Lumpewe Project

The Beginning

My first experience of Uganda was in the October of 2015 as a member of mission organised by Lighthouse Community Church Sheringham. The mission was led by Pastor Bryan Pickard. The mission objective was to continue the building development work to one of the education blocks. This work had been started by Pastor David Slater in Partnership with Pastor Stephen Musisi Director of African Child Development Trust (ACDT)

After my first visit my friend Ian Mutton and I felt that the Lord was calling us to continue with this work in partnership with Pastor Stephen Musisi. It was during a visit to England by Stephen that we all had an opportunity to meet and share what we believed the Lord had placed in hearts. It was amazing that has we each shared how all our personal visions dovetailed together and we began to understand how the Lord was directing us. The final confirmation was when Pastor Stephen produced his vision which he had wrote some 29 years previously and it confirmed all what we had shared. After this meeting Ian and I formed the Charity “Reed People” to facilitate the operations of the work to be undertaken in Uganda. We Partnered with “African Child Development Trust” a Ugandan charity Pastor Musisi was one of the trustees and Operations Director.

The pictures below show the condition of the Dowdie Block in 2015, you will see that it has no doors or windows. One of the major issues with the building prior to our arrival the walls were made of mud bricks and open to the weather. During this trip we rendered all the exterior walls making them stronger and giving projection from the elements. We also fitted cutters and a water tank to harvest the water from the roof and installed a water filter to provide cleaning drinking water for the children. Inside the classrooms we painted the walls which included educational style mural’s. Then to complete we fitted doors and windows making the building secure.

The First Reed People Mission

Another aspect of the mission was to make contributions to the wellbeing of the children and local community. This included medical examinations of all the school children making sure that they were not suffering from some of the common issues often suffered by the children in Uganda as a consequence of the living conditions. This involved treating them for feet infections caused by Jiggers (an infestation of larvae eggs laid in the children’s feet) this infestation is picked up due to them walking around bear foot. Our team Nurse Val Ridley introduced a very effective but simple solution to treat and eradicate this from the children. The treatment was a solution of cooking oil and paraffin, soaking the children’s feet for several minutes in the solution basically drown the larvae. Then providing them each with a pair of shoes. Each child was also given a treatment to prevent worms.

The ladies on the team also introduced the women of the area, to reusable sanitary towels. They also taught the women how to make them for themselves and provided an ample supply of the materials needed. It was reported after the visit that this one action had contributed to an 80% increase in school attendance for the young ladies, because they did not now need to remain locked up during the monthly period.

We also provided all the school children with a cooked meal of Rice, Beans and Beef Stew. This is a luxury for them, their daily meal usually consists of a porridge made from Maize Flour.

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Whilst the ladies were busy looking to the needs of the young women and children the men made several visits to the local town to meet with the men and share the love of Jesus to them. We participated in a game of pool being challenged by the local youth, Ian was nominated to represent us. Andy using a story board spoke about Jesus, the rest of us mingled and had personal conversations. Moving on we went to one of the local drinking dens, a place where the older men tended to meet and would be kept in good supply of a local brew by the wives. I would not dare to think about what the drink was made from, but it was evidently very intoxicating. We shared testimonies with them and several raised their hands to receive Jesus. We then moved on to one of the local bars where Andy again told a story using his story board, we joined the locals in conversation sharing about what Jesus had done in our lives.

At the end of the mission we distributed food parcels to the elderly in the village we took over a classroom and, led by Andy in singing, a robust team made up of Reed People and our Ugandan friends started dividing up the food and soap into green carrier bags. The green bags then reached Derek, who was on quality control to ensure each bag was complete, and he then kept a tally on the blackboard. Meanwhile, the (now completely packed church with not even standing room) were treated to the a film depicting the life of Jesus in Lugandan to help them while away the hours waiting – for some this may have been their first experience of anything close to a cinema.

Thanks to Derek’s meticulous counting (you can take the man out of the army…) we packed up 300 full bags, 207 partial bags, with 114 bags of flour, 90 bags of beans and 91 bars of laundry soap remaining! The heaving church were treated to a short address by Andy (now known locally as ‘Evangelist Andy’, which we think needs to be adopted in the UK) after the film, and many people responded to the gospel message he delivered.

In groups of twenty, people began to file towards the classroom to collect their green carrier bags of aid. Unbelievably, in another demonstration of everything around us multiplying, we were able to feed every family represented in the heaving church, as well as donate TWO bags to each teacher, pastor and kitchen lady… and we still have around 60 bags remaining as well as the surplus flour, beans and soap. The gratitude in the faces of our Ugandan friends was so humbling, even though we know in reality it’s just a drop in the ocean of what they actually need. We decided to donate the surplus flour, beans and soap to the school, and plan to give the remaining green bags out from the bus as we pass through other small villages tomorrow! While the parents were collecting food, Sophie and Karenza delighted the children with bubbles – even as the heavens opened and the much-needed rain started to fall; who says us Brits are fair-weather bubble blowers?

Build Team Sent to Lumpewe

Ian, Matthew, Mark and Keith departed from Norwich Airport 3 March 2018 for Lumpewe Uganda. Well done to the ground crew for making it possible for the flight to take of on time, given all the snow we have had in Norwich over the preceding 48 hours they did a wonderful job. I can report the team arrived safely in Uganda last night and are now on route to Lumpewe. During this mission they plan to complete a veranda at the front of Dowdie Block, install electrical supply and LED Lighting in the class rooms

The picture below is of Matthew Wells (Electrician and Ian Mutton assisting) preparing to fit the lights and power sockets. You can see on the wall a sample of the education murals completed on the 2015 visit.

Some of the other things achieved

Since we commenced our support to the development of Lumpewe Primary School here are some of the other things we have achieved.

Provided funds to acquire the freehold title of the land on which the school stood, we were also able to acquire the freehold title to plots of land immediately adjacent to the school boundaries.

In this transaction we needed to buy out sitting tenants from their lease contracts. Over the years we have accomplished this for all accept one plot, this does not prevent any major issues with regards our intentions for further development of the school site. A requirement of such transactions require the purchaser to provide the value of land and any buildings to the vendor. In this case the only plot that had buildings was a plot owned by the Pastor of the Church, who is also a teacher and a member of the board of directors. We agreed with Pastor Nakibinge to purchase a suitable plot of land and build a new home to the same standard has that standing on the acquired plot. To do this we placed out tenders to local contractors do do the building work.

The former Nakibinge home is now being used as the girls dormitory.

We have also installed a fence around the school boundaries, for the security of the premises and protection of the children, particularly the boarders. This was a requirement from the education authorities guidelines.

We have also continued to develop the education blocks. The Dowdie block need some final building works to be completed associated with tying down the roof supports and building up the wall plate under the heaves to stop the risk of wind blowing under with the potential risk of taking off the roof. The original block was the very much neglected sister. It was still bear mud brick walls, and due to weak foundations there was a potential risk of collapse. Therefore work was commissioned to render the external walls, extend the foundation base, providing a buttress to secure the walls and remedial work was also carried out on the roof.

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Where we are now

The pictures above show the now completed Dowdie Block and the refurbished Original Block. This completes the building work for the education blocks. Drawing to end the involvement of Reed People supporting Lumpewe Primary School. The baton has now been passed to Derek Baldry Ministries.

We are currently considering the next phase of development, items on the agenda are: Kitchen and Covered Dining/Social Area; Redevelopment of the Girls dormitory; Building of a boys dormitory (They are currently accommodated in one of the classrooms); improvements to the toilets and provision of shower/washrooms and an Office block (to include Administration Office, Headmasters Office; Teachers Study and Medical Room.