Miryante Orphans Home Newsletter October 2012
Happy fall from Miryante Orphans Home! Hope all is well! Things are going splendidly here at MOH.
Currently we have 93 children, 52 boys and 41 girls. Right now is an exciting time for 14 of our children who are currently in the primary level of schooling and are gearing up to take exams to qualify for the secondary level, which is the equivalent of high school. The students have been studying tirelessly and are so excited to take the test at the beginning of November.
Currently MOH has 12 employees and one volunteer. We have all been working very hard this year focusing on income generating and awareness of our cause to the community and the family members of our children.
We have been very busy working on income generating by developing our roadside market. At this market we sell milk, greens, vegetables, avocado, mangos and jack fruit which we produce and harvest at Miryante. We also sell tomatoes, sugar cane, shoes, mosquito nets and rosaries which we receive from outside sources. The month of October, the market brought in around 444,000 Ugandan shillings.
We are still working on our animal husbandry projects which are going well and the children enjoy helping and having this responsibility. Currently we have 12 cows, 7 goats and 6 chickens. We are working with a local farmer in Kyegegwa who has promised to provide us with rabbits so we can revamp our rabbit project.
Our gardening has been going well and the rainy season has been promising! We have been buying beans to feed the children, but it seems that next year we will be able to feed them our own beans because the season has been going so well. We have been growing potatoes, cassava, corn and coffee. We also have a few small vegetable gardens where we grow lettuce, dill, cilantro, chard, beets, green beans, basil and broccoli. It has been wonderful teaching the children about gardening and the importance of healthy eating.
This past August three of our young ladies here at MOH attended a girl’s empowerment camp in Fort Portal. This camp was incredibly beneficial and taught the young ladies about assertiveness, HIV/AIDS awareness, cooking, life skills and small activities/projects they can develop to generate income for themselves. An example; making small, lovely coin purses that they can sell (let us know if you would like to buy one from our ladies!). This December, MOH is sending 19 of our children to camp. There are two camps that are occurring, Camp Build for boys and Camp Glow for girls. The camp will happen in Entebbe which is a town by the capital Kampala. The kids are so excited and many have never left Kyegegwa District, so this will be a huge adventure!
Our Peace Corps volunteers Liz and Heather are still busy teaching Life Skills class at MOH. They are continuing to teach the youth 13 and above every Saturday. Liz also holds a cooking class in the morning every Saturday and teaches PIACY (Presidential Initiative on HIV Strategy for Community to the Youth) on Wednesdays. Many of our children are also involved in clubs at school. An example of some of these clubs; Straight Talk, which is a paper youth write themselves focusing on issues concerning life skills. There is also the GEM club which is a girl’s empowerment club and Shoots and Roots which focuses on environmental issues.