Still breaking ground for Uganda

Child of Hope's amazing, expanding school-in-the-slum now has six year groups in its primary section. As the children grow older, their curriculum becomes more specialised and complicated, so staff have employed two new primary teachers, reports head teacher Peter. Meet Eunice and Silver!

On top of that – and this could be a first for Uganda – They have also employed seven teaching assistants to assist across Primary and Nursery, which ensures that every class has one teacher and one assistant. In the youngest class (which staff call Baby class), there are two assistants because the tiny ones need extra help.

In the picture are Mercy, Caro, Doreen, Josophine and Ruth.

This is a new approach to managing classrooms for their teachers, but they are beginning to understand the benefit of an extra adult in the classroom and a spare pair of hands to help with preparation, resources and behaviour management. At first the teachers didn’t know what to do with their assistants… they've never had the luxury before!

Teacher Mike explained “The teaching assistants are proving to be very helpful in organising the class. They are good at displaying instructional materials, giving the children homework and monitoring classroom cleanliness. It’s a great innovation to have a TA in each class. As we get to know them better, we can give them more and more to do. Some are good at IT which is very useful.”

It’s great to give employment to increasing numbers of community members; huge thanks to everyone in the UK who helps to sponsor one of the teaching staff.

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Very educational

University and college students from the UK and overseas love using self-storage with Bournemouth-based Store & Secure, and right now they’re leaving clobber behind as they head home for the summer.

And because the staff are really nice, students get a special discount!

Dry… bright… clean… friendly… secure… 7 days a week.

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Drive-in

Store & Secure self-storage now has 120 drive-up self-storage rooms with 24-hour access… very popular with tradesmen. 

Based behind Castlepoint, Bournemouth, CCTV provides full security, plus lots of storage size options and great flexibility on period of hire.

Dry… bright… clean… friendly… secure… 7 days a week.

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No sweat

Some wonderful donors gave charity Child of Hope some very good quality school sweaters for its primary school pupils. They were all too large (secondary school size)… but that wasn’t a problem! 

The school's inhouse speedy tailors immediately got to work, altering them so that they would fit the kids without swamping them. As you can see in the before-and-after shot, the sleeves now end at the hands (not the knees) and the bottom now ends at the bottom (not the ankles)!

Primary head teacher Peter said: “We are very grateful to the donors who have supplied our children with sweaters. Some people will wonder why children in a hot African country would need sweaters. Actually, although a lot of the time it’s very hot (35º C), during rainy seasons it becomes comparatively cold, especially at night (15–20ºc). While 20º is warm for the UK, for our children it feels cold, and they’re all glad of their new sweaters. So thanks!”

Expansion starts at Store & Secure

Social media:  Exciting stuff… work has started to virtually double Store & Secure's size with another 27,000 sq ft of storage space for businesses! 

   Purpose-built for self-storage, the expansion within our existing building behind Castlepoint, Bournemouth, will spread over three floors with a lift. More news soon. 

   Dry… bright… clean… friendly… secure… 7 days a week.

[Picture by Phil Dowding]

Smart-ie pupils!

Pupils at Wyndham Park Infants School in Salisbury have raised a whopping £885.72 for UK charity Child of Hope – in Smartie tubes!

Each child in the school was given a tube of Smarties to take home (and munch)… and then invited to return the tube full of 20p coins… and the result was fantastic.

Teacher Becky Blake said the school has enjoyed a strong link with Child of Hope’s expanding slum school in Uganda since one of its teachers – Emily Stone – volunteered there for a few weeks in 2012.

The children became very involved during the trip – even skyping the school from there – and Emily ran a detailed blog.

Becky said: “It was a real eye-opener for the children. Since then we have carried on and they have such a compassion. They often come up with ideas for fundraising. When Bex and Moses visit our school it reinforces the close link we have.”

Now the school has appointed 30 buddies from among its pupils – some are in the picture with teachers Emma Stone (left) and Becky Blake – to help with the school link, and they meet once or twice every term to think up ideas to help the children of CoH in Uganda.

Abducted child... now found

A Child of Hope nursery pupil (Mariko, 6 yrs old) went missing since on Friday evening (May 2) after walking into town by himself. Now that's a huge scare for CoH staff, due to the shameful practice by some in Uganda of killing children for various body parts to lay in the foundation of new roads and buildings 'for good luck'.

But after an epic rescue, they have him back!

A herculean effort by the slum school staff and local community leaders saw posters put up round the community with his photo and a phone number, and staff finally got him at 10pm last night (May 8). Someone saw one of the posters, rang the number and tipped them off that he was being held in a village 6Km away. A team of staff went with police and he is now back safe and sound!

Removal company Maidman’s is sold to rival White & Company

Bournemouth-based Maidman’s Ltd has been acquired by friendly rival White & Company PLC for an undisclosed sum.
   The new company will operate independently of White & Company's own Bournemouth facility and will provide service to the domestic and commercial moving market in Bournemouth and the New Forest.
   All Maidman’s staff will be retained and the company will continue to operate under its own brand, managed by Steve Webber.
   The acquisition will allow Brian Maidman to exit the removal industry to develop his Store & Secure brand of self-storage, where significant investment is being made.
   He said: “After 35 years in the removals industry, developing Maidman’s to its size and enviable reputation, I wanted to concentrate on Store & Secure. Both my daughters will work with me and we’ll operate as a family business.
   “Our plan is to develop a multi-site operation; we definitely have growth in mind and will be very active in the market.
   “Regarding the sale of Maidman’s – we didn’t want just any buyer, it had to be a company that could maintain the Maidman’s reputation and retain all the staff.”
   Ian and Brian have cooperated in business and at director level within the British Association of Removers for many years and are equally delighted that such an amicable acquisition has been achieved.
   Brian's daughter Sophie will remain with the new company for a three-month period to achieve a smooth handover and will then join her father in the Store and Secure self-storage brand.
   White & Company is based in Botley, Southampton, and is an international, domestic and office mover with an existing network of 18 branches in the UK, Germany & Majorca.
www.whiteandcompany.co.uk
www.maidmans.com

Picture by Phil Dowding

Budding film-makers

Annie and Bryony from Kids Camera Action! successfully took their young persons' filmmaking workshop into one of poorest areas on earth – the Namatala slum district in Uganda – and the Child of Hope schoolchildren rose to the challenge brilliantly!

You can see a short film of video clips and pictures - click here - and soon we'll show the first short videos made by the children... watch this space!