The main construction for Robyn's Nest is all done! Check out all the pics below.
The next stage for Robyn's nest is to construct a water collection system to the roof.
Heading back to Dumangas
by Malcolm Trevena
My volunteering journey started in a tiny barangay (village) of Pulao in municipality of Dumangas in the Philippines.
It was here that my love of people in developing countries began.
There is nothing but good memories for me in Dumangas.
I fly out to the Philippines tomorrow. Mostly for business, but also to visit my friends in Dumangas.
I will visit the school I used to teach at and do some scouting to possibly (possibly!) expand Meaningful Volunteer into the area. I will be talking to the locals to found out their concerns for the area and how Meaningful Volunteer might help. I will be checking out how safe the area is and looking for families that volunteers could stay at. All the normal due diligence stuff we do when we expand.
I hope we can expand here, but no guarantees. Watch this space!
Robyn’s Nest
As previously noted, our school in Uganda is creaking at the seams and we need to build more classrooms.
Thanks to some generous support we are starting to make that happen.
One of our good friends is a young lady named Robyn who has been diagnosed with autism. Robyn has been a big part of Megin and Malcolm’s life since she was seven. She has become part of their family and loves interacting with their children. She brings joy wherever she goes.
Robyn’s parents, Bob and Gloria Ratner, made a generous donation that provided the initial funding to get the extra classrooms started. The money was donated in memory of Gloria's mother, Eva Miller.
In honor of Robyn, we have named the new classrooms Robyn’s Nest.
Robyn's Nest will both be used to teach preschool children and to raise awareness about autism.
One of the most pleasing aspects of this new project is the community involvement. The parents of the students know the value this will bring to the community and many of them have volunteered their time freely to help construct the new classrooms.
The base of the school is well underway. Watch this space for further updates!
We Welcome Ethan to the MV Family
We welcome Baby Ethan to the Meaningful Volunteer family. Ethan is the son of Esther, our district manager in Uganda.
We look forward to seeing you grow and can't wait to see the amazing man you no doubt become under the care of your wonderful mother!
Mary's Magic Porridge
We’re so happy to see our school in Uganda going from strength to strength.
But why is this? What has caused this success?
One key ingredient - both literally and figuratively - is Mary’s Magic Porridge.
According to this UNICEF report, a full stomach is critical to learning. Here’s an excerpt from the report:
Early childhood: Hunger in this stage of life, indicated by low birthweight, growth faltering and micronutrient deficiencies, can cause damage to a person’s basic learning capacity (i.e. their ability to utilize future learning opportunities). Hunger can also limit an infant’s opportunities to explore the world around them (i.e. to gain access to stimulation) and to concentrate on those interactions (i.e. to utilize those opportunities).
This is why we feed our students everyday in the form of Mary’s Magic Porridge. We consider it the most important factor is our students’ ability to learn, high above things like quality teaching (which we also have!), school resources, textbooks and so on.
So next time you are in Buyaya, be sure to share in a cup of Mary’s Magic Porridge
A Good Problem to Have: Expanding our School in Uganda
Our small little school is having some problems: It is proving too popular and too successful!
Our students are graduating from our preschool into primary education and by all accounts are doing extremely well.
As a result, more parents are wanting to bring their kids to our preschool so that they have the springboard necessary for launching into the public system. Our school roll was 16 students but this has ballooned all the way out to 53.
So we are expanding! Two additional classrooms and being constructed as this article goes live. Our newly appointed teacher’s assistant Jane Namataka will help teach the additional students.
Stay tuned for more updates!
Meaningful Volunteer Welcomes Jane Namukuta to our Ugandan Team
Meaningful Volunteer is delighted to welcome Jane Namukuta to our Ugandan team.
Jane will be an assistant teacher to Esther Nabukonde in our School for Andy.
Jane has always been a dedicated supporter of our efforts in Uganda and often volunteered her time freely to help on various projects. With our upcoming expansion efforts, Jane seem liked an obvious candidate to move into a formal staff role.
Jane lives her mother Edith and extended family and hopes to complete her Public Administration course in the near future.
Partnership with Educate a Child
Meaningful Volunteer is delighted to announce a partnership with Educate a Child.
Educate A Child, is a non-profit organization that started in May 2009 in Seoul, Korea. Educate A Child (EAC) has a mission to help children in impoverished areas in the Philippines attend school.
EAC does outreach work to find children in the surrounding communities who want to continue studying but have been forced to stop due to lack of money. EAC also identifies current students whose families are in financial difficulty and at risk of dropping out of school for financial reasons.
EAC and Meaningful Volunteer will be pulling resources to help people in the Philippines, Uganda and Nepal.
Stay tuned for further updates about this partnership.
Devastation in Nepal
A massive earthquake has devastated Nepal. The death toll has risen over 3000 with Kathmandu hitting especially hard.
Thankfully, our staff and students are all safe. They all know someone who has been affected though. Everyone in Nepal is hurting right now.
We have partners that we know and trust in Nepal. We know that they will do what it needed right now.
You can donate to one of these partners by following this link.
Any help you can give would be great.
Namaste
New Classroom in Uganda
Where we came from
In September of 2011, Meaningful Volunteer completed the construction of a solar powered school in the small Ugandan village of Buyaya. The school was built to honor Andy Manley who died tragically in a house explosion.
The school acts as preschool primarily and also offers computer and English literacy classes to older students.
Since completion of the school we have:
- Added a rain-fed water system
- Flattened out some land to provide a playground for the students
- Constructed a guest house for volunteers and staff
- Started numerous livelihood projects such as briquette making and tailoring
- Seen numerous students graduate and move onto school elsewhere
- Served countless meals to hungry children
Where we are going
The school has been very successful. The locals love the school and the educational boost that it is giving its children.
Now we are experiencing growing pains. More children want to attend the school than we can provide. So we have made the decision to add another classroom.
The local community has offered to provide the labor free of charge and we only need to raise money for the building materials.
This will amount to $US 2,000. We hope you can help us with this endeavour and help us to continue to make a meaningful impact in Uganda.