Scenes From Our School in Nepal

A special shoutout to Hema for sharing these pics. Keep up the awesome work Hema!

New Roads in Buyaya

One of big challenges of building the school in Buyaya, Uganda was transporting materials to the job site.

Buyaya lies on the side of Mt. Elgon. The first 90% of the journey up Mt. Elgon was easy, but the last 10% was a real challenge. The grade would increase considerably and there weren’t really potholes, they were just plain old holes. I have a vivid memory of my father flipping backwards off a motorcycle he was a passenger on. Fun times.

We had to hire massive trucks to bring the sand and other supplies up the mountain as smaller trucks just couldn’t handle it.

Now that has all changed! The road in Buyaya has had significant improvements.

Not only will this make life easier for our school, but it will make life so much better for the wider community.

Check out the pics of the upgrade below.

The Simple Pleasures

Meaningful Volunteer district manager Esther made the evening with this delicious fruit at our school in Buyaya

Happy Birthday to Debbie Boles

Debbie with her mother Margaret

A special Happy Birthday shout out from all of here at Meaningful Volunteer.

Year after year, Debbie Boles has been an adamant supporter of everything we do here at Meaningful Volunteer.

Without fail, she has donated money for a special Christmas meal in Buyaya in Uganda.

Debbie continues on the legacy of her late mother Margaret who started the tradition of the Christmas and Easter meals many years ago.

Happy Birthday Debbie! Check out a special message from Buyaya below

Another Alumni of Meaningful Volunteer Gets Sponosored

Anna Alice Wanyeze

Congratulations to Anna Alice Wanyeze who has been sponsored by Mountain Law in Whistler for a full six year scholarship at the local high school!

Thanks to Peter from Mountain Law and the wonderful Esther Nabukonde and Mary Wenyisa for making this all possible

Anna Alice Wanyeze is heading to High School with a Full Sponsorship

When Meaningful Volunteer first started in Buyaya, Uganda, the very first thing we did was to sit down with community elders and just listened. They expressed a disappointment that so many of their children were going through the primary school system and coming out the other end illiterate.

They said that they didn’t need another primary school, but rather a preschool. This would have many benefits to the community, but they were most interested in giving their students a running start to the primary school system. If they could get a strong grounding in their ABCs and 123s then at least they would have a better chance of doing well at primary school and beyond.

So, Meaningful Volunteer built a preschool!

It was always going to be a long term play and we wouldn’t see the benefits for several years.

We are seeing the results now!

Anna Alice Wanyeze went through Meaningful Volunteer’s preschool program where she worked diligently on her ABCs and 123s. She then went on to be a star pupil at her local primary school.

Anna was still stuck though. High School is very expensive in Uganda. She saw many of her friends and siblings marrying early due to a lack of funds for education.

Thanks to a very generous donation by Peter Shrimpton at Mountain Law in Whistler, Canada, Anna is now able to complete her high school studies with a full scholarship!

Anna plans to study social work and nursing and use her skills to help her community.

Congratlations Anna and thank you so much Mountain Law!

Coffee Harvest Time in Buyaya, Uganda

The edible schoolyard at Meaningful Volunteers school in Buyaya, Uganda is coming up trumps once again.

The land that was generously donated by Mrs and Mr.Stephen Wabudeya now contains three classrooms, a guesthouse, an outhouse, a playground as well as our edible schoolyard.

Our intention for our school in Uganda was that it would be as self-sustaining as possible. Our edible schoolyard is helping to feed our students as well as provide income via things like coffee and bean harvests.

While Uganda is suffering terribly under the strains of COVID-19 infections (on oh so many other things), our little school on the slopes of Mt. Elgon is doing better the most thanks in no small part to its edible schoolyard

Sugod School in the Philippines Partially Destroted

Meaningful Volunteer first started operating out of the small village of Sugod in the Philippines. Recently the school was partially destroyed by Typhoon Kammuri. One of our former volunteers has set up a Go Fund Me page to help rebuild the school. More details below.

Go Fund Me page can be found here.

On December 2nd Typhoon Kammuri hit Sugod, in Tablas Island, Philippines. With strong winds and floods, six classrooms from Sugod Elementary School were damaged, losing their roofs and doors. Electricity won't return until January.

As the government's support for reconstruction is uncertain, teachers and parents are looking for support to rebuild the six classrooms so that children are able to go back to school in January. As a former volunteer in Sugod Elementary School, I am creating this campaign to support teachers and families that are reaching out for funds needed to restore the school program.

The estimated cost for materials to rebuild each classroom is 66,000 Philippine Pesos (1,700 CAD).

The money will be directly withdrawn to one of the school teachers, who is coordinating the reconstruction of the classrooms with parents and fellow teachers. We will appreciate your support so that reconstruction can get started during the last two weeks of December 2019.

We will share updates on the reconstruction process, that will be possible with your support!

Any amount is helpful.

Salamat! Thank you!