January Update

2016 started off wonderfully here at Miryante Orphans Home. All of the children have been on school holidays after their exams. We had 11 students take exams, with four passing 2nd Grade, four passing 3rd Grade and three passing 4th Grade.

We are very pleased to announce that the children are all fit and healthy. We had two children undergo hernia opperations recently, but they are both doing very well and are on the road to a full recovery. The dentist also came in to see a couple of children who were suffering with their teeth, however, after some treatment they are now doing very well. The dentist will be coming over again in the coming month to check more of the children's teeth, when they are back from their school holidays.

The First Lady of Uganda donated two million Ugandan Shillings to our farm project, allowing us to purchase two new cows. We now have a herd of 18 cows, two of which have given birth.  We are also able to milk four of our herd, ensuring that there is enough fresh milk for all of the orphans.

The farm has been coming on nicely, and the children have recently harvested three bags of beans, five sacks of Irish potatoes, six basins of groundnuts and 200 pumpkins! We couldn't have been more pleased with the harvest, and everyone's hard work was justified as the children tucked into the pumpkins for the first time. We have also managed to loan the tractor out for the coming season to raise some much needed extra funds for Miryante Orphans Home.

The end of the month also saw the arrival of Claire and Adam, our two new volunteers from Great Britain. They will be staying with us for the next month, and have already been working on a number of tasks. Their first job was to sort out the library, and after a day's hard graft, all of the books were organised neatly into categories, making it easier for the children to find the books they need.

Claire and Adam also brought with them some clothes to donate, which the children were very pleased to receive. And, with Adam being an avid football fan back in Britain, he decided to bring two new footballs for the children. It is safe to say that they boys were very pleased with this donation. Whilst many of the children have been away from the orphanage over the holidays, those that have stayed have had fun playing football, netball and volleyball with our new volunteers. They even treated Adam and Claire to a night of entertainment as they played the drums, sang and danced for our new guests.

Miryante Vocational School opens on the 22nd February, and we are expecting more students than ever before in all of the courses we offer. As well as the orphans, the Technical School is also open to children from the local area, who pay a small fee. This is a fantastic way for us to raise more money for the project, whilst also offering local children access to technical education. We are especially excited to launch our brand new Mechanics and Driving courses, which are already proving popular, with plenty of children signing up to begin this term.

We are optimistic about 2016, here at Miryante and want to thank the generosity of our donors, who make our work here possible.