Project 06/2024 Handover of a donation for promoting school education and infrastructure at Insula High School, Rakai Region, Uganda

With a donation of € 4,000, the Dieter & Bettina Wulkow Foundation is supporting the Insula High School school project in cooperation with Celebrate Hope Germany e.V. and Celebrate Hope Ministries, Sanje, Uganda. At the final concert on June 1st, 2024 of the student and childrens choir Tumaini Voices

The board members Dieter and Bettina Wulkow presented the donation from our foundation to Father Fredie Sekyewa. The choir students also received a small gift from us, a Westerwälder Hui-Hölzchen self-assembly kit and small fabric fish sewn by a donor.

We are pleased that we can contribute to this aid project by Celebrate Hope German e.V. and Celebrate Hope Ministries, Sanje, Uganda.

Further information: 

The rural Rakai region is a relatively poorly developed region in southwestern Uganda. In addition to poverty, unemployment and a lack of prospects, families are often affected by AIDS and HIV infections with high death rates, even among married couples. Access to water is sometimes catastrophic.  Water for cooking and hygiene is taken from lakes, ponds and polluted streams, as well as from wells further away.  This affects not only broken-up families, but also left-behind children, half- and full-orphans, who often grow up on their own without sufficient educational opportunities. To do this, they often have to walk long distances to schools if such facilities exist. Primary schools and secondary schools are often inadequately equipped; there is a lack of teachers, teaching materials, toilets, water, showers, lounges and hot lunches. Only a few families can afford access for children and young adolescents to higher schools.

The Celebrate Hope Ministries association (an NGO) based in Sanje in the Rakai Region is a Christian organization founded by pastor Fredie Sekyewa that has been caring for the affected families and children in this region since 2009. They are involved in various aid programs for over 260 smaller parishes and train pastors and helpers to implement them. Families (already 4,000) are successfully being introduced to coffee cultivation, which, based on current experience, is thriving in the region and promises sufficient income for the families in the future. With land, plant seedlings and active advice in setting up a small plantation, those supported will be helped over a period of up to 8 years, with the purchase of the harvested coffee beans, roasting, packaging and sales are organized by Celebrate Hope Ministries (CHM). The children in the region are provided with education and enlightenment through the construction and maintenance of private schools, which also enables them to receive vocational training in crafts or to receive funding for studies. In addition to the coffee aid program already mentioned, there are water programs for the production and supply of clean drinking water, wastewater treatment and hygiene programs. Filter systems were recently donated for water treatment.  A health program, Hope Health, was also successfully launched, providing medical assistance to the people in the Rakai region. The ministries goal is a completely AIDS-free Rakai region. 

The comprehensive and future-building overall project can only be implemented with external donations.  The CHM board members with Father Fredie Sekyewa, Micah Mugabi (responsible for finances) and Eriab Ssebunje (program manager) rely on child sponsorships, fundraising campaigns and cooperation projects and the rapid implementation of their goals. 

The partner organization in Germany, Celebrate Hope Germany e.V., based in Greifenstein, Lahn-Dill district, has been supporting this humanitarian work for many years, largely by arranging sponsorships and project financing.  Sponsors and Godparents cover the costs of care and schooling for the children for a period of 8 years. 

On-site support from local helpers, engineers and doctors is ensured through fundraising. With the construction of the Holy Christian School (7-year primary school) and the Insula High School (secondary school with a vocational school branch), two facilities have already been built in this region. But even there is still a lack of improved facilities, sanitary facilities such as water, toilets and showers (the children often have to travel long and dusty paths) and modern school supplies. 

We were able to meet Father Fredie from Celebrate Hope Ministries, Rakai Region Uganda and Ms. Bianca Hedrich, project manager CHG at the Tumaini Voices performance recently and pledged our cooperation in helping the pupils and students of Insula High School. 

We are pleased to cooperate with Celebrate Hope Germany e.V. Greifenstein-Hesse, Germany and Celebrate Hope Ministries, Rakai Region Uganda in this project.

 Photos: own by Dieter & Bettina Wulkow Foundation with kind permission for publication by Celebrate Hope Germany e.V.