Royal School and Orphanage sits at the top of a small mountain in Mityana, Uganda. The school is home to over 600 orphaned children, and includes dormitories, a dining hall and a library. The campus is tidy and orderly, and STARK.
With water and food in short supply, there are no extra funds. The children each have one uniform, which they wash by hand, and a trunk that holds all their earthly possessions.
During recess, the children literally just stand around in the hard dirt, with no toys, sporting equipment or anything to play with. We all know that PLAY is so important to development during childhood.
Our dream is to build a playground for the kids at Royal! Won't you help us?
The children have been praying for a playground...let's be the ones to fulfill their dream!
We are partnering with an experienced ministry, Kids Around the World, www.kidsaroundtheworld.com
that builds playgrounds for orphanages.
The operations director, Chris Marshall, recently visited Royal at our request, and says he has never seen such a need!
Once we purchase and ship the equipment, a volunteer team will go to Uganda next summer to install the playground.
YOU CAN BE PART OF THIS TEAM!
To learn more about what your experience would be like on that trip, here is a note from Chris about another team that recently built in Uganda.
We just finished our project here in Masaka, Uganda and the team has just left. It's safe to say we had an incredible project! We took 19 volunteers from the Midwest to Uganda to build a playground and train teachers at Beth Pipe Primary School just north of Masaka. This was a very remote location with no electricity for miles. Beth Pipe is an orphanage/school that has around 200 kids and was founded by a Canadian organization. The kids here are loved and cared for by a great staff that is committed to their needs.
Up next for the volunteers was constructing the playground. Only problem was...the playground was being held in customs. Through God's grace the container was released from customs the next day and arrived right on time. The build was challenging as we were building a recycled playground. But the volunteers were up to the task and persevered throughout the week. We also painted the playground which was an interesting and sticky situation! With rain, humidity, and Ugandan paint, we had some issues painting it but it turned out great in the end.
Towards the end of the week, the kids were getting so excited for their playground. They helped us spread sand, mix concrete and clean up the area for the dedication. While we were spreading the sand, we realized these kids have never made sand castles so we got some buckets and showed them how to do it. They loved it!!
The dedication was a very special day for all of us. We were all sad that the week was over but knew that our work here in Uganda was just beginning. Since the dedication was on Sunday, we had a very special time of worship, dancing, prayer and some very encouraging words said by all who were there. We were especially touched by how thankful the kids were and they showed us with their songs and dancing. When it was time for the kids to go on the playground we could quickly tell that this would be special! There were hundreds of kids on the playground and you could barely see the playground itself. They were having so much fun climbing and exploring the unit. This playground has a particularly high slide...one of the highest we have built. The kids went up there first, of course, and loved it!
After seeing the kids on the playground, we all went to the kids' home and had lunch. It was a great way to end the week and very hard to say goodbye. When we boarded the bus to the airport we felt full and satisfied...and tired!
Thanks for all your prayers and support for this project. We also appreciate our hard working volunteers and friends in Uganda that helped make all this possible. We hope that you will continue to support and pray for us as we minister to kids all over the world.
Chris Marshall
Kids Around the World
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