HUGS is a UK registered charity which started in 1995 and has raised over £400,000 to assist local leaders in rural Uganda to build their own schools and to create opportunities where they would not otherwise exist.

The schools we support have helped well over a thousand children go to primary or secondary school but the real focus of our work is;

• At Kagoma, near Mubende we are working with the Kagoma Education Development Organisation and the St. Zoe's School leadership team. The school which opened in 2001is also supported by parishes in Turkenfeldt in Germany. St. Zoe's with nearly 500 children and has been achieving some of the best school results in the region.
• We aim to provide children with a really first class primary and secondary education and over the next few years to be able to provide the sort of vocational skills which will prepare young people for useful and productive lives.
• We have been tracing our early students to see what they did after leaving St Zoe's in 2003;

In 2003 25 of our children took their primary leaving examinations and this was the first group to do so. There were 6 girls and 19 boys.

Of the 25, there were 20 who went on to secondary school and sat their senior 6 examinations at the end of 2009 and they are waiting to join higher education in Universities and other colleges. Of the remaining 5, one girl could not be contacted, and one could not continue her education for family reasons. One girl went to Rwanda and took her A level there. Two boys are in technical colleges. We were really encouraged to see these outcomes.

St Zoe’s is organizing and Old Students Association

Christmas in Uganda

• Alex Tracey, neice of our Trustee Denise Ead, has written a lovely children's book called

• Lots of the ideas came from Sr. Theresa and the children at Good Shepherd. The book is beautifully designed and printed and with the skills and imagination of Alex and Dominique is highly recommended as a Christmas present for children from 4 to a lot older! Special advice was also given by friends at Taylor O'Brien where Helen made a big contribution.
• The books are £7 each and can be obtained by emailing Denise at denise.e.ead@gmail.com
• All the net proceeds are going to HUGS. A measure of the quality of the book was that over 200 were sold at the launch event on November 23rd.

• At the Good Shepherd School in Fort Portal, our partners are the Banyatereza Sisters who work in Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya. Here we have helped to build the first and only school in the west of Uganda for children with special needs. We have 100 children attending the Good Shepherd School which specialises in helping children with learning disabilities. Thanks to our supporters it has been possible in 2011 to start an outreach programme so that help can be given to parents and children with learning and other disabilities but who live too far away to be able to get to the school

One of the Nursery Class children at Good Shepherd

• Over the years we have also been able to help schools at Makenke near Kampala, at Hoima and at Jinja

Our long term aims are to focus on the first two and work with the local teams to make these schools among the best in the country. We want to be able to provide strong vocational programmes for the children so that we cover both academic and non academic needs.

Developing our 7 year plan with supporting staff accommodation, school farm, vocational skills resources and the establishment of bursary support for University places will require us to raise about £70,000 per year.

At Fort Portal we hope to be able to make the school a centre of excellence and a resource for outreach to the wider Toro region. Children with learning disability are so often completely ignored in many parts of the world and Uganda is no exception. Paediatrician Dr Pat Scampion has done a great deal to make this possible and her Charity called Improving Chances is assisting with the outreach work

"Education is the great engine of personal development"   Nelson Mandela

News November 2011

Welcome to new trustee Matt Houghton

Pretty positive results from the latest water survey at St Zoes

Thanks to Pat Scampion Len Richard and John Scampion the Good Shepherd Outreach programme is starting very soon

Second classroom for St Zoes secondary school complete

Big improvments at St Kizitos thanks to Immaculate the new Head Teacher

Visit December 2009 power point

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