2007

Latest news

Archived News 2006

December 9, 2007

The school year ended on Friday December 7 with a parents meeting along with a games competition with the children. Small prizes were awarded to recognize the students that excelled. Even though the school has operated for only two terms, there has been a marked improvement in the development of the students. We are anticipating enrolment to increase to over 180 students in the coming year.

The website now has a timeline slide show. It appears that the bugs are fixed so we'll keep our fingers crossed.

November 18, 2007

We experienced a few problems with the website over the past months. The format was an improvement and the content was organized in a better system but, because of a mysterious glitch, we ended up with mirror images that couldn't be removed or kept on reoccurring. The only option was to redo the entire site!! Hopefully, all the bugs are gone (of course, we'll add some new ones). We've added a few updates and more will follow now that everything is in order. Hopefully, we'll have a jazzy new photo gallery very soon.

August 2, 2007 Welcome to our new website!!

TRC has a new website! We have been working on developing a new format over the last couple of months and now the hard work has finally paid off. We hope you find the new layout easier to navigate and enjoy reading the new material and information. Don't panic though, there is still plenty left from the old site - look under the photo gallery and news page. The news archive makes fascinating reading - everything is documented, from the start of the project in early 2006 until now. There's been a lot accomplished in just over 12 months. Thanks again to everyone who has made our work here possible. Special thanks to our friends in Ireland who financed the new site.

By: Frances Haworth, Volunteer

June 2007 – Hello from Tekera

Bruce and I have been too busy these past few weeks at the project to update the website and make it “pretty” to look at. We have decided to just post an update with a new photo page for the time being. We want all our friends and supporters to get a sense of how their support is keeping us busy, making sure the funds are being used most effectively. I would like to relate what has been keeping us busy
. The school is days away from being finished. The school term began this past week and the teachers are busy reviewing the curriculum, doing schemes and getting to know the pupils. We have hired 3 new teachers; 2 young ladies with some experience and a more experienced woman to be the head teacher. The 2 previous teachers are remaining as well. Frances and her fundraising efforts have made it possible for us to buy many books and teaching materials to get a good start. She’s an experienced organizer and full of good ideas. She can provide guidance for the teachers to put in place a good system that can serve us for a long time. We have concentrated so far on the curriculum but found that we had enough room on the timetable for music, dance and physical education. The playground made possible by our Dutch friends is every busy and remains sound. We find that happy children study so much more willingly. As with children all over the world, children need to be taught the personal rewards of learning and grow to love it.

The rainy season is coming to an end and harvesting is at its peak now. We have been trying new things and introducing new crops to the area. Of course, it’s been a “live and learn” experience. An attempt to grow sweet corn was somewhat successful. Unfortunately, the local birds were so thrilled with the corn that they stripped half the small field, leaving very little for us. We did manage to salvage enough for seed and next time we'll prevent the birds from ravishing the field. Cucumbers grew amazingly well. They grew to a huge size almost overnight! It is not a popular food for many Ugandans but it is sought after by the area hotels that cater to upper scale visitors and tourists that have a taste for them. Lettuce has also been successful. Our main crop has consisted of buttercrunch lettuce. We tried Romaine lettuce but found it much more difficult to grow. It tended to want to go to seed very early. Tomatoes are doing quite well and the watermelons appear to be very good. Passion fruit has recently been planted so we hope to see fruit next season. Green beans have been doing extremely well and have created a lot of interest in the community. They are not familiar with this type but have tasted some and now want to grow it for themselves. It is not a common product here which is somewhat surprising. The hotels constantly want a large supply so this is a good opportunity for the farmers. The introduction of items like zucchini, butternut squash, green onions and others will be a slow process but it will not likely change their regular foods of matooke (type of steamed bananas) cassava (a root), sweet potato, porsho (steamed maize flour) and beans.
The clinic patients suffer mostly from malaria, anemia, chest infections and sexually transmitted diseases. Needless to say, we are trying to find a way to provide them with the means to buy mosquito nets and practice more preventative methods. The actual clinic is expanding to 2 rooms, one for observation and one for examinations. There are many patients that are too acute to trust sending home without watching them for the day as we initiate their treatment. At the end of the day, those who have not improved are transported in our pick-up to the government hospital in Masaka where they can be admitted. The numbers of sick patients per day is remaining steady (15-25) but the numbers that come for counseling and family planning have increased. We have hosted another blood transfusion clinic topping our previous record. It seems some of the myths about blood donation are decreasing. After 2 failed attempts (heavy rain related) to host the government immunization clinic, we did have a very busy one in May to get caught up. We took the opportunity that day to make sure that all construction staff and anyone else who needed it, got their tetanus shot and de-worming medication. School children lined up to get their de-worming pills as they will every 3 months from now on (my gawd, they sound like dogs).

The staff successfully moved into their new living quarters. It has turned out to be a girl’s house, 5 of them at the moment with 2 volunteers arriving in the next month. This leaves the centre free to put in a proper office and expand the clinic.

The craft club has exploded and there are now 40 members. They are producing crafts completely from local materials. They dry palm leaves in the sun and collect banana fibres and sit in the shade exchanging ideas and enjoy lots of laughing. We are very proud of their achievements and feel confident that they will be able to sell these products to help out the family income. There are three major hotels in Masaka who have agreed to feature these crafts either now or within the next few months.