We have just received this report from Pat who is running the street boys project in Mbarara, Uganda. It is really good to see how they are achieving great results in school.

We are continuing to support the street boys project that is helping to take young boys living in desperate circumstances out of them, and to be given food, shelter and most importantly, care.

‘Our project continues to grow and change. At present we have 26 boys, 4 of which are very new. Our oldest boy is going into S4. The boy going into S3 did so well last year that the school is giving him a bursary for this year. We have three boys going into S1, 1 achieved a grade 1 and the other two a grade 2. Most of our younger boys did well. Three boys are studying from home this year. One boy went to live with his grandmother. We pay the school fees but she is covering the rest. Another boy, 17, is living with his family for the first time in many years. He has a long ride to school but he is very enthusiastic this year. He hopes to complete P7 before going into a trade.

The new ones we have are very young. We picked them from a nearby dump. One boy, 11, was covered in skin disease. One boy is 15 but the size of a 10 year old. He says he’s been on the street for 9 years. His father and mother died when he was very young and the grandfather didn’t want the child around. When we investigated the homes of these boys every case was very sad.

We have a good manager now. He lives in with his wife and family living nearby. We gave two good cooks. Our new mentor has only been with us for a short time and is learning the job.

We have done nothing with our land as we do not have the money but we keep planning. Our landlord was good to us and we signed a 2 year lease with no increase in rent. We have acquired rabbits. It keeps the boys busy keeping them fed. We had two dogs but one became too good at guarding and had no idea who belonged to the project! I was afraid he might bite someone. We have two kittens and plan on two more to keep the rodent population down.

We had 13 boys with us for Christmas. We were blessed with a young woman who spent two days with us enjoying the boys. We were invited to visit Kabale by a young man who is hoping to begin a street kids project there. We visited with these kids at the Full Gospel church in Kabale. Then we all went for a picnic to Lake Bunyonyi. It was a great day for us all.’