Final touch for ‘big’ school
ASUCCESSFUL district grant bid last May has resulted in a team of Rotary members and supporters travelling to Uganda this week to place a commemorative plaque on the walls of a newly extended and re-roofed primary school just outside Kampala.
The grant, which was match funded by various fundraising events held by Clocktower Rotarians and members of the Pearl of Africa Child Care charity, has raised the £3,000 needed for a two-metre extension to classrooms, in order for the school to be recognised as a centre where final examinations can take place.
The old roof, which leaked, and its wooden supports, which had been eaten by termites, have also been raised and replaced.
The team travelling to Uganda have links to the Molly and Paul Child Care Foundation – a non-government Ugandan charity set up to provide homes, education and medical attention to more than 2,000 orphaned, homeless or destitute children living in and around Kampala.
The UK-based charity Pearl of Africa Child Care, which helps to run this Ugandan foundation, also organises the annual UK tour by the Pearl of Africa Children’s Choir.
The choir has become well known in the Ormskirk area for its wonderful African singing, dancing and drumming performances.
The team from Clocktower Rotary, headed by Liz Tonge, won’t be travelling empty handed.
They have received enough donations of clothes, toys, educational equipment and medical supplies from the local area to fill 20 large suitcases.
These will be distributed to the schools, orphanages and clinics belonging to the foundation.
There have also been generous donations of cash which the team hopes to be able to use to complete projects in the area.
The president of Ormskirk Clocktower Rotary, Sue Wilson, said she is both thrilled and proud that members of the club have undertaken this sort of challenge.