The 300 Mile Bike Ride

On the 1st April 2011 myself (Roy Middup) and another member of Project Uganda, Saskia Hook, will be challenging ourselves on a 300 mile bike ride to the Ugandan High Commission in London. The ride will take place over three days and on the middle day we will have a photo opportunity with Pauline Latham, our local MP and leader of Project Uganda outside the Ugandan High Commission. As well as raising awareness of our charity in the local press, we are raising money for Project Uganda by sponsorship. The ride will challenge us in endurance and map reading, let alone avoiding the London traffic! We will be updating the blog each night hopefully so lookout for our updates! At present we have over £1000 sponsorship from family, friends, teachers and local companies namely Rolls-Royce, Actu’elle, and Smartmove. We are very grateful to all the people who have sponsored us but we are always striving for more so please sponsor us if you can, cheques or cash (we recommend a cheque) can be sent to:
Roy Middup,
29 Highfield Road,
Little Eaton,
Derby
DE21 5AG
(Please make cheques payable to "Project Uganda" and mark on the bake "Bike Ride".)

Project Uganda 2011

Project Uganda is now up and running and we are all very enthusiastic to get the project started again . This year six year ten pupils have been recently selected by their peers to travel to Uganda next summer in 2011. The three new pupils from Ecclesbourne School are Saskia Hook, Roy Middup, Robin Spurr and teacher Rachel Tordoff . The three new students from Woodlands School are Matt Powell, Dani Clamp and Phil Campbell. Each student was selected by their peers after presenting a speech on why they wanted to be chosen.

Over this period of time we will be doing various fund-raising events in order to raise as much money as possible. The money raised will go directly to Mirembe and Kiringo Secondary Schools in Uganda. Previously we raised enough money to buy school equipment such as pens, paper, textbooks, science equipment and science chemicals; all of which are vital in order for the school to function properly. We also bought enough building materials to build an examination hall for Mirembe School and three classrooms, a store room and a staff room for Kiringo School. In addition to this we were able to fund a sustainable farming project to aid the surrounding communities.

We cannot do all of this on our own and the Project Uganda team and the students in Mirembe and Chiringo School will be very grateful if you are able to donate some money to the project or participate in any fund-raising events in the future. We need your help!

Project Uganda take £12,500 to help schools!

On the 10th July 2009 the Project Uganda Team - Pauline Latham, Simon Hollingsworth, James Raynor, Ciara Nation, Amy Wicks, Fran Walker, Oli Watson, Shelley Reynolds, Becky Jepson and James Whelan - set out for Uganda at 2.30am Friday morning!

With them were the proceeds of seven months of fund raising, a staggering £12,500! The figure exceeded all expectations and is thanks to the tremendous generosity of family, friends and the people of Duffield, Allestree, Little Eaton and Derby city who supported the cake stalls and bag packing. The figure also included larger donations of cash and funds rasied from the many prizes from businesses across the country. It has been an amazing few months, culminating in this fantastic achievement.

The funds were split as follows:

£1000 to Dr Bayigga Michael P Lulume (long-time supporter of Mirembe school) for a mobile clinic
£2000 to Mirembe Secondary School (previously visited in 2007)
£9500 to Kiringo Secondary School

The largest amount was given to Kiringo as they have so little to work with. Now they have the funds to build brick class rooms and some of the buiding materials needed were purchased by the Team whilst in Uganda.

Each Project Uganda member will be writing their own accounts of the trip and these will be posted as soon as possible.

Photographs of the people, the villages, the schools and the ever present poverty have been added to the web site. Please have a look for yourself at what the team witnessed in Uganda.

Project Uganda Rocks ........

On Friday 26th June Project Uganda held its "Uganda Rocks" gig at Woodlands School at which the enthusiastic audience were entertained by five quality bands.

The evening was kick started in style by Bless'd Flap Doodle and the Hoope getting the audience on their feet and dancing.

Next on were The Stoats who kept the momentum going, their set included a memorable version of the Darkness "I believe in a thing called love". Libby and James followed their act included a soulful rendition of U2's "With or Without You".

Next on was Switzerland - Alien Ant Farm watch out these guys are good ! Last on was recently formed The Output who rocked our socks off with many popular covers, culminating with "All the small things" by Blink 182 ,the mosh pit was heaving to popular number.


The evening was co-ordinated and compared most excellently by MC Becca aka Becca Jepson and a total of £300.00 was raised for Project Uganda.









The Project Uganda would like to send out a huge thank you to to all the bands that took part and to Woodlands school for providing the venue.

More winners with Project Uganda

Today at Ecclesbourne school Mrs Lesley Underhill the Headteacher, picked out the winners of the Project Uganda Grand Prize Draw.

The prizes were donated by the following generous people and businesses Orchid IT, Mr and Mrs Jepson, Buy Mobile Phones, Russell Electrical Services, DATZ, Sassy, ALK Technologies and Sally Montague.

The Project Uganda team has been selling raffle tickets over the last 6 weeks and we have raised a staggering £1,300.00!

.......and the winners are.....

• J Paget - Netbook Computer
• Dean Walker - Signed Derby County Shirt
• Sarah Brown - Mountain Bike
• Pat Garner - Owl Wireless Energy Monitor
• Craig Cooper - Nokia Mobile Phone
• R Nathen - 3 Network Wireless Broadband USB Modem
• Tracy Wright Sassy £150 gift Token
• Simon Jenson - Sat Nav Software for Mobile Phone
• Simon Young - Sally Montague Cut & Finish

Project Uganda would like to say "a big thank you to all that bought tickets"

And the winners are........

Friday night saw around 100 happy quiz goers turn up at Woodlands School for the Project Uganda Quiz and Chips. The evening raised over £600.00 towards the project and there was some serious competition from all the teams to be crowned quiz champions of the evening.

Ben Walton the quiz master had prepared a very challenging quiz with some of the questions causing some serious head scratching from even Alan Brady the Headmaster of Woodlands school and his team of experts!

The team names were very inventive, we had Ken Dodd's dad's dog is dead, QuizTeam Aguliera and our personal favourite The clever people plus Becky !

After several quiz rounds and a break for fish and chips, the results were counted and the overall winners were the Beaver Warrior Supremo's, in second place Hal's Hero's and in third Ken Dodd's Dad's dog is dead.

The winners took away the star prize of a luxury hamper, however no team went home empty handed as the Project Uganda team provided a great range of booby prizes including a Denture Bath, a ladies shaving kit, themal socks, toe nail clippers a door mat, dish cloths etc.

Project Uganda would like to say a big thanks to all who took part and a very special thank you to Ben our quiz master.

Too see more pcitures from the quiz evening please click on the "2009 Project Pictures"

Project Uganda Presents a Quiz and Chips evening

Do you like the challenge of a quiz and are you partial to a portion of Fish & Chips. Then have we got and evening for you and your friends.

The Project Uganda Quiz and Chips night is on the 19th June at Woodlands school, Allestree.

Proceedings start at 7pm

Tickets are £5 for Adults and £3 for 10 and under, the ticket price includes Fish & Chips.

If you get thirsty we have a bar serving all manner of liquid refreshment.

Tickets are available from both Woodlands and Ecclesbourne schools or by emailing steve@projectuganda.co.uk

All proceeds will go to Project Uganda.

Here is a taster question to whet your quiz appetite

Question: How long is Three Mile Island ?

Answer: Two and a Half miles !!!

William Hague meets Project Uganda Students

Some of the Project Uganda students met the Rt Hon William Hague, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, at the Strutt Arms in Milford and were able to tell him about the Project Uganda trip.

He was so impressed by the students that he donated some money towards the trip and wished everyone a good time.

He said that it was good for students to experience a trip like this to see how other countries faced different problems from those faced by young people in this country.

Belper News was also there and their photographer took photos of the students with William so we are looking forward to reading about it in the next edition.

Belper based TBS Enterprise Mobility donate £1,000.00

Belper based company, TBS Enterprise Mobility, today handed over a cheque for £1,000.00 to Project Uganda.

Jon Poynton, Commercial Director said “Having spoken to the students about the project we were so impressed we decided to donate £1,000.00. This project is very special because ultimately there are two goals, the first being to completely renovate a secondary school in Uganda to ensure these students have a chance of a life without poverty and secondly the students at both schools will develop new communication skills through their fund raising activities and gain first-hand experience and understanding of a country in poverty, which I am sure will be a life changing event for them. It’s a pleasure to help such a worthy cause.”

If you would like to help the Project Uganda cause please click the donate button now.

Project Uganda fund raising round up

Over the last few weekends the Project Uganda team has been busy making cakes and selling them to the congregations at Woodlands Evangelical Church, Café Church St John Allestree and Little Eaton United Reform Church. The generosity of these kind people has been overwhelming and has added £500.00 to the fund raising total.

For those of you who are not aware, our target is £15,000.00 and we are pleased to confirm that currently we have raised £8,135.27.

We still need everyone’s support and donations to reach our fund raising goal.

The Project Uganda team would like to extend a great big thank you to everyone that has supported our cause to date.

If you are reading this and have not made a donation yet please click the donate button now.

NEW Project Uganda Friendship Bracelets

Support the Project Uganda cause by buying this stylish Project Uganda friendship bracelet, woven by a member of the team in the colours of the Ugandan flag, Yellow, Black and Red.

Buy one for just £1.50 including postage and packaging (UK only sorry)

All your money will be put to good use to help in the refurbishment of the Kiringo Secondary School in Uganda.

Project Uganda Video

Please take a look at the short video of our 2007 project, from this you will see why we are going back this year and why your donations are so important.

Orchid IT helps Project Uganda

Brett Critchley the Managing director of Orchid IT and his finance director James Twigg who both set up the business in one of Brett’s spare bedroom donated a laptop computer for Project Uganda to use to fund raise to help their trip to Uganda.

They also provided 200 copies of the DVD about our last project in 2007. These are being used to give to people that helped with fund raising last time by their contributions or to send to possible sponsors this time.

Derbyshire Building Society 10K

It was a cool start to the 10K at 9am Sunday morning, but our runners did us proud. Everyone running in a “Project Uganda” T-shirt finished in under an hour with the fastest of the team completing the distance in 45 minutes – well done Matt!

The lead runner of the 3500 participants appeared to have sprinted for the whole course, finishing in approximately 29 minutes.

James Raynor and James Whelan from Project Uganda have received promises of donations upon completion of the 10K and the other runners supporting Project Uganda are Matt Pluck, Michael Booth, Duncan Watts and David Judge who have donations from generous colleagues and friends.

Although the final total is yet to be calculated it appears that between them the runners have raised well over £1000!

Thank you so much to all the runners, your efforts have been extremely worthwhile.

More photos from this and previous events can now be viewed by double clicking on the image displayed under the “2009 Project Pictures” heading.

If you would like to make your own donation, please click on the Donate button.

Project Uganda in the local Newspaper

Yesterday an article on Project Uganda was published in the Derby Evening Telegraph.

STUDENTS who worked in an impoverished Ugandan district last year are to return to see what difference their help has made. And they hope to give out more aid to schoolchildren there.

Eight students, five from Ecclesbourne School at Duffield and three from Woodlands School in Allestree, will go to Uganda for nine days. For three of the pupils, it will be the second time they have taken part in Project Uganda, organised by city councillor Pauline Latham.

Last year they went to the Mukono district, where they helped to create a science lab at a school and install a water butt so that pupils could have a drink. This year, they will revisit that school and see what help they can give to another school in the district.

Ecclesbourne pupil James Raynor, 17, is looking forward to returning to Uganda. He said: "I saw so much and it was such an experience going out there that I really want to go again and see what we had helped to achieve. "Getting a water tank at the school was such an important thing because children were setting off at 7am to get to school for 9am and then having a full day without a drink after walking that distance."

He has been passing on his experiences to those students who will be travelling out for the first time. Rebecca Jepson, 15, of Allestree, attends Woodlands School and said she was looking forward to her first visit to Uganda. She said: "I really wanted to get involved because I know sometimes it can be easy to be selfish and I wanted to try to give something back and think it will be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me. "I have heard from some of the pupils what it was like on the first visit and I think it will be a real experience for me."

James and Rebecca will be joined by Francis Walker, 17, Amy Wicks, 16, Ciara Nation, 17, Shelley Reynolds, 15, Oli Watson, 15, and James Wheelan, 15. The pupils will travel out with Mrs Latham on July 10 to spend nine days in Uganda.

They have each paid for their own air fares and inoculations and are now busy raising more than £8,000 to put towards the two Ugandan schools they will visit.

They held a fund-raising fashion show on Wednesday, March 25, and have organised cake stalls and bag-packing sessions at supermarkets. Mrs Latham said that she had been impressed with the students' enthusiasm in raising money for the trip. She has revisited the area herself with her husband, Derek, since the pupils last went out to hand over money to the schools and see the work on the science lab. "We gave the money because the government there said schools had to offer science or they would be shut down. The money went for materials to finish the construction of the science lab and to fully equip it," she said. "We also spent money on a solar panel and water tank for the roof. "The other school we are going to this time is basically a shack and I think it will be a shock to some people.

Click here to visit the Derby Evening Telegraph web site: http://www.thisisderbyshire.co.uk/news/Pupils-Uganda-difference-year-makes/article-897852-detail/article.html

Ever wondered what a Mayor's Parlour is ?

Now is your chance to visit one!

Project Uganda has been invited by the Mayor of Derby, Councillor Barbara Jackson, to hold a coffee morning in the Mayor's Parlour (Reception Room).

If you would like to visit us, we will be there on Thursday 16th April 2009 between 10:30am and 12 noon. We will be serving coffee and have a variety of homemade cakes and biscuits for you to purchase, with all funds raised going to Project Uganda.

Directions:

The Mayor’s Parlour is situated in the Council House on Corporation Street, Derby and is entered by the corner entrance and up the ceremonial staircase.

All are welcome

Project Uganda visit St Edmunds Allestree

On Sunday the 5th April the Project Uganda team visited the St Edmund's Allestree Parish Church to tell the gathered congregation why we are involved with the project and the aims and objectives.

After the morning service the team sold cakes, marmalade and soft toys to the congregation raising a staggering £205 towards the project!

Project Uganda would like to say a very special thank you to the Revd Canon Chris Dyer and her congregation for their warm welcome and generosity today.

We would also like to thank the team members for baking and helping out at the church today, these were Ciara, James Whelan, Amy, Fran, Becky, Pauline, Jane Walker, Maggie Wicks, both Ken and Cherril Raynor.

"Pack your bags ?" at Sainsbury's Kingsway

On Saturday the 4th April the Project Uganda team and a large following of friends helped the busy shoppers in Sainsbury's pack their bags. People were very generous and grateful for the help they were given.

We would like to thank the management of Sainsbury's Kingsway for allowing us to "Bag Pack" for their customers and to get closer to our target by raising a staggering £1187.

Pauline Latham, team leader of Project Uganda, was delighted at the number of Year 10 and Year 12 friends who gave their support and whole the team wish to thank Eliot Fallows, Jon Vickers, Mark Raynor, Nick Sowter, Ruby Richardson, Toby Cumming, Aaron Stewart, Emily Short, Eliza Dawson, James Holt, Sarah Holmes and Phoebe Simpson.

Finally, thank you to all the shoppers at Sainsbury's for their generosity in making the day a great success; Project Uganda and the Ugandan schools are very grateful to you.

What is Project Uganda ?

Schools in Uganda face huge challenges due to their lack of facilities. This makes it far harder for the children to learn and for the teachers to teach to a reasonable standard. Their schools are often only half built, without textbooks or any kind of teaching aids beyond a blackboard to help stimulate the children's minds.

Project Uganda has been set up to raise money that will be used to provide much needed equipment and facilities at the schools we visit. This in turn will help give these Ugandan children a chance of a better education and ultimately a better life.

If you would like to make a donation please click on the link below

Fashion Show Pictures now on Photobox

Sarah Watson took these great shots at the Fashion Show.

As we are very limited as to how many pictures can be put on this web site, we have used Photobox to give you the chance to see them all and if your Gran would like to buy one she can, for a small fee, with proceeds going to Project Uganda - of course!

Please share this with your friends who modelled because their Grans might like a print of the photo too......


To view the images, click here http://www.photoboxgallery.com/photochute

It's Cool for Catwalks

Wednesday night saw high fashion hitting Project Uganda with our girls and their friends wearing prom and ball gowns chosen, fitted and supplied by Lori G Bridal Gowns of Blenheim Parade, Allestree. Lorraine and Sandra have a great eye for the right dress for the right person and our models loved all the outfits that they had the chance to show off.

Scene one saw the models led onto the stage to “The Boys are Back in Town” as our men walked the catwalk in tuxedos - provided by Brigdens Menswear of Irongate, Derby. Waistcoats, cravats and bow ties were colour co-ordinated to complement the ladies. Some of the girls wore jewel-coloured gowns of turquoise and green, with others in flashes of hot pink, silver and purple.

Scene two showcased the sophisticated and always necessary “little black dress”, some cocktail length, others full length – all beautiful. The men loosened their ties, with more than a hint of James Bond, and all with attitude.

Three models were given makeovers by Natalie Webster of Virgin Vie, with smokey eyes and cheek bones to die for.

Ferne Baker was our hair stylist for night, creating beehives, loose curls, chignons to hold tiaras and edgy creative “up dos” between scenes.

The audience supported the Project Uganda team and their friends with cheers and appreciative glances. We thank everyone for joining us at the fashion show and hope its success encourages many to attend future events.

Thanks to Elliot Fallowes for being our compare, to Jackie Roe for all her hard work with the logistics and finally to Pauline Latham.

The evening ended with sprays of spring flowers being presented to Lorraine and Sandra as we hoped to convey our gratitude at their outstanding contribution to the evening. Many, many thanks to Lori G.

The evening raised over £600.00 in much needed funds