OCTOBER NEWSLETTER 2018

Hello everyone!

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

Education:

This month was the month for parent teacher conferences. We managed to visit our children within this month in their different schools to see their education progress and clear the school dues for remedial lessons to improve on their performance in class as we prepare the candidates for final exams.

We also managed to attend the visitation day at King Solomon College- Kyatega and St. Tomas Junior School and all our children were happy and doing well in School.

This was on the 7^th of this month of October. The children were very happy and they all look healthy and the childerns’  performance  is good . Below are the pics:

Guardianship Program

In this month ,we carried out baseline surveys of new households that   will be added to the guardianship program at the end of this year. This means that we are trying to find relatives or well wishers in the community so that some of the children in the Miryante Orphans Home can transfer to lives with families and receive in-kind support. We want to transition to a foster-care model as much as possible. This survey covered six households from four sub counties i.e.; Mpara, Kakabara, Hapuuyo and Kihuura.   We found that two households were not fit for the program because the guardians were too old and couldn’t manage to support the grandchildren and in another home the guardian had issues with substance abuse.

The Objectives of the baseline survey was to find out the information about the potential guardians of these children, to know about the hygiene and sanitation of the households, to find out the financial status of the guardians and to find out the character of the guardians both negative and positive.

Orphan property

This month we managed to save land for three of our children from Hapoyu sub-county. This has been a big problem where an elder brother  wanted to sell off the land without considering the sister under our care. We had to get in touch with chairperson LCI and the police so that brother was stopped from selling the land.

We have also advised households to register their property with the LCI chairperson in order to get land titles and proper documents as shown in the pictures below. This is part of the advocacy work we do for our orphans to protect their rights.

Children under guardianship program in their agricultural gardens

Agriculture:

One household which had not caught up with agriculture activities is now doing well. Currently all our households under the guardianship program are doing well.

Next month our Peace Corps volunteer, Alex Rauch, is going to join the program to teach guardians about perma-gardening.

Children under guardianship program in their agricultural gardens:

We also managed to save land for one of our families under the guardianship program. We already have the title as shown below:

Children under guardianship program in their new school uniforms.

Donations

This month Cathy and Terry Dresbach visited us all the way from the United States. These are Laura’s family friends. We were grateful as a community for the wonderful love that the family shared with us.

We received so many gifts from the Dresbach family to our children. These included: field cones, pencils, colors, sharpens , rulers , magnets, writings  boards , playing cards ,ropes  among others 

Some of the gifts brought by Cathy and Terry Dresbach when they visited Miryante Orphanage

Cathy and Terry Dresbach playing with the Children of Miryante during their visit at Miryante Orphanage

Cathy and Terry Dresbach dancing with the Children of Miryante during their visit at Miryante Orphanage

Cathy and Terry Dresbach playing with the Children of Miryante during their visit at Miryante Orphanage

Gardens

The gardens are doing well especially during this rainy season. We planted beans, carrots, pumpkins, eggplants. Our volunteers are doing a great job. Alex our Peace Corps Volunteer planted crops with children. Some children planted maize in their small gardens which is growing. We are harvesting some crops including bananas, sweet potatoes and cassava.

Gardens at the home

Farm

The goats gave birth this month.

We managed to complete the renovation of the house for the herdsmen.

Our rabbits:

The irrigation system is now working already to supply water in the dry season and they are building a fence for the tap. Seedlings are also being transplanted in the main vegetable garden as shown in the pictures below

Technical school: We are so grateful for Root Cause Uganda for the solar panel donation given to our school. We can now type and print documents at Miryante Vocational School because of the strong solar panel installed.

God bless each of you all abundantly!

Miryante Management

Kasiime Fiona’s Obituary

We recently lost one of our children Kasiime Fiona Amooti. Kasiime Fiona Amooti was born in April 15, 1999. She was born in Ibonde village in Kabarole District. Her mother died when she was two and a half years (2yrs 6months) and the mother did not tell them about her father. She started staying with her maternal aunt who was married in Moyo District.

When she was in senior two her aunt was no longer able to take care of her and she was forced her to join Miryante Orphanage. When Fiona passed away She was in senior Five at King Solomon College-Kyatega. Fiona was interested in football.

She came to Miryante on May 14, 2015. She loved to debate and she was in the Miryante debating club. She wanted to become a Nurse in the future but unfortunately her dream did not come true.

In November 2017, Fiona suffered from skin rush which started from her ears and later spread all over the body. She was treated from Miryante clinic which referred her to Kyegegwa Health Center IV and her all tests showed negative results which confused the doctors who referred her to Mubende Health Unit and they also found out that her conditions were beyond their understanding which forced them to refer her to Buhinga Referral Regional Hospital in Fortal Portal where she was admitted for some time.

While in Buhinga Referral Regional Hospital, Fiona started complaining of stomach pain and started vomiting blood which scared the doctors and they made for her a referral to Mulago Hospital in Kampala. While at Mulago, Makerere Research Students discovered that Fiona had a weak immune system which could not fight bacteria from reaching her body. This resulted into the bacteria to fight with other foreign bodies that resulted into skin rush. She started getting medication and her condition improved. Because the aunt was staying in Moyo District she went with her because she needed serious attention. While in Moyo District there was a great improvement.

Early September this year Fiona’s conditioned worsened, she was taken to Moyo Hospital where she spent two weeks and unfortunately on 18^th September 2018 we lost her life.

Unfortunately Fiona was born alone in her mothers’ womb and she was only survived with her aunts and her grandmother.

Fiona was well-loved and we miss her terribly, but we know that she is with God. Please join us in prayer for friends and the family who are missing her.

All expenses for her treatment were catered for by Miryante Orphans Home

Picture showing Kasiime Fiona

A Picture showing   Kasiime’s burial RIP.

Please keep us in your prayers during this difficult time.

Miryante Orphans Home

September Newsletter 2018

NUTRITION PROGRAM

MANNA PACK RICE:

Under this program, we have manna packed rice which is food containing all nutrients like carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins and all minerals. It has helped our children in the orphanage to receive a proper and balanced diet when they are sick.

Manna pack rice has become a complete meal which is taken by the malnourished children during lunch or supper and the children prefer Manna Pack to other types of foods. At first some children were not enjoying it but now they all eat it.

It has improved on the children’s health because most of the children no longer fall sick and they are energetic.

According to our nurse Twinomugisa Judith’s monthly report,  there has been a great improvement on the children’s health thanks to the manna packs according to her examination. It shows that the signs of looking weak, bony, dry skin and hair and occasional sickness have disappeared. According to MUAC (Measurement of Upper Arm Circumference) measurements, all our children are in green (they are growing healthy).

Pictures showing the nurse measuring children with MUAC measurement

School open on 17^th of Sept 2018, all of our children are in school as shown below.

GUARDIANSHIP PROGRAMME.

Under this program we have five households which the organization started within this year.

The table below shows the Names of guardians, Address and Number of children per household

The above households total up to ten children of which six are girls and four boys

When we visit these households our main aim is to check the sanitation and hygiene, performance of the children in school, health and their wellbeing and to know how the guardians have managed to cope up with the continuing program.

Findings:

Agriculture: There is a great improvement in agricultural activities  because all the  households have engaged themselves  in planting food  crops like cassava, beans, banana , Irish potatoes , sweet potatoes , groundnuts, maize, pumpkins among  others, in order to supplement on what the organization is providing and also to improve on the balanced diet of their children.

Some children have also developed skills of agriculture i.e. Akello Barbra in Igunda village planted Irish potatoes, maize and beans and also Kansime Irene in Wekomiire village rare hens with her siblings

Sanitation and hygiene: Basing on observation sanitation and hygiene has totally improved.

Health: According to our observation, we found out that Isaac had started walking and had reduced weight basing on his physical appearance. This reduced the burden on the side of the mother because she used to carry him all the time but now his able to move by himself.

Education: children were supplied with scholastic materials and have reported back to school for third term part from Isaac is still at home but we are trying to get him a school near their home where he can be walking every morning this will start with next term. Pictures showing the guardians of the children under guardianship program.

Pictures showing the children under the guardianship programme

Pictures showing Akello Barbra in her garden

Pictures showing Irene Kansiime and her mother feeding their hens

Pictures showing social workers interacting with children

Pictures showing children receiving their scholastic materials and food 

Perma garden:

This is an agricultural activity majorly specialized on planting vegetables such as kale, green pepper, egg-plant, tomatoes and onions which are still in nursery bed for this season. It is also called kitchen gardens, which help to maintain vegetables /greens in the home from season to season. There are small gardens owned by each dormitory which can be manageable. During the dry season, the gardens have to be sprayed with water.

It has reduced on expenses of buying vegetables for the children.

Children enjoy the greens and they are healthy.

This program in Miryante was brought in by Madam Alex Rausch the Peace Corps Volunteer.

Pictures of showing perma gardens and Nursery beds.

Pictures showing   children and their caretakers making a composed pit for manure that will be put in the Perma garden at increase on the fertility of the soil

Last month we received a number of donations from different groups.

Below are pictures of children holding boxes of milk 476PCS and corn flakes 122PCS. We are able to feed 120 children for two days and for corn flakes we are still feeding the children for another week.  We would like to say thank you to the Patel family, Laura’s friends and Loe Traders East Africa LTD for this wonderful donation.

Another donation was from Dr. Gloria Kimuli  Serwagi, a lecturer from Makerere university who donated two big boxes of star magic soap, shoes and clothes for the kids. We are really grateful for the love shared with us.

We are also grateful for the the drip irrigation that was donated by Fr. David Baumgartner and a top up from St. Peter’s Church. This is to help us with the vegetable garden such that we are able to run throughout the season. Alex Rausch our volunteer, Kato the caregiver have played a big role in the supervision of this project and also the planting of the vegetable garden.

We are so grateful for the donation of solar panels and the battery for the school administration. We can now print and photocopy at the technical school and this will help us save some money that we have been spending on fuel for the generator.

Guidance and Counseling

Report  from the counselor indicates  that children’s’ behavior  has greatly improved because  she no longer handles cases concerning bad behaviors like stealing from the neighbors, escaping from the  dormitories /home , abusing care takers and their fellow children, fight among themselves , amongst other characters, etc.

It also indicates that the children are able to interact /seek help from the counselor through sharing their problems they are facing and she gives them immediate help/ support all the time.

Further still shows that the personal hygiene of the children has greatly improved

There has been also a great improvement in academics of the children because the counselor has been in a position to share with the children and guide them on what to do for better grades.

Thank you for all of your support!!

AUGUST NEWSLETTER 2018

August has been a blessed month to us at Miryante Village. We received more visitors, some were Laura’s’ sisters, cousins and friends from the United States, India, Japan and Australia.  We are really grateful as a community for the wonderful love that people do share with us.

We received so many gifts from the donors last month for the children and these included shoes, clothes, art supplies, balls and sandals.

On 17^th /08/2018 our children broke off for holidays. At least most of them got good grades and were promising as they study hard to sit for final exams to be promoted to another level.

Our holiday program is going on well. The children have managed to form different clubs like a debating club which is working out well, games and sports, compound clearing, grazing, digging and Bible study class. This is all done according to the time table. Below are some of the pictures for our children while breaking off from school:

Below are pictures of our children at the orphanage and some under the guardianship playing and sharing love with sponsors.

We are also grateful for the wonderful donationof biscuts, juice and clothes from Mr. Patel’s family.

We cannot stop to say thank you to father David from the United States who visited our orphanage last year and donated a bio-gas plant to the orphanage. The project is doing very well. The system can handle boiling porridge, boiling beans and also boiling water for maize meal but we mingle from the stone. This has helped us a lot. We no longer send our children to go look for fire wood especially during a rainy season like this one.

Our gardens have expanded. During the first term holiday, our children planted sweet potatoes by the help of the our agriculture asistant, social workers and the caregivers. This was to help us improve their diet. Its during this holiday that we started harvesting as shown below.

Last term was very tight with so many activities and these included inter house compititions and the winning house was given a goat. The school later closed on 17^th /08/2018

The management team remained behind after the students had left and the other teaching staff to plan for the coming term that also has so many activites  like sitting exams such as for DIT and UBTEB for the first time here at the technical school. Below is the technical school management being helped by Fr. George William to plan for the coming term and they later posed the picture with Mr. Graham Townsend who had visited Miryante Village from New Zealand.

We are forever grateful to everyone who is supporting us in any way. We are praying for you- thank you so much for all the help and love you have given us!

JULY NEWSLETTER 2018

Hello everyone!

We would like to extend our greetings to everyone out there and also to say thank you for the great support towards our projects.

The children are doing well in their studies in all the different categories that we support and these include: primary under the orphanage, technical, secondary, guardianship and child-headed families.

On 1^st of July 2018 we visited our 22 students who study from King Solomon Secondary school. They were all very happy to see us. We also carried them a number of things for all of them and this excited them the more as you see the pictures attached below.

Technical school! The school has a total of 91 students of which 23 are from the orphanage and the 68 are from the community. Below are some of the pictures taken from the Building class, Carpentry, Tailoring class and hair dressing class.

Child-headed family program under Kyakak II refugee camp is doing well at with 30 children receiving services under this program. These children receive three meals a day. It’s not only food that we provide. We do also give them scholastic material to help them keep in school. As you see them below, they all look happy.

Through Miryante Orphanage we were able to help distribute mobility devices for people with disabilities in Kyegegwa District through donations from Crutches For Africa.

We couldn’t wait to update you about our Bio-gas project. This was a donation from Fr. David who visited last year from USA and other missioners that saw this need at the orphanage. We are so grateful for this project because finding firewood has been a big problem. We are now sure of the kids are not going to be missing meals.

We are so grateful for the borehole repairs done by Inno-Pak Company. Our borehole has been giving us giving us water with a lot of sediment until we got this donation to work on it. We are happy to inform you that the water we are getting now is very clean due to the repairs.

We would also like to expend our sincere thanks to St. Peter’s Catholic Church Ohio for the great donations they have made towards Miryante church and in this includes: 50 Benches, and 15 frames with pictures showing the stations of the cross.  Our children now no longer have to carry desks from the classroom and the dining hall to the church to use since there is a distance to the church and the kids were also accidently breaking some of the desks when they were carrying them.

The Mission group for this year has done a great job by fixing our goats house which has been in a serious need of repair and also our cattle corral. These renovations were done with the help of our children from the carpentry class and the building class. As this was taking place the ladies were having games with the little kids as shown below:

The month of July ended in a style here at Miryante. On Sunday the day started with a heavy breakfast. The children made for themselves chapatis and porridge with Milk. We had mass then led by Father Amooti  from Kakabara parish and the Director with the help of a Deacon Reed from Ohio.  We later had heavy lunch which included: Matooke, Milet bread, Soda, Fish and G.nuts, Beef (we slaughtered one of the bulls), Rice, Irish potatoes and greens. Below are the pictures.

After lunch we had a danced organized by the mission group and a number of gifts were given to the kids from Laura’s family and friends, some from Kampala and others from the USA. These included big cakes, Ice cream, Handkerchiefs, sweets, art supplies, shoes, sandals and  dresses donated to all the girls by Mrs. Karla Kensey, Eritrean Bread and many others. We later had an introduction and giving away of our own Laura Corcoran to Mr. Ambish Patel. The function was so colorful which ended with a dance.

We feel blessed already for loving us that much and for having all of us at heart. We can’t stop praying for you all every day.

Thanks Management.

April Newsletter 2018

Hello Everyone!

April was such a wonderful month with our Easter celebration. The celebration was so wonderful we felt changed after. The celebrations came along with a lot of stuff such as mass. After mass we had different meals such as matooke, rice, meat, pork, fish, G.nuts and soda. The whole celebration ended with a dance. A huge thank you to the Baker Family for sponsoring our Easter meal!

The gardens are doing well especially during this rainy season. Our volunteers are doing a great job. Alex, our Peace Corps Volunteer, planted sun flowers that she will be harvesting soon. Laura also introduced a new tree called a moringa tree that can be used to help improve the children’s nutrition. The banana plantation is doing well. The guavas have also grown, as well as plenty of papayas and pumpkins as shown below in the pictures.

Our children in King Solomon broke off for holidays. Their performance was good and we are sure they will be of help during this holiday. Thanks to everyone for helping us meet their school requirements and fees.

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

March Newsletter 2018

Hello Everyone.

Greetings from Miryante Orphanage and Miryante Vocational School. The children are all in good health and all in school. We are glad to inform you that the kids are all very happy due to different programmes such as debate club, Sports clubs, Miryante choir, and watching movies over the weekend. The joy at Miryante can easily be told by the little nursery kids during break time as shown below.

We were also humbled to host one of Laura’s friends called Ruth and her family who celebrated their son’s birthday with our kids. The kids and staff at the orphanage were so grateful to host Ruth’s family and to share their birthday joy with our kids. They were also thankful to Ruth’s family for choosing Miryante as a place where they could celebrate. This really shows that Miryante is the best place to be. Ruth’s family donated clothes, sweets and cakes to the children as shown below.

The guardianship program is going on well as shown with big smiles below in the pictures. Madam Lydia managed to visit five families with nine of the children that we are helping under the program and the kids were very happy. It’s really very hard to get Isaac to smile but you can tell from the picture that Isaac couldn’t believe when he got a donation of a mattress, blanket, bed sheets, clothes and food. Isaac was so excited for receiving all of these things and this was such a big achievement for the family as we were told by the relatives. This was kind of a dream to Isaac since it was the first time he has owned a mattress. He was so excited that he wouldn’t even allow anyone else to touch his mattress.

Water is no longer a problem to us at Miryante especially during this rainy season when all the fifteen water tanks are full. The borehole is now more available and we are sure this will not be a problem anymore. We are really grateful for this donation and we would like to say thank you once again to our donors.

Thanks to everyone for loving Miryante!

FEBRUARY NEWSLETTER 2018

Hello everyone!

We are so grateful for the month of February with so many activities going on at the site. We have had over 30 new children joining the orphanage.

We are also grateful to our Peace Corps Volunteer Alex who started up a bible class every Thursday of the week. It really is a blessing seeing our children growing up with the fear of God and also praying for our donors that have provided for us generously just as shown in the picture below.

We are also grateful for our penpal program that is growing every day. This month we received a couple of art supplies from Amanda Hall for our children. It was such a great joy to our kids as shown below with a big smile.

We are also grateful to our well-wishers who have donated to the organization generously to help us improve and also come up with a number of projects as shown below.

The nursery class has been separated from the dining hall. This has been one of the challenges to our nursery teacher is that the pupils were having trouble concentrating in an open dinning hall. The teacher was also not comfortable teaching in the open dining hall because she could not leave her charts hanging up.

Our piggery unit has also been improved. Our pigs can no longer escape outside. All doors are now fixed with the floor also worked on.

Our rabbit project is now done with three rabbits for starters: one male and two females. We have just ordered for one female rabbit. Our plan is to see them multiply so that our kids can have enough meat every quarter of the year. The house is big enough to accommodate even 20 as shown below.

We have also been in position to improve our office by making more partitions and beautifying the office with artwork from the children. Below is the Library, Counselling room, social workers’ and volunteer room. We have enough space to enable our work go on well.

Water has been one of our biggest problem around the site. The one borehole couldn’t serve the purpose at all. Our borehole has been breaking at least two to three times a month and the cost of fixing has been very high and also the demand for water has also been increasing daily. Thanks to a donation from Inno-pak and well wishers, we received 15 water tanks, 5 of which are 10,000 liters and 10 which are 5,000 liters. All house have tanks including all dormitories at the orphanage, church, girls hostels, boys hostels, and the whole school including the teachers unit. We are so blessed as Miryante to have all this and we say thank you to the well-wisher that funded for this project.

Below is also our bio-gas project that was started last year and it’s now in its finishing stages. This has been our biggest challenge as Miryante organization we have completely run short of firewood as the organization grows bigger and there is no firewood available in the surrounding area. This is a problem already on site. We should be able to start using the biogas after two months. First the biogas chamber needs to be fed with human waste and animal waste, and then later it will produce enough gas that we can use for cooking. Below is how the whole construction took place. Also pictures are the trainings the children and caregivers received on what to feed it and not to feed it. Thanks to Fr. David at Sacred Heart Church in the Diocese of Crookston who fund raised for these efforts to save Miryante from its firewood problem.

We were able to have a reward program for our children to begin the year. The 2 children who serve as chapel leaders were given Bibles, Children who are Hygiene Captains were given racks to hang their knickers, the 3 best time keepers were awarded with wall clocks and the little ones received awards. This was the best way to thank them for good behaviour and also to keep things competitive for following rules.

During the last Saturday of the month we visited our children in King Solomon Secondary boarding school to check on their progress and all was well.

On the 28^th of February we were privileged to receive our volunteer’s husband at Miryante. He travelled all the way from India to come visit with a couple of things for our children such as balls and sweets. It was such a good time and the kids got to enjoy the Indian music especially when he sung with Alex and the kids also entertained them. This is now our culture in Miryante whenever we receive a visitor we get to entertain him or her.

We are also grateful to inform you that four of our students who sat for UBET (Technical School Certification Examinations) last year all passed and right now we have received a centre number for UBET. This mean that Miryante is now an official Technical School testing center, so our students can test from within instead of traveling to other schools for examinations. We are also grateful for our board members who help us to orient the new students during the second week of the school opening. Our technical school currently has 98 students and we expect more still to come from the community. Out of the 98, 23 are from the orphanage.

This is our second phase of the perma-garden program with our volunteer Alex supervising caregivers and the children per dorm. This is now a competition within the dormitories. A huge thanks to Alex for this project.

We are also happy to inform you that all our kids who received animal donations from their sponsors such as goats and heifers were labelled with tags. A big thanks to Alex and Laura for tagging the children’s goats. This will really help us to identify the livestock as we breed them and make sure the children keep their animals well. The children are very happy and we believe for the stubborn children, its one way to encourage them to not run away or cause mischief at the orphanage because they won’t want to leave their animals behind before finishing school. We believe it will be one way of keeping them around rather than running back on the streets. Thanks to the sponsors for the great job.

Thanks very much to everyone that is contributing towards Miryante’s shining brightly. God Bless.

January has been so busy for us here in Miryante. We have had several new children brought to Miryante by police and the probation office from street. We were able to find two homes where two of these kids originated from before joining the street and we are happy that they will have a home where we can resettle them after school.

We are also grateful to inform you that Miryante is growing and expanding in the number of services that we offer. Last year we started offering services such as food and scholastic materials to child-headed families in Kyaka II refugee camp under Angels Care School and the program is still running. We are able to provide these services on a monthly basis.

This year we have started a Guardianship or Foster Program for ten of our children that have lived with us in the orphanage for some time. It’s a pilot project that we are trying to run. One of Miryante’s social workers and a counsellor visit their homes and school on monthly basis to check on their progress at school and home. Miryante still provides food to support to them on monthly basis, bedding, and school fees which is paid direct to the school. We came up with this kind of arrangement so that in the future if the government decides to close orphans homes we have another option to continue the support for our orphaned children. We included Isaac, one of the children from Kyaka II Refugee Camp with severe medical complications on board for this program. Isaac is an orphaned boy who is aged 6 years now and we couldn’t keep him in the orphanage because he seriously needed special care. He weighs 89kgs and as Miryante has been providing support for him via a family he started walking at the beginning of this year.

Below are the 10 children we are sponsoring.    

Last year 9 of our pupils sat for PLE (Primary Leaving Examination) and 6 scored good grades and they were able to be promoted to high school. 3 joined Technical School at Miryante Vocational. It was such agreat joy. Therefore, currently we have 19 students that we are sponsoring in high school, another student is in St. Peter’s Technical School majoring in designing, one child is in a teaching collage, one is in the seminary and one is joining senior five for her high school. Therefore in total we have 23 of our children going to school at boarding schools.

Below is the new group pausing for a picture before setting off for school.

During January holiday when most of the kids were off for holidays, we renovated all the dormitories around the site and sprayed all the dormitories that are now looking much better as shown below in the pic.

We are also grateful to inform you how our Peace Corps Volunteer has been of help with training caregivers during this dry season of January with digging around perma-gardens. We saw that it is necessary to involve all caregivers in this training such that each of them trains her/ his house of children. Alex trained caregivers on how to manage these gardens despite of the drought with a number of green vegetables to help improve the diet of the children throughout the season and some of the gardens will be shown in our Feb letter and some of the vegetable that will be ready by that time despite the drought. Below is also one of our girls Marie who is interested in being a farmer involved in the caregivers’ training.

Thanks to our generous donors for helping to keep Miryante shining.

Thank You,

Management

December Newsletter 2017

December was such busy month with a lot of amazing things. All our kids broke off for holidays by early December and they were all promoted to other classes. When the children broke off our nurse and Alex our Peace Corps Volunteer came up with a mosquito net program to educate all the children about the dangers of sleeping without a mosquito net and also taught them how to hang and use mosquito nets as seen below.

This year, thanks to an outpouring of love and support, our children celebrated Christmas just like any other child. Our kids really feel loved when she or he gets something new on such a special day and this time round it was mega. A big thanks to individual sponsors who sent Christmas money for their kids to go shopping! These kids had such a wonderful Christmas.

Inno-Pak Ltd made a bonus donation to transport every single one of our kids to the  Mubende Market where they were able to make his or her choice of what to wear on Christmas day and New Year’s Day. The lucky ones who picked two items and still had balance had a chance of getting three items and also a pair of church shoes, sandals, belts for boys and towels for all. This took us four days of shopping with the help of some administrators and caregivers. It was a blast for the kids visiting some of the happening places in Kyegegwa for a snack on our way back after the shopping.  Unfortunately one of our boy got lost but he was found in the morning and also a few especially the little ones in the first trip lost their clothes as they were trying to fit shoes. Image one picking shoes and leaving clothes behind, so we had to do another shopping for extra three that had lost them. This was unbelievable for them to an extent that some thought they would miss out on the shoes. We have never had such an exciting day of shopping for the kids.

The shopping centre was 64kms from Miryante and this was such a nice experience to all our children driving them out of Kyegegwa district to another district to do shopping. It wasn’t easy for all the kids to make choice just like any person especially them being children and also being their first time to move out as shown below.

After our long waiting, the  church was blessed on Christmas day by the director Rev. Fr. Erineo Mushuhukye and that is where we celebrated mass. At least now the church is separated from the dining hall and their is respect for the chapel by the children. Both the children and the community were happy for such an achievement  and 14 of our children got baptised on Christmas day in our new church.

The preparations started with choir rehearsals by the children at the orphanage and they were so excited for such a long awaited day to celebrate mass in new clothes, shoes and new church as shown below.

After church the children had a very wonderful meal. Thanks to the Baker Family, each had bottle of soda, Irish potatoes, matooke, rice, beef, pork, G.nuts and fish. The celebrations went on well.

The year ended with a trip to the source of the Nile. This was just like a major night to both the kids and the caregivers because none of them thought they would get this change at any single moment in life. We had so many donations for this that we were able to take all 145 of the kids and caretakers, instead of one bus of the older children as we had originally planned. All the kids and the caregivers had a boat ride. It was a round trip but full of excitement. We paid for a guide to let the kids ask questions and get the real history of the place.

Thanks to everyone that has donated anything in kind to Miryante. Our children have never slept hungry, never lacked clothes or school fees. This is all because of you people. Thanks very much for having us at heart and giving us the best Christmas in memory.

Happy New year to you all God Bless!