March 2025
In March 2025, Andrew and Karen Eustace visited Smile Children’s Charity Village.
The trip was very successful, exhausting but hugely rewarding on various levels. We spent a whole week at Smile School with activities arranged for each day and we enjoyed the luxury of more time to spend with the children.
Kiden, a student of the Smile Academy, received a gift of £255. This was raised by The Hair Lounge in Ripon (UK) to set up her own hairdressing business in Moyo, Northern Uganda. For the duration of her skills training at Smile Academy for 9 months, Kiden had not seen her 6 year old daughter, Eden, and her mother. Kiden was so grateful for the support given and for the belief shown in her. We asked her to keep in touch with Francis Candiga, the director of the Village, and to give updates on how she is getting on.
We were also able to replace 3 laptops at the Academy.
The medical clinic was opened up to the community as a promotional day, offering a no-charge visit to the doctor. (Patients still payed for medications they received.) This was successful with large numbers of patients attending. It is hoped that the more people will use the clinic, which would provide income to the Village, and increased health benefits to the local community.
One of our supporters has been conducting some early research into issues surrounding malaria. We used some of our visit to gather responses, which will help us determine what help would be beneficial to combat malaria.
In 2024, Projects Delivering Hope provided wheelchairs for Suzanne and her son Joseph. We met Suzanne in Kawolokota and she was so happy; happy with the wheelchair and how it has enabled her to have more freedom. She was also glad to have the opportunity to personally thank some of the Projects Delivering Hope team. It was a wonderful moment to see Suzanne again and witness how her life has changed.
During the week, we also:
- gave talks on ‘why save money’ for the launch of a savings group at the school, computer training, business training.
- judged and presented prizes for a reading contest for the children. The standard of reading in English was brilliant.
- observed a debate of girls v boys on ‘Science and IT: has caused more harm than good?’ This was such a good event, with great use of humour, some brilliant speaking and thinking on their feet, and thought provoking ideas. Andrew was presented with a fiendishly complex judging scheme!
- cheered on the football team in four matches against Wabwoto. Despite the Smile team losing all of the matches, everyone had a lot of fun! The Smile supporters had won the fan competition for their enthusiasm, cheering, singing and dancing, especially when their team was losing.
- attended church on Sunday in Kawolokota. It started at 9am and finished at 12 noon. It was long, so long, but wonderful. It included 1 hour of community notices, which included increased incidence of theft, the financial accounts of one group, and reports from other local groups. Although long, it was such a good insight into the culture and how the community operates and gives support.
The graduation ceremony is always a long day but we had been confidently told it would end at 2pm, which was appreciated given the 30C plus temperature.
It started at 10am with a 2 mile walk through the village to celebrate the graduates and their achievements. As guest of honour, Andrew gave a speech and adopted the African style of delivery, speaking for 40 minutes. 2pm came and went, so did 3pm, 4pm, 5pm, and 6pm. We finally left at 7.30pm! But it was a wonderful day of joyful celebration of the achievements of the graduates, all of whom were funded by Projects Delivering Hope.
On our first visit to Uganda and the first graduation in 2023, one of the personal testimonies from a graduate, called Robina, touched our hearts. In 2023, Robina fell to her knees, crying and said she had never been to school and never thought she ever would. She returned this year and updated her personal testimony saying how the skills training had changed her life and the fortunes of her family. This was a beautiful moment and illustrated the whole point of what PDH is doing at the Academy. To cap it off, she was also celebrating her son’s graduation in driving and car mechanics – doubly wonderful!
As in previous years, we met the grandmothers to hand out maize flour, sugar and soap. This really is one of the highlights of these trips, to witness the unbridled joy and love of the grandmothers in appreciation of what they receive. It is a truly soul enhancing and inspiring event.
There were also 3 new South Sudanese mothers during our trip!
