TESS v2

Reports of the last visit to Teso

Margaret Stevens went in July and was joined for all or part of the time by Ben Blackledge, Catherine Titley, Heidi and Jörg Klinner. She also helped co-ordinate the visit of a team of 12 from St Neots Methodist Church. They went to help build dormitories at St Thomas's Girls School, Kaberamaido, which 11 sponsored girls attend, and provide free dental care in the area. They raised much more money than they expected - enough to complete the 3 dormitories (which were furnished with bunk beds by friends in northern Germany, while the compound was fenced by TDT) and almost enough extra to complete the adjoining medical unit and living accommodation for the matron! Meanwhile, Lindy extracted 560 teeth, with some of the team assisting her.

Ben's report TESO: MY VISIT….

My involvement with TESS began in February this year, when my parents, who sponsor a child on the scheme, informed me of the idea to build a new school for the disadvantaged children of Teso. As a post-graduate Architecture student, I found the idea of the project very exciting and intriguingly ambitious. We decided that the best way for me to contribute to the project would be to accompany Margaret on her visit to Teso in July. As well as assisting with the sponsorship programme, I used the visit as an opportunity to carry out primary research for my Masters dissertation, which will explore modern developments in the family homesteads of Teso.

Visiting Schools and Homes in Teso
Most of the five weeks was spent in Teso, visiting the schools and homes of sponsored children. I found the conversations I had with them challenging, enlightening and uplifting. Some of the issues discussed were, to me, so incomprehensibly traumatic and unfamiliar that the horror I felt often didn’t really sink in until afterwards, when I was able to reflect on what was said. This is partly because of the remarkably calm and matter-of-fact way in which students tended to speak, and also because so many of the people I spoke to were able to occasionally put their problems to one side and share a laugh and a song or three! I became interested in finding out more about the day-to-day lifestyles of the children and what sort of places, people and activities they like or dislike.

Gradually, as I became accustomed to their ways of speaking and writing, I was able to appreciate the students’ personalities and it became easier to relate to them and understand their needs. I felt especially privileged to be able to visit so many homes of students and of people involved with the scheme. I had expected the experience of walking amongst, and sleeping in, the traditionally built grass-thatched huts, to feel quite surreal to me because of how far removed this is from the domestic environment I am familiar with. But once I had become used to the surroundings and the nature of people’s everyday activities, these homes started to feel perfectly normal to me, even as a visitor from a distant country, so that finding some newly-built permanent houses and other modern commodities such as radios and mobile phones was strikingly unexpected.

In the last twenty five years, much of the Iteso cultural tradition has been damaged by various tribal and political conflicts, and also by natural disasters like flooding and drought. However, it is clear from visiting these homes that the relationship between people and their land is not only still strong, but also a vital part of people's continuing process of recovery and development. In rural areas, most of the land in a homestead is used for cultivation, communal activities and household work, all of which take place outside, rather than inside the buildings. I will not forget our visits to Katakwi district, where we were fortunate enough to be invited to stay at the extensive and relatively modern family homestead of Sam Ocen the TESS driver (and translator/social worker/storyteller etc). In the same area, we also visited the home of Apio Esther, a 17 year old orphaned student at a vocational college, who has a small plot of land in a refugee camp on which she has built herself a grass-thatched sleeping hut and kitchen for herself, her twin sister and her own child. For me, one of the most striking differences between Sam’s family homestead and Esther’s small plot of land in the camp was the amount of land around the buildings. The camp consists of hundreds of huts tightly packed together with little usable space in between, whereas Sam’s compound, by contrast, is made up of several huts, some permanent buildings and, most significantly, lots of outdoor space in which the family members can cultivate, prepare food, cook, wash clothes and sit down to chat in the evenings. I remain grateful to Sam’s family for welcoming and accommodating us so generously, for giving up their own beds for our comfort and for spending so much time and energy preparing such a large amount of fresh, tasty food just for our consumption.

The School Project
In the latter part of our stay in Teso, we were able to focus our attention on the vision for the new school. This involved several discussions with local bishops. After a brief presentation of the vision to the Bishop of Kumi, he was convinced and promptly took us to visit a plot of land which he subsequently offered for the school! Located in a prominent midway along the main road between Kumi and and Soroti, the site itself is flat with an almost completed brick church in the centre. Both the site and much of the adjoining land is owned by Kumi Diocese, creating the potential for the future expansion of the school. I was stunned by how quickly we had resolved the problem of getting a site!

Before anything can be built, there are still many more issues to address, not least raising funds. To ensure that the school is run according to the vision, a board of governors, independent of the Church, needs to be set up. Despite the many obstacles which must still be overcome, it is now possible to start developing design concepts and proposals for the site that has been visited. Whilst on site, I undertook a crude but reasonably thorough survey of the site and sketched a site plan which will provide a useful base for developing ideas for the buildings.

After we left Teso, we visited the Faculty of Technology at Makerere University in Kampala where we met with Dr Stephen Mukiibi, head of the Architecture department, and Dr Moses Musaazi, the leader of Presidential Initiative to Support Appropriate Technologies (PISAT). In their different ways, both meetings produced refreshingly encouraging responses to the vision. Dr Musaazi provided an insight into some of his innovative forms of alternative waste-disposal, water collection and storage, power generation and brickmaking technologies. His son, who is a young architect, attended both meetings and expressed genuine enthusiasm for the project and suggested he would be interested in collaborating with TESS during the design process. Dr Mukiibi suggested that the best way of ensuring a large range of high-quality ideas would be to set up a design competition for students in the Architecture department. The next stage of the process is to develop a concise brief for this student competition. If there is anyone interested in finding out more about this project, and maybe making a contribution towards either the funding or design process, then please get in touch with TESS.

A Few Other Highlights…
Before the trip, I had never even left Europe. I never could have imagined that it would be possible to see as many different types of landscape, and to interact with as many different communities, as we did. During our brief stay at the Sipi Falls (in the foothills of Mount Elgon) we encountered something very close to an equatorial rainforest, in terms of both vegetation and climate! At the end, we drove through some very arid and remote grass-lands on the way to the beautiful lakes and mountains in Kabale near the Rwanda border, before ending the trip with a brief session bird and animal spotting in the spectacular Queen Elizabeth game park, located on the valley floor of the Western Rift Valley. And of course, there is the flat, semi-cultivated plateau of Teso, with its big sunsets, its sporadic rocky outcrops and its shimmering swamps. Because we managed to travel to so many parts of Uganda, I never really lost that sense of discovering something that I hadn’t seen before, which I found personally very satisfying.

This trip, however, was about far more than simply achieving a sense of personal satisfaction. The most memorable aspect of this trip was the personal and intimate level at which we interacted with so many of the local students, teachers and families of Teso. Right at the mid-point of the trip, there was one Sunday which epitomised all that made it such a special visit for me. We spent the whole day with Akello Margaret, who is sponsored by my parents, and her friend, Asimo Lucy. Much of the day was spent driving between their homes, both in the remotest parts of Amuria District and several kilometres away from the nearest road. We had to force the minibus along footpaths through narrow gaps between crops, bushes and tall grass. In the morning, we visited a local village church, where the priest and layreader delivered a phenomenal, unrehearsed sermon in both English and Ateso, which was presented more like a theatrical performance than the standard lecture format.

For me, there was nothing on the trip quite as surreal as being shown, by Akello Margaret, some photos of my own family! On top of that we were also given a musical performance on a local harp-like instrument, and a proudly presented meal of roasted maize cobs and groundnuts – this turned out to be virtually all the food Lucy’s orphaned siblings had in their home at the time. Due to various delays, lunch was postponed by several hours, and the day therefore ended with two evening meals and lots of jubilant singing in the minibus on the return journey to Soroti. On this day, I truly felt like I was on the inside of the Teso community, rather than just a visitor or a tourist; and the people I spent the day with were living proof that, given the necessary means and a sense of belief, an individual may be capable of learning and flourishing even if all the odds are stacked against them.

Margaret's report: TRYING TO IMPROVE THE LIVES OF TEENAGERS IN UGANDA
The July visit seemed to have an emphasis on meeting with significant people in our efforts to improve the situations and school environments of our sponsored children as well as for young people in Uganda generally. Most teenagers have to attend boarding schools, so school is the most significant part of their lives.

What are the problems?

• Sleep deprivation due to compulsory prep (homework) until 10.00pm or 10.30pm and starting again as early as 3.00am in some schools (5.00am is the latest!). In most schools, they average only 4-5 hours of sleep every night, even at weekends.

• Nothing to eat or drink in the mornings until some time between 8.00am and 10.00am (schools vary)

• Class, tests, exams and compulsory prep even on Saturdays and Sundays

• Holiday tuition - an extra two weeks of compulsory school attendance during the holidays

• Beating - although it has been banned by the government, nothing has changed. Children are beaten for the slightest misdemeanours, including failing tests, getting a Maths sum wrong, falling asleep in prep, wearing slightly worn shoes, making too much noise, forgetting a book in the dormitory. It is not unusual for a whole class or dormitory to be beaten - or even the whole school!

• Poor diet in schools - beans and posho (made out of maize flour) twice a day six and a half days a week, with no fresh vegetables or fruit

• Little or no time for rest and relaxation

• 80% of girls, especially in the rural areas where there is great poverty, drop out of school. One of the main reasons is because they have no sanitary pads to use during menstruation - they cannot afford to buy pads, which are imported.

• Many children eat only once a day when at home whilst some can go a whole day without food.

• Children (including our sponsored children) often come back to school late after the holidays because they can't raise even the little money that is required to get transport back to school. Nor do they have any money to buy essential school materials such as exercise books and pens.

• Post Traumatic Stress and clinical depression is quite common but not recognised and treated - it seriously affects the children's physical health and academic achievements

If and when children do well at school and get good results, it is in spite of the education they are getting, not because of it. These conditions, especially the serious lack of sleep, are affecting their physical and mental health as well as their academic achievements. And it obviously affects some more than others, depending on their personalities and physical needs. For most, home is no better because of poverty and hardships. We have sponsored students in about 30 schools throughout Teso and beyond. Nearly all want to change schools because they are not happy where they are. The sad thing is that it is the same in every school, so there is no point in transferring them.

What are we trying to do to change things?

We met with the Minister of State for Youth and Children Affairs and presented her with a document of information I have collected from around the world on sleep deprivation and the importance of sufficient rest and relaxation in order to reach one's potential and be healthy. We also discussed many of the concerns above, especially the problem of frequent and inappropriate beating in schools. She was unaware just how serious and prevalent the problems are and promised to raise these issues in Parliament and with the Ministries of Education and Health.

Build a radically different, model school (by Ugandan standards) in Teso which would address all these problems and which we would be happy to send our own children and grandchildren to (that is the test for me!). Not only will the ethos and daily routine be different, but the buildings will look very different, to serve the purpose, using and incorporating a variety of sustainable and alternative technologies. There will be a small farm which will provide daily fresh fruit, vegetables, eggs and milk whilst teaching improved methods of sustainable agriculture. There will be workshops which will train and employ people and produce all the requirements for the school and for sale; and a health clinic which will serve the local community as well. We talked about the ideas with various people, including the Minister for Youth and Children, Dr Moses Musaazi (an inventor in the Technology Faculty) and Dr Stephen Mukiibi (Head of the School of Architecture) at Makerere University, four Bishops in Teso (past, present and future!), Professors Barnabas and Laura Otaala, etc. The Bishop of Kumi has already given land on the borders of Kumi and Soroti Dioceses which Ben Blackledge surveyed and mapped. Dr Mukiibi will offer designing the school as a competition in the Architecture School. The funds have started with a gift of £70 - can this be multiplied like the loaves and fishes when Jesus fed 5000 people?

We visited a labour intensive project set up by Dr Musaazi in a refugee camp in western Uganda for making sanitary pads from papyrus and recycled paper, using simple machinery he has made. They sell at a fraction of the price of imported pads. We asked him to set up a unit in Teso. Just after we met with him, he met with two Americans who said they could get funding to set up another unit, but it must be in an area where there are displaced people! So our dream could soon come true. Not a glamorous project, but one which will, quite literally, transform the lives of women and girls in Teso. In the meantime, we are buying enough pads to keep our sponsored girls supplied.

The system of micro-loans we set up for our sponsored students 9 months ago is working really well and enabling many of them to earn enough money for transport and other essentials for school as well as medical treatment in the holidays. We plan to use a Reconxile training course available online on the Retreat in December to give them more skills when setting up small businesses.

We met with BRAC (a Bangladeshi NGO which developed the concept of micro-finance which has now spread throughout the world) to discuss ways of working in Teso to enable the communities our students come from to access loans for simple income-generating projects. This needs exploring further. I also met with the Pentecostal Assemblies of God (PAG) Development Officer to discuss how their micro-finance department could help provide some training on the Retreat to enable our students to become catalysts in their communities so that their communities can apply for loans from the PAG.

Once again, we spent many hours in various Kampala hospitals and clinics with students who had more serious medical problems. At last, an Endocrinology specialist, whom one of our girls was referred to, recognised that her problem was severe depression and not physical in origin. She referred her to Dr Musiisi who would have liked to admit her, but is treating her as an out-patient. He is one of the first psychiatrists in Uganda, who has researched and specialised in depression in orphans and traumatised children and has trained teams of psychiatric doctors and assistants throughout Uganda. I discovered there is even one in Soroti, whom I have now spoken to and who will see those of our students whom I think are suffering from depression (ie: with unexplained physical symptoms, problems with sleeping, crying, always feeling sad etc). When visiting our three girls at the nursing school in Kabale (far south, near the Rwanda border), I talked to the Principal and Tutor about Grace, a girl who has been severely depressed for years - they agreed to take her to the Post Traumatic Stress clinic the next day.

What do we still need to work on?

The new school is an enormous project which sometimes feels too ambitious and daunting. When we were at Taize recently, Brother Rob said, when talking about the miracle of the loaves and fishes, if we focus on the goal, we will be paralysed. But if we co-operate with God and start with what we have been given, he will make the miracle happen. Please pray especially for Rev Jeremiah Acelun and Rev Sam Ediau.
In-service training for teachers, not only in their specialist subjects, but also on topics such as ways of disciplining children, bullying, the importance of praise and encouragement, the importance of sleep and recreational activities, etc. We desperately need teachers, trainers, educationalists from UK to come and help run some workshops. Do you know of someone who would be interested?to talk about and educate people about severe stress and depression and find support and treatment for those sufferingand raise funds for the Retreat for our sponsored students in December, focusing especially on helping them to set up their own small businesses and be catalysts for change in their communitiesattitudes about the importance of sleep for teenagers and alternatives to beating children requires a change in the culture, not just in schools and teacher training colleges, but also in homes and families. It will be a long, slow process which may well take a generation.

CATHERINE'S REPORT
I first visited Teso in November 2007 and have been hoping to return ever since arriving home. This opportunity came with my decision to do a Masters course in International Development. My dissertation concerned the behaviour of young women in Africa that could lead to early pregnancy and HIV infection, and the vulnerabilities and pressures that led to such behaviour. I returned to Teso with Margaret in July 2009 for 3 weeks in order to get a clearer idea of what these vulnerabilities were. Two parts of my trip enabled me to do this. Firstly, in my final few days in Uganda, Margaret and I helped Sam and Harriet to run a mini-retreat for 8 girls who had to leave school because they had become pregnant. Adolescent pregnancy in Uganda is high. As well as dropping out of school, some of the girls on the retreat were now obligated to leave home in order to live with the family of the baby’s father (the cultural norm); some of them were very unhappy and poorly treated by other members of the household. As part of the retreat the girls were offered micro-loans, and ideas for small businesses that would help to support them and their children were discussed. They were also spoken to by a nurse about family planning.

During the retreat each of the girls was asked to speak to Harriet, Margaret or me about their experiences. It emerged from this that whilst one or two of the girls had been willing to have sex, powerlessness played a huge part in the situation of these girls – for example, one girl spoke of being forced into having sex by a man who had been giving her money, as a way of repaying him. Being in no position to pay him back financially she had no other choice but to give into his threatening demands. Amongst those who had willingly had sex, peer pressure had played a large role and rumours surrounding contraception and abstinence also contributed to their early pregnancy. All of the girls were hugely regretful at losing their education and keen to continue. Encouragingly, the majority of the girls said that they would be willing to share their experiences with other young women and encourage them no avoid becoming pregnant whilst in school.

The second way in which my trip helped me to understand why young women engage in risky sexual behaviour was by discussing sexual issues with the sponsored students as part of the questionnaire that we used when visiting them in their schools. Most of the girls were surprisingly open about discussing this subject. The most striking thing we found was that almost every girl had been asked to have sex at some point, most often when they are at home in their village and by someone older than they are. The most common reasons for abstaining were the risk of becoming pregnant and having to lose their education. However, as with the girls on the retreat, peer pressure was strong and girls who had had sex feared asking their partner to use a condom because of the stigma related to them.

The story of one girl emphasised the importance of being sponsored through education as she had been engaging in a sexual relationship with an older man so that he would pay her school fees. She was able to leave this relationship once she received sponsorship. The pressures that the girls spoke about tied in with those spoken about by the girls who had become pregnant, and suggest that teenage pregnancy will continue to be a problem in Uganda whilst poverty continues to place women in vulnerable positions and stigma surrounding abstinence and contraception is so strong.

This trip helped greatly with my dissertation. As well as this, it was wonderful to be involved with the work of TESS again. All of the sponsored students are a delight to be with and talk to.

Some highlights of the trip were:
Experiencing what can only be described as a tropical rainstorm whilst hiking to the Sipi Falls. The paths turned to muddy slopes and our shoes and clothes became water-logged, but the magnificent falls were worth it!the beautiful African sunsets.Akello Margaret’s home along a track that had clearly never been used by a motor vehicle before.time with a small group of students in Kampala whilst they received medical attention. It was fun playing games with them, doing puzzles, sharing books and our own stories.a village church, seeing young faces peering in through the gaps in the wall and three of the sponsored students, Akello Margaret, Asimo Lucy and Acipa Esther, standing up at the front to sing to the congregation.singing and dancing by the students at St Thomas’s school that was prepared to greet the St Neot’s group.

These are just few of the many highlights. Just like the last time I visited Uganda, I came away desperate to return and hope that this will be possible in the future.

Drought and famine in Teso
After the worst flooding in memory in 2007, when crops in the fields and stored food were destroyed, the weather has gone to the opposite extreme. Since then, the rains have failed several times and there hasn't been a normal harvest for over two years. The situation is serious in many parts of Teso. Some of our sponsored students came to Sam in desperation in the recent school holidays because there was no food to eat at home. He kept some of them at his home and gave money to others. Prices of food are soaring, making it impossible for poor people to buy any when they run out of food. The famine in parts of East Africa is even beginning to hit the headlines in this country; but it always takes the international community a long time to respond.

The children's Sunday groups at Southbourne church in Bournemouth are helping to organise the Harvest Festival service and events this year. Like others in their church, they sponsor one of our girls. Because of the famine in Teso, they are planning to raise £400 so that they can give each of our sponsored students a gift of 2kg of rice to take home at the end of this term to share with their families for Christmas Day. They will all be thrilled to have such a treat, especially when many families have little or nothing to eat at the moment.

Extract from a letter
Adongo Jane lives with her mother and younger siblings in an IDP camp where they have no land to cultivate and no source of income. She wrote: "I am just fair, not all that fine because of so many problems at home. I went back home on 14 August only to find that Mum and second to last born weren't fine. She was sick and weak. I felt like just disappearing, the house [a single room grass-thatched hut which leaks in the rain] was just in a total mess and worse, drought had attacked the place. There was no food in the area, the only one that could be got was too expensive. I felt like just crying but I just said Jesus is the only solution and just started laughing over everything. I have little hopes of my younger brothers going back to school next term because even the money for last term wasn't paid….. Sometimes I feel like not even reaching home because I find myself thinking a lot and crying without my knowledge."


.

Rev Sam Ediau with his first two
little girls, Margaret & Blessing

Sam's wife, Olivia, and baby Favour who was born on 31 August

Sam is employing a sponsored boy, who recently qualified as a builder, to help complete his 3-bedroomed house

The church at the centre of the site which the Bishop of Kumi has given for the new model school for Teso

Since there are virtually no dental facilities in Teso, people go to amateurs in the villages. One such person broke 7 of Betty's teeth attempting to extract them, without any pain relief or anaesthetic.

One of our girls in a clinic, being treated on a drip for malaria

Camps for internally displaced people (IDPs) are overcrowded with no land for cultivation

Girls who have dropped out of school because of pregnancy choosing baby clothes on the special mini-retreat

The main road between Kumi and Soroti crosses this swamp and lake at Awoja

A typical dormitory, which sleeps about 40, at Bethany Girls School

Mary enjoying the Retreat outing to Sipi Falls. She is profoundly deaf & lives in an IDP camp. Having been defiled, she lost twins at 6 months

A rocky outcrop overlooking the plains of Teso

The next trip to Teso
A team of eight will leave on Friday 20 November. Mary Jones, Pam Miller, Jenny Jeffs and Elizabeth Poskitt will return on Monday 14 December while David Cope, Ros Pearse, Margaret Stevens and Kay McCarron will return on Sunday 20 December. Kay is from the USA and belongs to St James' Church, Warrenton, Virginia which has been supporting many of our sponsored students for nearly five years. She is the first person from this church to come to Teso, so we are delighted and know it will make an enormous difference to the links between Virginia & Teso.

The annual 8 day Retreat: 27 Nov - 5 Dec
The team of eight will help run this year's Retreat, the fourth we have run. The name may be a bit misleading for us, with connotations of spending time in silence in a convent. The annual Retreats are more like summer schools and take place during the first week of the long Christmas holiday which is the end of the academic year in Uganda. We invite about 160 sponsored students - all those who have completed S3, S4 (O levels/GCSEs) and S6 (A levels) or the equivalent at other training schools.

Activities on the Retreat
This year's Retreat will be similar to previous ones but will focus even more on preparing them to make use of micro-loans (£5) for setting up small income-generating projects at home during the long holidays. We shall use some of the Reconxile training material and reinforce the need to stand against any form of corruption at whatever level, for "Corruption keeps people in poverty." We shall also provide some training to help them become catalysts in their communities by mobilising groups who can then access training and apply for loans to start community projects. By doing this, our sponsored students will become agents for change even while they are at school and so help lift their communities out of the poverty trap.

In the light of the increasing number of our students who are becoming pregnant, nearly all through undue pressure and even rape, we shall also focus on practical ways of avoiding sexual relationships using the stories of those who have become pregnant, many of whom are willing to come themselves and talk to the students. It will have much more impact to hear practical advice from their peers, who have had to drop out of school, such as never walk home alone from the borehole after dark and never stay at home alone, even during the daytime. Others can talk about how boys refuse to use condoms or ways of standing firm when pressurised or deceived.

It is also very important that they still have time on the Retreat for relaxation and fun, which they rarely get at school or home. And there will be some practical sessions such as learning how to make clay stoves, bake cakes on charcoal burners, vaccinate poultry, weave strips of rags on peg looms, use old cameras (a good way of earning some money, meeting the growing demand for photos to be taken), crocheting (or knitting, as they call it in Uganda), fabric printing and dyeing. The highlight of the week is usually the day's outing to somewhere interesting and beautiful outside Teso.

Appreciation from one of the students
Last year, Apuno Angella Susan wrote a book for her sponsors about the Retreat. Here are some extracts: "The Retreat has helped me gain a lot of knowledge on how to make my own life possible through starting a simple project which is productive…. It has helped me get to know that I am not the only one who is badly off but so many and that I am not the worst since there are many people who attend and give experiences on their lifestyles so I think I am not so much desperate…. This retreat has made me relax and rest from too much work from home and even safeguarded me from being sad because in the retreat we enjoy ourselves, sing, and praise all we can. We are treated in a special way….. I have gained a lot of ideas on my health issues…. It has helped my life to renew spiritually cause we pray…. The retreat has helped me know and see physically the famous Sipi Falls in Kapchorwa district [where we went for the day outing] which I would never see in my life." Many others have written to their sponsors telling them of how much they learnt on the Retreat & how they enjoyed it.

Can we afford to run the Retreat? Although TESS is struggling to cope with spiralling costs and increasing bills for fees in Uganda, the Trustees felt we should still run the Retreat as it is such an important way of enabling our sponsored students to develop into responsible young adults who can support themselves and facilitate change in their communities. Having suffered so much in so many ways in their short lives, they also desperately need some fun and relaxation. We are therefore committed to somehow find the money to run the Retreat, which costs about £40 per child. We know times are hard for everyone and so don't want to put pressure on sponsors as you are all giving so generously anyway to enable these children to have a proper education. However, the Trustees felt we should tell you about the Retreat in case there are any people who would like to make a contribution.

Resources needed for the Retreat
We still have many resources in Soroti from previous Retreats, so need only a few specific items this year. Can anyone help provide any of the following, new or in very good condition, please? Different team members are collecting and taking different items, so please send them direct to the relevant person instead of all to Margaret.
Film cameras in good working order. Send to David Cope, 89 Bedford Road, Barton-le-Clay, Bedford, MK45 4LL after 13 October
Plain T-shirts - white or pastel colours, any sizes, new or good condition (for printing, decorating & dyeing) to Ros Pearse, 87 Park Square West, Clacton-on-Sea, CO15 2NU
Fabric pens & cold water dyes to Ros Pearse as above
Wool & other fibres suitable for crocheting to Pam Miller, 5 Laburnum Close, Wythall, Birmingham, B47 5QW
Thread or fine string (eg: on cones) & reels of ribbon & thick wool, suitable for weaving on peg looms to Margaret Stevens, 25 Ravensthorpe Drive, Loughborough, LE11 4PUquality new felt-tip pens & coloured crayons to Mary Jones, 3 Roland Ave, Nottingham, NG16 1BB
Laptop computers (reasonably up to date and in good working order) to Elizabeth Poskitt, 11 Hedge End, Woodstock, Oxford, OX20 1NP

Who are the TESS Trustees?
As part of the process of registering TESS as an independent charity, we had to appoint Trustees, many of whom had already been serving on the TESS committee which had been meeting for almost 2 years. We now have 9 Trustees. The normal length of service as a Trustee will be 3 years. Once we have been registered for 3 years, 3 of the Trustees will resign and be replaced by 3 new ones. Thereafter, 3 more Trustees will be replaced each year. To ensure a turnover, with fresh ideas and energy, people must have one year off the committee before they are eligible for re-election as a Trustee for a further period of 3 years. The current Trustees are Immaculate Akurut Oliso, Paul and Jean Moores, Ros Pearse, Peter Walker, Mary Jones, Matthew Perry, David Cope and Margaret Stevens.

The importance of writing to your sponsored child
Sadly, there are still some of our sponsored children who have never received a letter from their sponsors, even after 5 years, although other sponsors have tried to fill the gap for these children. But it's not the same as hearing from their own sponsors. Here are some extracts from recent letters which show how much it means hearing from their sponsors.
Acupo Jane wrote: "Thank you for the letters you send because they give me courage in life."
Asekenye Scovia: "Thank you so much for your letter in June. I loved reading everything that you described about your family and country. I loved the photograph of you and [your family]. They are so beautiful."
Apuno Angella: "Every time I receive a letter from you and [your father], I feel like it's a letter or message from heaven."

I realise some people worry about what they can write about, when our lives are so different and so affluent compared with young people in Teso. This doesn't matter! As Scovia wrote, they love to hear about our homes and families and country and everyday lives because they are so different. And they love to receive photos and postcards. If you have not written for a long time, please write in time for us to take letters out for Christmas when we go in November. But please, no gifts - 200 gifts weigh far too much and also cause jealousy and sadness amongst those who don't even get letters. If you want to send a Christmas gift, please send a donation which we can use for micro-loans or to buy something for all the children.

Because 250 letters of all shapes and sizes take up so much space in my luggage, I really do need to have them before Monday 16 November. Please put a reminder on your calendar on an earlier date!

Appointing a new Administrator to take over from Margaret Stevens

As I write this Newsletter, applications are still pouring in - 38 so far and still a week to the closing date on 29 September. We have been very encouraged by the high level of skills and experience and feel confident we shall be able to appoint the right person after the interviews on Saturday 17 October. Please pray for guidance for us in the selection process. We very much hope the person appointed will be able to join us when we go to Teso on 20 November for a month and then take over in the New Year.

How can you combine a wonderful holiday in the French Alps with helping TESS?

Sounds impossible? Thanks to the very generous offer by two of our sponsors, who own a lovely old chalet high in the French Alps, we were able to have a family holiday for 15 of us, including 7 grandchildren aged between 5 and 14, whilst at the same time helping sponsored children. John and Sheila have offered the use of their chalet, when their family don't want to use it, to TESS supporters. They just request donations, in lieu of a minimal rent, to be made to TESS. For the first time for years, I didn't feel guilty about having a wonderful holiday whilst so many people I know in Teso don't have even the basic essentials of life.

Although the chalet can sleep about 16 people, three of us slept in our campervan a few metres from the garden, leaving 12 in the chalet. It is very well furnished and equipped and, being 300 years old, has some fascinating features, including two lovely beds built into alcoves in the loft eaves which even the adults were fighting over! It is not far from Mont Blanc, near Bourg St Maurice in Les Arcs ski area, at the top of a long winding mountain road with amazing views, especially when the sun sets as you eat your dinner on the balcony. We enjoyed lovely walks in the mountains and along rivers, riding up ski lifts, swimming in a little lake, rafting on the river and paragliding. The temperatures were in the 30s every day. We kept trying to imagine it in the winter and would all like to return to see the snow!

Only one other TESS supporter has used the chalet so far. The rest of you don't know what you are missing out on! Ask for details and book up (preferably in May-June and Sept-Oct, but it may be available at other times).

Any other holiday houses or static caravans available?
Does anyone else have a holiday home, in the UK or elsewhere, which they would be willing for TESS supporters to use for a few weeks each year when no-one else wants to use it, in return for paying the rent to TESS?

FOR SALE
Cards for Christmas and other occasions
With this Newsletter is a small catalogue of items, mainly cards, that are available for sale to help raise funds for TESS as well as raising awareness. If you haven't used TESS cards before, what about using them this year? There are 9 different Christmas cards (drawings by our sponsored children who imagined Jesus being born in Teso, so they give a good idea of what homes in Teso are like) as well as hundreds of different photo cards taken by Heidi Klinner (a professional photographer from Germany) and Margaret Stevens (not a professional!). Many people like to send duplicated letters to friends at Christmas - why not use the A4 sheets, folded into A5 leaflets, which have one of the students' Christmas drawings on the front? There are also cards with general drawings done by our students for other occasions and two designs of A4 notelets.

Other items for sale
For the first time, we have produced an A4 calendar this year which has 14 photos of Teso, many of which feature the homes and activities of sponsored students. And there are pocket notepads and two books of delicious soup and pudding recipes which Jean and Paul Moores have been using for lunches in their church which provide fellowship whilst raising money for TESS. The recipe books have been very popular and make ideal little gifts.

Alternative gifts
People giving 'alternative gifts' for Christmas and other occasions has become an important source of income for TESS. There is a range of 'gifts' costing between £8 and £60 which you can 'buy' in lieu of a Christmas present for family and friends whom you love but who already have everything they need. The 'gifts' include textbooks, mosquito nets, medical treatment and basic bedding kits. By 'giving' one of these, you make a gift at the same time to the sponsored students who have never ever had a Christmas present.

One girl wrote in a letter: "You asked me about how we spend our Christmas; but let me tell you, all we can do is to have a special prayer [ie: church service] and the little food we can afford and that's all".

Last year, I spent Christmas with friends in Teso. Not even the young children had any little gifts. But when it came to the offertory at church, I was struck by the amazing generosity of everyone who packed the church at 7.00am for a 3 hour service - the money, as well as fresh produce and animals, poured in, even from young children. Just before Christmas, we visited the home of Auso Seline, one of our sponsored girls who has 3 younger siblings but whose mother also struggles to care for 8 orphaned nephews and nieces. Seline's two young brothers were out looking after someone's cattle to earn enough money to buy a pair of "flip-flops" for themselves for Christmas - the only thing they would get!

Through our 'alternative gifts' you can make a difference to some of the poorest children, many of whom will not even have a good meal on Christmas Day because of the famine.

HAC boxes
How many of you have been using the collection boxes at home or work or church? Have you collected any money? Even if it is only a few pounds, could you send it back to TESS please (preferably as a cheque rather than loose coins!)


Visit of Rev Jeremiah Acelun to England and Germany in November

All those who have been to Teso and met Jeremiah have been impressed by his vision, energy, hard work and many gifts, such as preaching, teaching and pastoral care of teachers, couples and young people, including our sponsored students. He is Chaplain and Dean of Students at Kumi University and also unpaid Diocesan Education Co-ordinator. He is on the Board of many schools, often as the chairman, and runs workshops for teachers as well as having an oversight of all the schools in Kumi Diocese (the southern half of Teso). He will be in Loughborough from 2-16 November where he will spend time in the education department of Loughborough University and some schools, especially Long Field High School in Melton Mowbray which is linked with Ngora High School. We will plan opportunities for him to meet sponsors in the East Midlands which will be communicated by email. After a visit to TESS supporters in northern Germany from 16-21Nov, he will spend time in Wiltshire and Cornwall, especially with those involved in the new charity called Friends of Kumi Hospital (of which he is a Trustee), until he returns to Teso on 1 December.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Desperate need for new sponsors for 2010
We never have enough sponsors and so only manage to meet the higher cost of fees for those in further education through extra donations. Although the annual sponsorship fee was raised a year ago to £275 (£215 if Gift Aided), many sponsors have not been able to increase their donation. Added to this shortfall, every student in further education actually needs two sponsors - unless their original sponsor is able to increase their annual sponsorship fee. However, only 15 out of 108 students in this category have two sponsors and another 50 students, who are taking their 'O' levels in November, will join this group next year, giving rise to a further shortfall in fees! The campaign earlier this year, asking each sponsor to recruit one new sponsor, resulted in only a few new sponsors. It was for this reason that we did not take on any new children moving from primary school to secondary school at the beginning of this year, no matter how bright or desperate they were, as we needed to allocate all new sponsors to existing students. This is a tragedy for those bright children who have now missed out on any chance of continuing in education. Because the Trustees didn't want this to happen again in 2010, they have decided that we should take on a maximum of 10 new children in February, trusting that somehow we shall continue to be able to meet the ever-increasing bill for fees.

Ways you could help us meet the target
consider increasing your annual sponsorship fee
recruit a new sponsor, perhaps to help share the costs for your student if s/he has moved on to further education

News about Rev Sam Ediau, the TESS Programme Officer in Teso
Olivia gave birth to another baby girl, Favour, on 31 August, sister to Blessing and Margaretgifts from a number of sponsors, as a mark of appreciation for all his incredibly hard work and commitment to TESS, made it possible for Sam not only to put the roof on his house, but to almost complete it! We saw it and took photos. He is so grateful to you all.several years, Sam has been wanting to do a Masters degree although he is so committed to TESS, he didn't want to leave. He even turned down a scholarship he was offered to go to the USA! However, he has now started a part-time Masters in Development Work and Project Management as this means he can continue to run TESS as he only has to go away for 4 weeks in each of the three semesters. But he has to find his own fees. One sponsor has already generously given £620 to pay for the first module. We need to raise a further £1,240 for the other two semesters. Is anyone able to help, please? He chose this course because he believes it will equip him even better to develop the work of TESS. Sam has a passion to help an even wider group of vulnerable girls, including the thousands who have had to drop out of school because of being made pregnant.

Thank you to all TESS supporters
It is just amazing how we manage to continue to meet the costs of all the school fees as well as other essentials such as medical treatment and basic school requirements, despite the ever-increasing costs in Uganda and the majority of our students now being in further education. At the beginning of each year, it looks as though we shan't make it to the end. But somehow, the money keeps coming in just in time - not too much, but just enough! We trust that God knows what is needed by TESS to provide for all our sponsored children and somehow always prompts people to give or raise money in a variety of interesting and inspiring ways. The Trustees of TESS want to thank you all very much.