Board President Dr. Bruce Murray has sent out the latest newsletter with some exciting updates about the planned nursery school in Rubanda. Read below for some great updates or read the whole thing here.
The New Nursery School!
The children are standing on the land parcel near the primary school campus that will become the new nursery school. This project, to build a new stand alone school, was mandated by the government and Yamba Abaana is the primary funding source. There will be classrooms, dining hall and kitchen facilities, as well as a dormitory to house 60 boarding children ages 4-6. A full time matron and school nurse will live on site. Many of these kids’ families live some distance from the school and are quite disadvantaged. Although we have raised about $30,000 to date we will likely need about $65,000 to finish the project. The final design is being drawn as this goes out. We hope to break ground very soon but we need your continued help in order to complete it.
The Rubanda townspeople are already starting to clear the land by hand (and machete!). Our present nursery school kids look on as they imagine their new school site take shape. The new school is only a short walk from the primary school. Both sites will be served by the NEW WELL! (Read on)
The Well Project:
The same builder/engineer of the new nursery school has surveyed the surrounding land and has found a potential well site. He thinks it will produce clean water for the school and perhaps for the town, too. This will be the first well in the area. Currently, much of the water that is used is captured rainwater, not always available during the dry seasons. The money for the well project was raised last year by generous contributions of our Yamba Abaana supporters. The townspeople will dig it by hand and construction will start soon! This is a huge development for this remote area! More pictures to follow. These are the holding tanks we purchased last year. Clean water is such a luxury in this part of Africa.
New Socks!
The children of Sacred Heart Elementary School in Medford, OR, raised $200 recently in a fund raiser organized by Barbara Busch (wife of Board member, Philip Busch). They wanted the money to go towards a special project. The money went towards buying a new pair of socks for each of the 315 students. They sure look thrilled!