keep praying for us. We also managed to get a medical technician who is partly working with us since it’s a government requirement for all the children’s homes in the country. Because of the medical personal that we have hired, this has helped us to limit on the number of kids that needed to be admitted to Kyegegwa and Mubende referral hospital. They are now being treated from here at out sickbay. He has also improved on the order in the sick bay as you can see from the pics below with the charts on the wall, the new beds, and the mosquito nets on the beds. The government also has a plan of immunizing all the children in the country by the 19^th of Sept 2019.

We have also expended on our offices. We have got a new block for the counseling department since they needed privacy, and the Social workers department since it was also a recommendation by the Ministry. Therefore, we had to improvise one of the boy’s dormitory that had very few children. We combined them with the other children. We now have six Dormitories 3 for boys and 3 for girls.  

Our volunteer Alex Rausch left on the 12^th of August after 3 years of service. In her speech, she expressed how it’s very hard to leave people that you have lived together with as a family. After her speech, she awarded us a certificate from peace corps. Other speeches followed, and we later had a meal and a dance till late.

Thanks to our donors for making this all happen!

JULY NEWS LETTER 2019

Hello everyone!

Greetings from Miryante children’s home and school. We really love you all and we do appreciate all that you’re providing to us.   Our children are really happy and healthy. In this month we had a lot of activities that took place at the home 

    On the 3^rd of July we visited our children at King Solomon to attend a parents’ meeting. We were so happy to hear and read the comments about our children. We were told that they have good grades and that they are well behaved children at school. This showed us as staff that we are doing great work. We also gave the children some school requirements that they needed at school.  Below is a photo showing the children after the parents meeting.

We have resumed reading and writing classes every day at 3 to 4 pm from Monday to Friday with the help of one of our intern students.  This has helped children’s writing and reading skills, and the correct pronunciation of words and spelling has improved.  Below are photos showing first and second graders studying.

On the 19^th of July we had an open day to advertise our technical school and also to promote our products from the school made by our children. We invited the following categories of people: District officers, community members, church leaders and politicians. Different courses such as tailoring, hair dressing, motor vehicle, carpentry and joinery, and computer studies were all able to display their products. The function started with a prayer, the national anthem, and later inspections of the products that were displayed from different departments. The program also included a dance prepared by our students at the technical school. Below are photos showing the different activities that happened on open day.

Our human resource manager, Mr. Kadoma Joseph, and one of our social workers attended a workshop where they were taught the following topics: human rights on land, access to justice, service delivery, and accounts and accountability.  Later Mr. Kadoma shared the information acquired with staff of Miryante and the elder children at Miryante Children’s home . Below are photos showing staff and children  of Miryante  attending  sessions

We also received donations from the sister of St. Peter’s parish in the USA. Below are photos showing staff members and children with happy smiles after receiving the gifts.

Under our agriculture program, more vegetables have been planted by the children since they are nutritious for them.

We cannot stop saying thank you to our lovely donors for the wonderful support.

JUNE NEWS LETTER 2019

Hello everyone!

Greetings from Miryante orphanage and school. We really love you all and we do appreciate all that you’re providing to us. The last Saturday of the month, we visited our children in different schools with our Peace Corp volunteer Ms. Alex Rausch who is in her preparations to go back home after her service of three years. Her visit was to say bye to the children since she will be traveling back to the states on 12^th of August and she didn’t want to go without seeing the children that are in boarding section. She therefore visited our children in the following schools: St. Thomas Primary School, King Solomon College, St. Peter Technical School, and Kiganda Secondary School.  We served them with the requirements they needed at school i.e.: bread, juice, milk chocolate donated by Mr. Sultan, toothpaste, pads , sweets donated by Alex, pencils, pens, books and some many others. Below are the pictures:

We are also greatful and thankful for a donation of  80boxes of soya milk drink and 250bars  of cholcates  donated to us by Mr. Sultan of Leo traders. The childern took the soya milk for three constant days and they are really thankful.

GUARDIANSHIP PROGRAMME

We always visit our children in the guardianship program every month to check on the progress of the children and to also see what they are lacking so that we as an organization can provide. In order to make sure the children get the basic needs that they need. There is really a great improvement according to our observation in the different households.

 Below are the photos showing guardians and the children receiving scholastic materials

Guardians by the help of the children are growing crops and rearing animals to support their households which show a great improvement.

Below are the photos:

Vocational School:

Miryante Vocational School is preparing for the open day function which will take place on the 19^th of July this year. Different courses are practicing hard for their presentations to make the function colorful. Many people are invited such as the government officers, community members, religious leaders, well-wishers and political members. All the workshops are busy in preparations. Our main aim is to market the school and get more students and also to raise some money to help us in the school operations.

Below are the pictures:

Gardens:

We planted beans in April this year and this month children are enjoying fresh beans that they planted themselves with the help of the caregivers.

Photos showing different nursery beds with green peppers, egg plants, and spinache seedlings ready to be transplanted to the main garden:

To all our donors and well-wishers out there, we just want you to know that we are so grateful and appreciative for your kindness.

Thanks very much.

MAY NEWS LETTER 2019

Hello everyone!

Greetings from Miryante orphanage and school. We really love you all and we do appreciate all that you’re providing to us. We thank our dear sponsors Marty, Bogie, Natalie, and Patrick who visited us this month at Miryante Home. They showed us much love and care for the time they spent around. They bought two goats for meat roasting, donated a number of items which included maps, sharpeners, playing toys, etc.  The Miryante music and dance club entertained the visitors with songs and dances which the visitors enjoyed.  Below are a couple of pictures showing the visitors touring different departments with the help of the children.

Mugisa Nicholas was sponsored

 Our children both under the guardianship program and the orphans home are getting ready for the new term. Miryante gave them school requirements like books, pencils, new shoes for those who had worn out shoes and other requirements such as juice, sugar etc. We also fried for them hard corns which was harvested from the home garden. As shown in the pictures below:

We are also grateful for the grant of a new pit latrine donated to us by Fr. David Baumgartner. The children and the staff were all happy and the old one was demolished.

We would like to take the opportunity to thank  Mr. Chirag of Vision Impex for the  donations of 540 packets of sanitary pads (Feathers) and 940 packets  of toothpaste (Fresh Up) each with a toothbrush that will take us throughout the year. The children are really happy and thankful and also pleased for the times you visit them that shows the love you have for them.  Below are pictures  showing children receiving the pads , toothpaste  and brushes.

A story of the month about Kyalikunda aged five and Mugisha Nicholas aged Eight. We received two children  who were malnourished and suffering from jiggers which had attacked their entire body from community on 14^th   May 2019.  In 2017, they lost their father to a certain disease that they didn’t know. Later their mother became mentally ill.  The mother was not able to provide food or shelter for the children.  They were later abandoned in some isolated old house. The Community members got concerned and told the chairperson who later brought them to the orphanage. We are glad to report that the children’s health is improving daily. Below are pictures of Kyalikunda and Mugisha Nicholas showing them at arrival and after two weeks .

ABOUT THE CAMP BRO AND GLOW.

ON the 13^TH to 17^th of May 2019, we had a BRO AND GLOW CAMP (Boys reaching out and Girls leading our world) at the orphanage which was led by Alex Rausch our Peace Corps volunteer working hand in hand with Miryante Staff as facilitators. The topics were Gender Equality, Leadership and Volunteerism, Reproduction health, Aspiration and Goals, Self-esteem and Confidence. This camp ended successfully and the children were awarded with certificates of participation on Friday when the workshop ended.

Below are the pictures showing children attending the camp.

We also received a number of donations for the children and caregivers from Laura’s friends. These included clothes, a couple of toys and shoes as shown below.

As a project at times we extend some support to the community when need arises. We especially do this for young mothers like the mother below who is struggling with some personal issues. We were able to support her with a number of clothes for her baby.

We are so grateful and we feel we can do what we do because of your support.

Miryante Management.

APRIL NEWSLETTER 2019

Hello everyone!

Greetings from Miryante community. We really love you all and our best way to share this love is by sending you updates on whatever we are doing here. Below are the updates:

On the 26^th of April, our children studying at King Solomon Kyatega went on Easter break. Their performance for the term was good.

We managed to provide assistance for a 16 year old mother from the surrounding Miryante village by giving her clothes for her baby, soap, oil for the baby and milk for one month. We also reported the man that had exploited her to the authorities and the man is now on run. A big thanks to our donors, we couldn’t do all this without your support.

We received 100 mango seedlings from Kyegegwa Local government and we have already planted them. The children love the project and we are sure it will be managed well with the help of our agriculture officer Mr. Moses who is helping us on this project.

Donations: We are also grateful for the wonderful donation of blankets for the little nursery kids from Patty Griebel. The children really like using them during class.

We also received a donation of one knitting machine from from Hermann Allerstorfer who also volunteered with us from Austria! Our tailoring class is one of the biggest classes at the technical school with a big turn up and some of their knitting machines have broken down. We also bought another three machines to add on the donation of one such that our students don’t miss out in class.

EASTER celebrations:  

The children had fun during the festival. It was such a long holiday for all of us here and it was also celebrated in style. We woke up at 6:00am to decorate the church then at around 10: 00 am mass started. Mass went up to 1:00 pm. We prepared a great meal and drinks as you see in the pictures below. Thank you to the families who donated for our Easter meal!

We also started the construction of our new pit latrine which will contain four stances and four bathrooms. We want to thank Fr. David Baumgartner who donated towards this.

We shall send you more details in May report after the construction is done.

The District Technical Committee visited us on the 23^rd of April. The team was comprised of Residential District Commissioner, District Head of Departments headed by the Chief Administrative officer and some other politicians. The team was so impressed with all the activities that Miryante Orphans home is running and they promised to help us. where necessary The Chairperson Local Council Five and Residential District Commissioner emphasized that particular departments at the district should look into providing some support to Miryante in this coming financial year.  They also thanked our donors that are supporting us for their generosity. Below are the pictures of the team.

Thanks very much to everyone that is helping us meet Miryante’s basic need. We would be completely nothing and nowhere without you. Bless you all.

                       MARCH NEWSLETTER 2019

Hello everyone!

Greetings from Miryante orphanage and school. We really love you all and we do appreciate all that you’re providing to us.   The children are all in good health and all of them are in school. We are glad to inform you that the kids are all very happy. We visit our children every month in their respective boarding schools which include: King Solomon Secondary School Kyatega, Kiganda High School, St. Thomas Hapuuyo, Butiti teacher’s college, and St. Peter Technical School to check on their progress. Their performance is really good and promising. Every time we visit them we take them snacks to make them feel at home and also school requirements as shown in the pictures below: 

On the 15^th of March, we had a guardians meeting (any relative to our kids were invited to come around). The probation officer was also invited and our main aim of holding this meeting was to keep a good relationship between guardians, staff and children. This took place at Miryante Home in the main hall. Many issues were discussed concerning children’s property at home that was left by their deceased parents. The probation officer advised guardians to always visit their children at Miryante.  As shown in the pictures below:

A picture below showing the probation officer, staff of Miryante and some guardians

We celebrated Women’s day on 29^th of March 2019 at Kabweza Primary School.  Miryante staff and children were also part of the celebrations. We sold some crafts as one way of marketing our Vocational school as shown in the pictures

Pictures showing people buying craft displayed by Miryante team at the celebrations.

On the 26^th of this month we got donations from Laura’s friends in Kampala who donated shoes, dresses, trousers and play toys etc. As shown in Pictures below:

GUARDIANSHIP PROGRAMME

Every two weeks we visit the children under this programme to see if they are attending school and their wellbeing. We also do counseling and guidance. Isaac will be joining school next year.

Pictures showing social workers and counselors attending to the guardians and the children:  

Pictures showing children under the guardian programme at school.

Pictures showing one of guardian in Wekomiire Village standing near her roofed house and also receiving food.

We are really grateful to our donors for the support. Without this support all this couldn’t be done.

Thanks, Management.

                                   FEBRUARY NEWSLETTER 2019

Hello everyone!

Greetings from Miryante orphanage and school. We really love you all and we do appreciate all that you provide to us. We shall begin with the great smiles from the children! All of our kids are happy and healthy at the home and they all started school on 4^th of Feb 2019.

In February, we received a team from the American Embassy with the help of our Peace Corps Volunteer Alex Rausch. This team spent a whole week at Miryante teaching children about computer technology and life skills. The children and some of the staff members learned a lot of things from this program, including new games, watching movies, dancing styles according to different cultures, and lessons about typing. The activities done in this program are shown in the pictures below:

Under the guardianship program, every two weeks, social workers and counselors of Miryante visit different households to interact with the children and their guardians to check on their progress.

Whenever the children under the guardianship program and their guardians have some problems, our counselors go and talk to them.

Pictures are below showing one of the social workers interacting, giving clothes and food to the children under the program in Migongwe village:

Pictures showing children who received scholastic materials as they return to school for the first term.

In February Alex’s husband Mr.Pankaj Taneja visited us. He donated story books, sweets and soccer balls to the kids. He also threw a party in the evening with the children and staff members to celebrate their engagement.

On the 14^th of February, it was the Kyegegwa World Aids Day celebration. Miryante children and staff participated in this day.  Pictures below show the Miryante team and other organizations marching to Kasule Primary School where the celebrations took place.

On the 11th of February, we managed to rescue a baby girl and we were able to work with police to find the mother. The baby was 9 months and we suspected the baby had been stolen from her mother. The baby stayed at Miryante for some days where she was being taken care off. We were able to donate some clothes and shoes, and later we handed her over to the mother with the help of police.

On weekends, our children do some handcrafts such as weaving baskets and table mats.

On 23^rd the of Feb, we received some donations of books, pencils and pens from Laura’s friend, Sawan.

The  planting season has also began. Pictures below are showing our nursery beds which  have tomatoes, green paper, eggplants and kale seedlings ready to be transplanted.

We are also looking forward to expanding the banana plantation and planting more crops such as soybeans, cowpeas, maize, Irish potatoes and pumpkins to have enough foods for the children.

We are really so grateful for the support we want to say a very big thanks as management!

January Newsletter 2019

Hello everyone!

Greetings from Miryante Orphans Home and School. We really love you all and we do appreciate all that you provide to us. All the children are very okay and well prepared for the new school term. All are eager to join other classes starting in the New Year. Below are the updates of pictures of our children getting ready for the new school term:

Schools opened on 25th of January 2019, all of our children are in school. Below are Pictures showing children receiving their scholastic materials before heading to school.

Pictures showing the scholastic materials that are given to the children before going to School

Last year we had some of our children from the home who completed Carpentry courses. Below are two of our graduates, Peter and Moses, with their tool boxes:

Under the Guardianship/Foster Program: we always visit each household before the children go back to school.  We monitoring their progress, provide counseling and guidance, and give them scholastic materials, bedding, and clothes. We also conduct educative programs such as agriculture and animal husbandry. Different households with orphans have benefited from this program. Below are the pictures:

Below is another Picture showing one of the guardians of household number one selling tomatoes and onions during a market in Migongwe trading center. Miryante has helped her to start a garden to support the children she is fostering.

During this January holiday, the children had different programs to keep them busy. The major one was learning how to be friendly to the horses and to learn the horses’ language. We have done this by going on different hikes and giving the horses baths. This is done with the help of madam Laura and Aman as shown below.

Pictures showing horses taking a bath after the hike

Manapack rice food!

We have already received 60 boxes of manapack rice for the first quarter. This food has been of great help towards the children’s diet. The biggest number of children we get at the home come when they are malnourished. Manna Pack rice has been the best food ever for the children’s diet. Below are the 60 boxes we received for the first quota in 2019. Thanks to Anna Lisa that has always thought about us at Miryante Orphans Home.                              

Our Peace Corps volunteer, Alex, organized special Bible and nature classes for our children this January. These classes have been taking place Tuesday and Monday of every week. The children are taught how to sing songs and play games about nature and animals. Below are pictures showing children in the nature class and Bible classes.

Our cows are doing very well and so far four baby calves have been born. This means more milk for the children. Also, at last our rabbits gave birth to 11 little ones as shown below.

We are really grateful for all the support as we start the 2019 year. Thanks very much!

Miryante Management

DECEMBER   NEWSLETTER 2018                                                                                               

Hello everyone!

Greetings from Miryante Orphans Home!  We are really grateful for the support given to us here.  Everyone is fine and very happy about the Christmas season. The children couldn’t wait to go out for shopping, carnival, and the trip to Murchison Falls National Park. A huge thank you to Inno-pak for sponsoring the Christmas trips and everyone who gave to make Christmas special for the children. The excitement was too much. We also gave the children the task of being on their best behavior to be able to enjoy the above Christmas privileges.

Academically, the children performed well, and all were promoted in their respective classes. They all officially broke off for break on the 30^th of November 2018.

For Christmas shopping, the kids were too excited. On the 15^th of December they were helped by the caregivers to go to the market. The boys bought 2 trousers each, a belt, closed toe shoes, 4 pairs of underwear, 2 shirts, lunch and later a drink on their way back. All the girls bought two dresses, shoes, 4 knickers, and also a lunch for each and a drink on their way back from Mubende where they did the shopping.

Below are the pictures of the children shopping:

On Christmas day the children couldn’t wait to go to church all wearing their new clothes as shown below:

Below in church:

A huge thank you to the Baker Family for our Christmas Day lunch. Our lunch was this good: We had different types of foods such as Rice, plantains, Cassava, Irish, groundnuts sauce, fish, beef, pork and sodas as shown below:

As a treat of the younger children, we took them on a sponsored field trip to a canival in a nearby town. The carnival was so much fun. The little children had lunch before all the activities took place as seen below:

The older children were able to take a trip to Murchison Falls National Park in Masindi, which was also so much fun. We started our journey as early as 3am in the morning. We were accompanied by the director, Fr. Erineo, who blessed our journey in the morning before we set off. The children were able to see the water falls which was very exciting for everyone, and we had a camp fire before leaving the park with some of the guards. The children later spent a night in Masindi town where they had dinner as well as breakfast and lunch the following day. Below are the pictures:

At the beginning of December, we also received 3 horses from Laura’s family and friends as a gift to the children for her recent wedding. We are really blessed as one of the luckiest homes because in the whole region you cannot find horses. The kids ride these horses every day. Our children really enjoy having them around the orphanage. The horses are beautiful with the children. We greatly thank Laura, her husband Ambrish, and all her family and friends because we now have horses on the farm. They have even hired someone to help train the caregivers and children to help us learn the language of horses and how the children can work with them.

During this long holiday from school, we came up with a holiday program where children have been having sports and games with the caregivers and visitors, especially Laura’s friend, Aman Kumar, who stays with the children to help with the horses.  Pictures below are showing children playing football and netball:

We are also humbled that Aman, the horse trainer, made for the kids dinner over the holidays with the help of the care givers. He bought a goat from our farm for the children and rice for a dinner. December was a blessed month to our home as shown below:

We also managed to give awards the best four best dormitories and that was St. Joan (1^st place), St. Gyavira (2^nd place), St. Theresa (3^rd place) and St. Thomas (4^th place). They were given the award for having the best hygiene and the best dorm garden. As an award, we gave them a period of one month to come up with a project of their choice that to be managed by the children per dormitory that will be reported to you in January newsletter.

Our guardianship program (foster care) is really doing well and our target is to construct 5 houses for our children staying with guardians under this program. Before they we really sleeping badly, as you can see in the ‘before and after’ photo below. So far we have finished 4 houses out of 5. The children and the guardians are really happy.

Community service

Our Children in the building class and carpentry class, with the help of the caregivers, Aman and Boaz, the horse trainers, decided to start a community service project to help people living around Miryante. The children in Miryante who are studying carpentry and building were able to renovate the house for a very old lady in our neighborhood whose house had collapsed and had left her sleeping outside. We are glad that now we have the skills to help to make our community a better place.

A very big thanks to everyone who has contributed towards Miryante Orphans’ Home’s well being to make this the best December ever. We love you all!

Miryante Management

                              NOVEMBER NEWSLETTER

Greetings from Miryante! All the children are of good health. Our candidates of all levels started exams from 6^th to 16th of this month. There were 3 children in Senior level four, and 13 children in Primary level seven,  and 8 children taking exit exams at the technical school.  They are already enjoying holidays and planting flowers to make a natural fence which will beautify the home as part of their holiday work.

Below are 8 of our children from the orphanage doing their practical in UBTEB and DIT at Miryante Vocational School in order to finish their courses and other students are preparing for their end of year exams.

Below is Maria one of our own children preparing herself to start Tailoring practical class next year. This is the course of her choice and she can’t wait to join next year.

Debate club: We are so grateful for our social workers, our Peace Corps Volunteer Alex, our social workers and children that do take a lead in the debating class. This has helped a lot to our children to improve on their English due to the practice they make every Saturday in debate club. They also compete with the neighboring schools including the Miryante Technical school.

The picture below showing the debate committee.

Health club; This club was formed by Sunday Clovice, one of our kids in the orphanage, and was guided by the staff of Miryante to help the club to form a mission and vision.  The staff members have also been supportive towards this club and have contributed much in improving and maintaining the general cleanliness of the orphanage.

We are also grateful for our Peace Corps volunteer Alex who has been inviting other volunteers to educate the kids more about the meaning of health club and also to sensitize the children about diseases like malaria, typhoid, and cholera to create awareness in the community of Miryante.

 GUARDIANSHIP PROGRAMME   (FOSTER PROGRAM)

Construction of houses for children under guardianship program has begun. Margret, one of the guardians of four children who we found at the site is filled with joy about the construction.  It was really very hard to convince her to take up these children and stay with them. At first she disappeared and left the four children in the house but after serious counseling  she took up the responsibility and she is now very happy with the support she is getting from Miryante. These include food, scholastics materials, clothes, medical care; this is provided monthly and visited weekly. Now, with the construction of the home, she is also being provided shelter.  Below is pictured the construction site and donations to the children she is caring for.

Agriculture: This month we are harvesting beans and vegetables (sukuma wiki). We are happy with the support from our Peace Corps volunteer, especially under the vegetable program to support the diet of the children. We are now harvesting vegetables in plenty.

Our animals: are adding in numbers as shown below.

We are really grateful and humbled by everyone’s contributions towards Miryante orphanage and school. God Bless you greatly!

Miryante Management