February 2023
PDH Trip - February 2023
Three of our trustees, Adrian, Andrew & Rachel visited Uganda to meet with our local South Sudanese operating partners. This is the first trip we have been able to make in 4 years due to COVID and we were joined by 3 PDH supporters who helped us lead some seminars and business workshops.
Business Training in Macedonia Church, Palorinya Refugee camp
This was a great opportunity to train refugee business people from South Sudan. We provided business training in marketing, cash flow and record keeping and it was great to hear feedback on how this will help them.
Visiting Projects in Belamaling Refugee Camp: Bread Ovens & Savings Groups
It’s always good to hear about the benefits of projects after they have completed. And we did just that with the Bread Ovens project, plus the Savings Groups formed after the 2019 business training. According to the people we met, they have created a source of income that has enabled children to go to school, goats to be bought and mental health crises to be averted.
Our partners: Diocese of Kajo Keji and Kajo Keji Christian College
Spending time with our partners to understand their current challenges was really important to help us prioritise the next set of PDH projects to focus on. We had an evening at Mama Cecila’s house, a dinner with Simon Taban Benson and the Diocese of Kajo Keji staff and a meal with Rev. Dr James Lule, the Principal of Kajo Keji Christian College
SMILE Children’s Charity Village, – meeting with our partner, Rev. Francis Candiga
This was set up to look after refugee orphans from South Sudan “Every child deserves a smile.”
We have been partnering with SMILE for a year and funded a chicken farm to enable them to sustain themselves and also funded tailoring & hairdressing training for over 30 young women.
Graduation Ceremony of 32 tailors & hairdressers
Education is something we take for granted in the UK. But for those from South Sudan, it is a luxury. That’s why seeing 32 young women refugees graduate in tailoring and hairdressing was such a great conclusion to one of our projects.
We also gave them sewing machines / hairdresser starter kits. Many are orphans and told us how this training has literally transformed their lives. We were even given a live goat & 100 bananas as a thank you gift at the Graduation Ceremony!
Business Training for the tailors, hairdressers & other business people
We had an amazing day delivering business training under a mango tree!
The tailoring and hairdressing graduates said they had learnt how to set up their new businesses and local business owners gave feedback on how much it helped them. “I now understand where I have gone wrong in the past and I can take forward this learning in the future”. We were excited to hear their desire to collaborate together to create savings groups and reduce costs.
Flying with Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF)
MAF is a flying charity which operates in developing countries to bring help, hope and healing through aviation to people living in isolation and poverty. In Uganda and South Sudan, we rely on MAF to fly us to remote locations.