And here comes Christmas

And here comes Christmas.... another year comes to an end.
It is time for wishes and for evaluating our situation with African Dream .

“Our” school continues to grow and we would like to offer you in a synthetic overview what we have been able to realize during the year 2008 thanks to your support and generosity. As you do know already, the school is already operational and has got 130 students.

The actual structure (which is, as you already know, consisting out of a number of classrooms, a library, a bedroom, washrooms, kitchens and a number of small buildings to house the teachers that work at the college) has been expanded this year with a big laboratory and the building of a second bedroom to lodge new students that subscribe for next school year.

Also, at our return from Nebbi last month of May, we realized the need to multiplicate our efforts not only to finish the building of the school, but also to help a number of students that find themselves incapable to further pay their annual subscription.
Antonella launched convocation to “adopt one student” and we got 32 contacts. A great success thanks to your solidarity.
The students ended their exams on November 12 and first investigations show a great result overall,… amongst the best of the district. Final results will be published before the end of January 2009.
The tam tam of these results brings good publicity and the President of our school Padre Raphael Okumu demonstrated great optimism regarding the number of new students and where the parents showed the will to proceed with their registration.
But there is still so much to be done.

The objective is to start and complete soonest the building of a second block of classrooms and to equip all buildings with lighting based on solar panels. This will enable the accomodations, alimentation and education of approximately 300 students, allowing the school by then to be autonomously operational.
Finally, we need to find the funds to install a security system for the school and to purchase a vehicle to be used for the frequent supply travels to Kampala. We will need approximately between 85 and 90.000 euro to complete this first project of our Association.
We count on your help, also for next year and we still believe that it is possible to end all the works as planned before the end of 2009.

Merry Christmas to all of you, also on behalf of all our students. That 2009 may turn our ‘African dream’ into the beautiful reality of what has been realised already thanks to your contribution.

Thank you,
Vincenzo and Antonella.