Update January 2009
Dear Friends and Supporters of UAAH!
Once again the last year has past very quickly – Werner and Angelika spend a full month in Uganda at the beginning of the year and since then the time has flown by. The next trip to Uganda is scheduled in just a few days.
Therefore we want to give you a small summary of our activities in 2008:
In 2007 we received donations of a sum total of €22,500. We were able to raise the amount in 2008 to €34,000! And we are very proud of that. Many smaller and bigger events caused the increase in donations: jumble sales, jam selling, concerts, christmas markets, birthday celebrations with donations instead of presents and some exceptional donations, as for example we received €5,000 from an inheritance, €500 from an ecumenial women's group for a women's group in Uganda, as well as the year's donation of the TomTec GmbH in Unterschleissheim and all the other donations that we are not able to name one by one. You all have done you part.
In January 2008 we sent €15,000 to the health unit at the St. Theresa Vocational School in Mahyoro. Inspired by our huge donation and several others through a dutch donor Fr. Fred Tusingire put it into his hands to open the health unit during a visit of UAAH members in April 2008. UAAH's donation was used for the basic medical equipment, the water system (rainwater collection tanks), the electricity (a solar power panel) and the furniture, as well as the salary for the nurse for the first year until the health unit will be able to stand on its own feet.
All our other currently running projects were supported, so that we can now report that we are sponsoring 104 aidsorphans and widows. The St. Therese Vocational Schools was supported as well as we were able to, mainly through the sending of donated school books. After having visited the projects the motivation was high when Angelika and Werner came back to Germany.
The European School in Munich-Perlach has been supporting us a great deal and they were able to provide us with English teaching books. We packed them all in 20kg parcels – that takes some time, we can tell you! - which were all received without any complications in Fort Portal and transferred to the school in Mahyoro. School books in Uganda are very expensive so it felt justified to send the parcels down even if the postage of €85 for 20 kg adds up to quite a lot. Postage was partly taken over by the European school and by the Gymnasium Tegernsee. A amazingly huge clothes donation was received from the primary and comprehensive school in Rottach Egern. All the children and their guardians are verz grateful for the donations and showed their appreciation of the gifts. Following these successes the Gymnasium Tegernsee will call upon its students to donate goods for UAAH. Especially in demand are black shoes as they are part of the school uniform. However the logistics to store all the goods is starting to get very challenging. Therefore we want to say a big thanks that a small delivery van can always be used free of charge during our jumble sale activities.
Evelyn Schwab and Angelika Jaksch took part in a training course from the German ministery for development in which they were introduced to the process of applying for government grants. Thez felt they have learnt a lot and they will utilise their knowledge in the coming months. There will be another report on the upcoming trip to Uganda as soon as they are back home.
For now thanks again for all the support.
Angelika Jaksch
UAAH e.V. executive director