Kibaale Community Centre

Clinic Donation

2011-01-05T04:29:00.000-08:00

This weekend we received a massive donation for the medical clinic. There were a number of new hospital beds, shelves, chairs, and a lot of supplies to replenish the dwindling stock. This came from a hospital in Holland called Martini Ziekenhuis Groningen - Thank You!!!!

Last year our clinic was over budget due to a much higher volume of patients than expected, so this donation came at the perfect time to cover some of those extra costs, what a blessing!!

Christmas Special Gifts

2010-12-10T03:20:00.000-08:00

The staff in Kibaale have been very busy over the last couple weeks giving out all of the special gifts that have been so generously purchased for the students and their families over the Christmas season.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!

Christmas in Kibaale

2010-10-29T15:44:00.000-07:00

Kibaale Special Gifts

2010 Christmas Donations List!!

Every Donation of $10 or more will receive a charitable tax donation receipt.

100% of your gift goes directly to Kibaale.

Special Gifts can be given throughout the year. You can designate them to a specific child or mark it for "where most needed". You can designate a special gift to a child or give a $ amount to "items most Needed" and our Kibaale staff will purchase the necessary items. Donate now on-line through our website using PayPal!!

www.paoutreach.net

Should you wish to have your Kibaale Sponsor Child receive your special gift before Christmas, a donation needs to be given by Thursday November 25th.

Email: info@paoutreach.net

Dessert Night

2010-10-28T10:13:00.000-07:00

Last week we got some really cute video of these two Primary classes singing a few songs!! You can see some of the video, pictures, and an update on the projects going on in Kibaale at the Dessert Night held at Pacific Academy School this evening!! Click HERE for details.

Sponsor a Vocational Student

2010-10-20T09:00:00.000-07:00

A few of the girls in the catering program in Kibaale.

The vocation program in Kibaale is over two years and the students study in catering, carpentry or tailoring; they also have english studies. We currently have 18 vocational students that are in need of sponsors. It is $35(CDN) per month and EVERY cent goes directly to the students education or medical expenses!!

You can see the students at www.kibaale.net. Here are a couple off the website that you can see right now!!

Name: Kayinga Joseph

Born: March 11, 1996
Health: Good
Class: Vocational Carpentry 1st Year
Favorite Activity: Soccer
Chores: Digging in the garden
Family: Joseph lives with his Grandparents. He has 4 sisters and 1 brother. Joseph's parents both passed away. His Grandparents are quite old and are unable to support Joseph and his siblings. They are unable to pay for his school fees.

Name: Nabyeganja Margret

Born: August 8, 1995

Health: Good

Class: Vocational Catering 1st Year

Favorite Activity: Netball

Chores: Digging in the garden

Family: Margret lives with both of her parents. She has 3 brothers and 5 sisters. Margret's parents farm on their land, but the land they have is very small and does not produce much money. It is their only source of income and it is not to care for their large family.

TILAPIA!!!

2010-10-20T04:07:00.000-07:00

We have received our first harvest from our Tilapia Farm and will be selling the fish locally!! The staff and students were very excited to use this as a field trip for the kids and teach the students about fish and farming!!

Congratulations..

2010-09-28T07:04:00.000-07:00

...to Mugabi and Margaret on their beautiful baby girl, Kysakye. Mugabe works in the KCF sponsorship office and Margaret is a P2 teacher, please pray for them as they adjust to being parents!!!

Director

2010-08-19T05:11:00.000-07:00

We are very excited to introduce Ochulu Peter as the new director of the Kibaale Community Centre!! Peter has been working in Kibaale for the past 13 years, filling roles like headmaster and principal, and is now the first Ugandan director. He is doing a great job so far and loves this new role. Please keep him in your prayers during this time of transition!

Mutagubya Dennis

2010-08-15T10:10:00.000-07:00

Dennis is in one of our Kindergarten classes. He is one of the sweetest little boys in Kibaale, always greeting you with a wave and big smile!

Both of his parents are HIV positive and are very weak, they are unable to work. His family was so thankful when they received "Maize Flour" as a special gift. Maize flour is a staple food in Uganda, and for a family like Dennis' can last them 3 months!!

In the dry season many families struggle to provide enough food for their families which makes Maize Flour a great special gift!!

To see more about the special gifts you can buy for your sponsor child or a "where most needed" gift go to www.kibaale.net

Thank You!!!

Dry Season

2010-08-09T11:16:00.000-07:00

We have not had a good rain in Kibaale for almost 2 months, it is already starting to feel like a very long dry season!! The kids are visiting the bore hole at the centre a lot more frequently these days!!

Please pray for rain!!

Donations

2010-04-22T22:52:00.000-07:00

Pacific Academy Outreach Society is now able to process donations on line .

Kibaale Walk

2010-04-16T07:47:00.000-07:00

On April 30th the staff and students of Pacific Academy School will walk 5km to raise money for Kibaale!!

For the first time, supporters will be able to make a donation towards the Kibaale Walk online!

To donate online using Paypal, Visa, Mastercard or American Express go to our website at http://www.paoutreach.net/kibaale-walk; and click on “Donate”.

Thank you for your support!!!!

Palm Sunday

2010-03-28T07:52:00.000-07:00

The staff and students decided to celebrate Palm Sunday with a march through town this morning. Everyone met at the centre with whatever tree branches they could get their hands on, the trucks were loaded up with all of the sound equipment, and off we went. The parade lasted around an hour; with singing, enthusiastic branch waving, and then we came back for a big church service in the community hall.

Net Drive in Kibaale!!

2010-03-17T23:20:00.000-07:00

Kibaale is experiencing an unusually high amount of malaria being diagnosed in our clinic at this time, especially amongst our own Kibaale Community Centre staff. As we are responsible for the medical costs for all of our staff and their families, it has been decided that it would be a good idea to provide them with mosquito nets. There is a need for 270 nets at this time. Our clinic has already given out 400 nets to the community, but need 270 more to distribute to our own staff. Please consider giving toward our “Net Drive” . 2 Mosquito nets cost $15. All donations over $10 will receive a tax receipt.

We have put a direct link on our website where you can donate online: http://paoutreach.net/node/777
Thank You!!

SPONSORSHIP

2010-03-15T06:16:00.000-07:00

All of the Nursery students, like these cuties pictured below, are on the Kibaale website and ready for sponsorship!!!

Lukyamuzi Moses

Nakafeero Jankias

Nakawunde Jennifer

www.kibaale.net

Pray for Kibaale

2010-02-28T09:18:00.000-08:00

Please pray for our centre as we mourn the loss of our clinic employee, Richard, who died last night from pneumonia. He will be missed.

Picture by Sean and Jamie Davis.

Mud Hut and Crafts

2010-02-23T10:09:00.000-08:00

One of the highlights every year is building a mud hut with our P6 classes and this year was no exception. The kids all worked very hard and did a great job on this home for one of our very needy students.

They also spent Saturday morning with our Staff Kids playing games and making crafts.

Chapel

2010-02-17T04:45:00.000-08:00

Sports Day

2010-02-12T06:50:00.000-08:00

The PA team was full of energy and ready to go first thing on this hot and humid day in Kibaale.

They put on an awesome Sports DAY, first for our Nursery classes, then our Primary classes and after lunch (a Ugandan meal of matooke, rice and chicken!!) the Upper Primary Classes. The kids had so much fun trying out all of the events!!

The PA Outreach Team...

2010-02-11T06:40:00.000-08:00

...has safely arrived in Kibaale!!

They will be running a sports day for our Primary School tomorrow so we'll have pictures to post then!!

2007

2010-02-02T04:01:00.000-08:00

No, we are not confused of the year. 2007 is the number of patients the Kibaale Medical Clinic saw in the month of January. An average month for the clinic is 1400, the highest month we have had before this one was 1700!

The mosquitoes had been terrible this rainy season. Out of those 2007 patients, 1600 of them were treated for malaria. The dry season is upon us and we're all looking forward to less mosquitoes!!

Our Clinical Officer, Liz

All of our staff have been working very hard this month to see every patient.

Waiting outside in the shade.

Christmas Cup Semi-Finals

2009-12-14T03:48:00.000-08:00

Saturday night was the semi-final game in our annual Christmas Soccer Tournament. The game was decided in penalty shots before a crowd of around 500 people. Our goalkeeper is one of our students from the Kibaale Secondary School, who did an amazing job throughout the tournament.

This year instead of the Kibaale Community Centre having their own team we combined forces with the rest of Kibaale town. Our team is a mix of students and staff from our centre, taxi drivers, shopkeepers and butchers.

The final game is on Sunday, where the grand prize, a cow, will be given away!

Christmas Party

2009-12-01T05:05:00.001-08:00

On Saturday we had a Christmas Party for 50 staff kids!! We made a star Christmas craft, decorated sugar cookies, acted out the Christmas story and had sodas.

The kids were excellent and had a lot of fun!

New Students

2009-11-14T05:10:00.000-08:00

Over 300 families brought their preschool aged students to have an interview with our Head Nursery and Primary teachers this week. 300 families...45 spots. Do the math, obviously some people are going to be disappointed. First our school staff have the task of weeding out the students that are just too far away or not ready to be in school, then the job gets passed over to our sponsorship office where they have to, in many instances, physically investigate how needy the applicant is.

Please pray for our staff as they have incredibly difficult decisions to make over the next few weeks.

BBQ

2009-11-12T03:35:00.000-08:00

To celebrate the end of a great school year, as well thank everyone for all their had work, the Canadian staff in Kibaale (with the Wiebe family who are visiting for 2 weeks) decided to make and serve dinner to everyone on Friday night. We have events with Ugandan food all the time, so decided to have a more Canadian meal; BBQ hot dogs, pasta salad, donuts and soda! Many people seemed to really like the food and even came for seconds!

Our favorite part of the night was the DJ the social committee had come out! This isn't how our bbq's at home end!!!

Traveling Immunization Clinic

2009-11-05T12:13:00.000-08:00

Three times a month our clinic staff go into a neighboring village to weigh, immunize and give vitamins to babies, and also vitamins to all the children that come. It's somehow still surprising how often you see such young children carrying and caring for babies! It was great to see that they were being cared for too.

Our traveling clinic is a huge blessing to the families in the 3 villages that we rotate going to, since it would take them hours to walk into Kibaale. We love seeing how involved in this program the clinic staff is. They are always so happy to go out and so helpful to the overwhelming amount of people, and this is all after a full day’s work!! We love our staff!!

Seed Bank

2009-11-02T11:10:00.000-08:00

Capacity Building

Food Security

Positive Economy

Sustainable Development

The above buzzwords (buzzphrases?) are an important part of NGO/charity lingo and the ideas and theories they describe are constantly being applied here as Kibaale Community Centre strives to make an impact in our community.

At its core, our centre is an educational institute. We have been entrusted with close to 1,000 students to teach, mentor, prepare and develop into Godly, responsible citizens who will be leaders in Uganda. We believe that by educating these children, we are building the capacity of this nation and contributing to a future economy that will thrive, eventually without foreign aid – a lofty idea, I know!

In addition to this awesome task, we have the opportunity to engage in other development work when needs become apparent on the peripheries of the education component of our mandate. It is difficult to teach a child that hasn’t eaten since they left school the day before or is suffering from untreated malaria (These are just examples of the many challenges our students and greater community face). This is where our community services department steps in; by offering food assistance and operating a medical clinic, among other things.

Currently, people in our community are suffering as the previous rainy season (February – April) was not long enough for them to produce enough food to last until this rainy season began about 3 weeks ago. The staple food here is a maize flour paste called posho topped with kidney beans. Our community members have had to eat all of their beans (which are also seeds) leaving them with nothing to plant this rainy season.

Recently, Vincent and Elkanah (both former students and now employees) developed the idea of changing the way we provide famine relief from just giving out food to loaning seeds to people and collecting them, along with a small amount of excess seeds as “interest,” back after harvest. Operating a bank, as it were. Food security as opposed to food assistance is the ultimate goal of this idea. In theory, with the seeds borrowed, people will be able to plant bigger crops, experience higher yields, be able to pay the “bank” back and even save some seeds for the next planting season. The “interest” will be used to cover losses from any failed crops and/or allow us to lend seeds to more people next season.

Vincent helping people fill out their seed bank account applications

Over the last few weeks, in addition to giving out maize flour and beans to those in our community that don’t have enough food to eat (which has been done to sustain them until they can harvest in about 3 months) we have loaned out beans, cassava stems and maize seeds to those who applied to be a part of our seed bank program. We are all very excited and interested to see if our seed bank will be successful. Check back in a few months to get a full report!

Micro-loans Programs

2009-10-23T10:24:00.000-07:00

Micro-loans programs in developing countries are all the rage.

Probably because they work.

Let me introduce you to Caroline, a participant in our community centre's micro-loans program and the protagonist of one of our success stories.

Caroline lives in Kibaale town and is a single mother. She has two children and cares for a child that has been orphaned and is of no relation to her. Before Caroline joined a group of women and became a recipient of a micro-loan, she was unable to adequately provide for the basic needs of her family, nor send her children to school.

After forming a group with some other women in our community, Caroline received the first of five loans from our centre and began to grow a charcoal distribution business.

Being a part of a group is a pre-requisite to receive one of our loans to encourage accountability and transparency and guarantee re-payment. 10% interest is charged on the micro-loans and the repayment term is 6 months, although grace is extended when a longer period of time is needed to repay the loan. While this interest rate may be considered high compared to what is paid in developed countries, it is lower than what all other micro-finance and banking institutions charge in our area. Loan recipients are encouraged to attend the seminars that our centre organizes that teach basic bookkeeping and business management skills. Our micro-loans program is managed by Vincent, one of our former students, who is now an integral part of our staff and promising future leader in our centre.

The subsequent loans Caroline received (the total we have loaned her is about $500) have enabled her to expand her inventory and stock on hand in her small store.

Caroline now has a successful business that earns more than double the average monthly income in our village. She has built herself a very nice home, is able to send both of her girls to boarding school (the goal of most parents in Uganda), has four storerooms in "town" FULL of charcoal as she has monopolized the charcoal market in Kibaale, and perhaps most importantly, in my opinion, has become a vibrant, confident, happy and empowered woman who is able to contribute positively in her community.

It is encouraging to see women (the predominant recipients of loans) making tangible differences in their family’s lives as they take advantage of our micro-loans program. Stay tuned for more stories of success!

Christmas GIFT List

2009-10-22T13:36:00.000-07:00

The Kibaale Christmas Gift List is updated at www.kibaale.net, you can also check it out below!!

Each of these special gifts you can buy your sponsor child are such a blessing, not only to them but for their entire family!!

If you don't have a sponsor child you can still give a special gift, and designate it "Where Most Needed". Our staff in our KCF (Kibaale Children's Fund) office will make sure that your gift goes to our neediest students.

Please email Jenny Nel (jnel@papcs.com) for more information!!

Gift Basket	$27.50
Double Gift Basket	$55.00
Bed Set (mattress, blanket, 2 sheets)	$55.00
Water Collector	$80.00
Goat	$35.00
Cow	$250.00
Primary shoes and clothes	$30.00
Secondary shoes and clothes	$40.00
2 Mosquito Nets	$15.00
Bicycle	$95.00
2000L Water Tank	$640.00
Shoes	$20.00
Reusable Feminine Products	$50.00
Secondary Textbooks	$50.00
Antibiotics (for 10 children)	$30.00
Housing (house, kitchen, latrine)	Approx 2-$5,000

Exams

2009-10-19T06:03:00.000-07:00

This week our Secondary 4 students have started writing their UNEB exams. That is the equivalent of provincial exams in Canada. Between now and the end of November they have an intense schedule of exam writing.

Our Primary 7 students are also about to sit for their UNEB exam. Primary 7 students only have two chances to pass this exam.

Please pray for all our students who are busy finishing up their school year.

Sports Day

2009-10-18T11:37:00.000-07:00

Another great event put on by our social committee in Kibaale!!

SODIS

2009-10-16T06:44:00.000-07:00

One of the programs we are able to operate here at Kibaale Community Centre is SODIS. We have been blessed to receive a generous donation from Compassion Canada in order to fund this program, and we are excited about the benefits it will reap in our centre community and the surrounding areas.

SODIS is a water disinfection method that uses solar; the rays from the sun. Dirty water (from a lake, river, puddle, unclean borehole or well) is poured into a specific plastic water bottle, placed on a table made of corrugated metal, and left to soak up the sun’s rays until it is purified. The water needs to stay on the table for about five hours in intense sunlight.

Yobu, a former student of ours and now an employee here (he was sponsored all the way through university and has a B.Sc.), does SODIS training in our schools as well as in the community. At the community level, he first trains several leaders on the process and benefits of the program and then has them mobilize the community, distribute the equipment, and report any problems that may arise. He also tests the water being purified (before and after) every two weeks to ensure that best practices are being employed.

There are several advantages of this program. The initial cost for supplies is minimal, and as our centre can provide it, the equipment is free for those in our area. As most people were boiling water (over a fire) before SODIS to try and purify it, they had to purchase firewood, charcoal, paraffin etc., which can be expensive. And, of course, the health benefits of drinking and cooking with clean water as opposed to using dirty water, as many people still do, can literally save a person’s life.

The community that I visited with Yobu last week is SO thankful for the provision of the equipment to purify their water, and is already experiencing a decrease in water-borne diseases in their families. I didn’t see one table that didn’t have at least several bottles of water on it. We are looking forward to expanding the program into more villages in the New Year and seeing our community’s health improve as a result!

Computer Lab

2009-10-07T05:27:00.000-07:00

In the summer we finished the construction of a new computer classroom in the secondary department. We've decided that before we offer computers as a class to our students we want our teaching staff to be capable on them first.

Yesterday was our first day that we opened the "Staff Computer Lab". It was exciting for us to see all the staff's enthusiasm in wanting to learn how to use the computer. Some teacher's were making notices for their classes, or writing certificates and asking a lot of great questions.

Sean Davis has donated his afternoons to the lab to help the teacher's with questions they have.

KCC Daycare

2009-09-25T09:57:00.000-07:00

We have recently started a Daycare for our staff in Kibaale. There are up to 30 kids coming throughout the day!!

The younger kids that are there all day are already learning to sit in a circle for meals, songs and stories. The older kids come after lunch and seem to provide extra entertainment for the babies!!

We have been blessed with several donations already; clothes, blankets, toys and books, which was a big help to us as we were setting up. As we get into routine we've realized there a few other items that could really help out through the day, such as bumbo seats, bouncy chairs and a play mat.

If you have a donation for our daycare you can drop it off at the PAOS office at Pacific Academy School.

Thank You!!!

Talent Show

2009-09-25T01:46:00.000-07:00

In August our social committee put on another successful all staff event, a talent show. There was athletics, dancing, modeling, laughing, yes laughing, and eating!!!!

White Ants

2009-09-09T05:58:00.000-07:00

White ants live underground in Uganda and come out after it rains. Even after a very light rain like we had on this evening in July. A few of the kids on the property ran into our yard to sit down and have a delicious snack! YUM!?

Cassy, who was on last year's PA Outreach Team, had the opportunity to volunteer in Kibaale for a couple weeks in July. She was a great sport and tried one of the ants herself!

Avin, who lives with her family in Kibaale, is not too sure about this!

New Water Well

2009-09-05T06:19:00.000-07:00

We just installed a new well on our farm. The timing couldn't have been better as the rainy season has still not started in Kibaale!! This well is on the other end of our property, near staff housing.

What a blessing it has been to our staff to have a clean water source nearby. It also benefits our farm and our neighboring community.

Pray for Rain

2009-08-12T09:38:00.000-07:00

We are hopefully coming to the end of the dry season in Kibaale. The rain has already come to many of the villages around us, but here, we are still waiting. The line-ups at the local bore holes have been getting longer and longer as tanks dry up, ours included. This is especially hard on the farmers, nothing is growing.

Everyone is praying the rain comes soon.

Shaban

2009-07-22T23:29:00.000-07:00

Last night, we had a knock at the door. There had been a bad motorcycle accident in town. Two "boda bodas" collided head on and four people were seriously hurt. I was told they were already in the back of one of our trucks in the driveway. They all had broken legs and head wounds. Shaban, one of our builders, was in the truck and hurt very badly. He was our painter at the medical clinic. He is also one of the guys I play soccer with.

His leg was broken in a few places and the bones were coming out. He has 8 children, one which was born very recently.

The medical costs will be around $1000. If anyone would like to help out by donating to the Kibaale Community Clinic, so that we can help Shaban, please email Jon Imbeau @ jimbeau@papcs.com

Thanks,

Jeff Dyck

Sports Day

2009-07-06T02:37:00.000-07:00

Teasdale Family

Stone Family

Nel Family

Kostamo Family

Ironmonger Family

ImBeau Family

VBS

2009-07-04T00:27:00.001-07:00

2009-07-01T00:08:00.000-07:00

Happy Canada Day!!

Family Team is hard at work!

2009-06-30T03:39:00.000-07:00

The team has been very busy since they arrived Friday morning; staff sports day, visits to their sponsor child's homes, church service, a trip to the Timothy Centre in Masaka, SODIS booth, bicycle clinic, time in the classrooms, a trip to the market in town, helping the women's groups make cards, and even a hike to find monkeys!!

Women's Group Crafts

Learning how to make cards!!

SODIS Booth

Teaching the community how to properly clean their drinking water.

Bicycle Repair Clinic

We offered a repair clinic for any broken bikes in our community, the response was huge!! The team was busy trying to fix as many bikes as possible on the first day, luckily we planned time for the clinic to run until Wednesday though.

Staff Sports Day

Our family team helped out by making crafts with all the children who came to cheer their parents on, as well by joining in on the teams!!

Welcome, Family Team!!!

2009-06-27T03:48:00.000-07:00

6 families: Jon, Deb, Benett, Abigail & William IMBEAU - Clint, Kim, Dobson & Alexa IRONMONGER- Timo, Shuana, Moira, Karah & Matthew KOSTAMO- Barry, Jenny, Rachel, Amy & Sarah NEL - Jamie, Diane, Chloe, & Sophie STONE and Rob, Laurie, Rachel & Nathan TEASDALE make up this year's Pacific Academy Family Team.

They safely arrived in Uganda yesterday, and are in full swing already. We are LOVING having them in Kibaale!!!

Dentist

2009-06-05T00:37:00.000-07:00

Every couple of months Mugabi and Jamie, from the KCF department, take a group of our students to the dentist for some quality cavity filling time. The students have an initial consult at our Medical Clinic, but we need to go to Rakai town (a 15 minute drive from Kibaale) for cavity fillings. Our trip usually consists of arriving at the hospital, waiting around for the generator to start up, file into one room and then the fillings begin!

There are no toys handed out at the end of the visit, but the big reward to enduring this pain is a trip to the town's restaurant for a very good lunch!!!

Immunization and DDHS Program

2009-05-25T20:37:00.000-07:00

Three times a month our clinic staff goes out into three neighboring villages (one village each week) to perform immunizations and administrate the district health services “model village” program.

This program encourages people to improve their health by implementing better sanitation and compound maintenance practices. This last week our staff visited one of the villages to perform immunizations as normal, but also to present gifts to those individuals that had most improved their compounds based on the model village model. This village had planned a celebration; complete with singing, drama, speeches and dancing to commemorate the event and LOTS of fun was had by all!

Kibaale Walk

2009-05-13T15:21:00.000-07:00

Every year students at Pacific Academy School get pledges from family, friends and neighbors as they commit to walk 5km to raise money for Kibaale. The money the students raise goes towards operating costs to run Kibaale Community Centre, this year the raised money is also going towards a much needed eating shelter for our students in Uganda.

This year we raised $144,000!!

THANK YOU to everyone at Pacifc Academy and to all of you who gave!!!

Kibaale Dessert Night -- Join Us!!

2009-04-02T09:07:00.000-07:00

Staff Sports Day

2009-04-02T05:10:00.000-07:00

Our social planning committe, headed up by Rachel Leng, put on an amazing Staff Sports Day on Saturday March 21st.

There were lots of different events to sign up for: running races, 3 legged races, egg on the spoon races, sack saces, netball, volleyball, badminton, and we finished the day with a great Football (soccer) Match.

The excitement that all our staff had thru the day and how involved they were in each event was the best part!!!

Sports Day

2009-03-29T00:36:00.000-07:00

The team spent their last day in Kibaale running a sports day for our Primary school. The kids all had a great day rotating thru several different stations!

Outreach School Visits

2009-03-22T00:29:00.000-07:00

Mud Hut

2009-03-20T06:53:00.000-07:00

The whole group went today with our two P6 classes to mud a new home that has been donated for one of our sponsored students, it's a messy job, but they had fun!

Home Visits

2009-03-20T06:00:00.000-07:00

The teams have been able to visit their sponsor kids this week, they brought them gift baskets filled with essential items, as well brought care packages from home!

Last Rotation Day

2009-03-19T07:13:00.000-07:00

The team introducing themselves at staff chapel this evening.

An English lesson and "Head and Shoulders".

The last day for the team to split into their 3 groups -- helping in the school, home visits and work projects; more slashing, laundry by hand, sweeping, mopping and painting!

Chapel

2009-03-18T07:35:00.000-07:00

Every Wednesday our students attend chapel, the PA team led our Primary Chapel in songs, skits, testimony and prayer. They did an amazing job, the kids had smiles on their faces the whole time and especially loved the great music!!

In the afternoon the teams went to 3 different schools on Outreach visits, this group is teaching Canadian Geography in a Muslim Secondary School. They were peppered with questions about the Canadian Prairies, and handled it very well!!

Day 3

2009-03-17T06:02:00.000-07:00

After spending the morning in the classroom, the team is helping out by making more materials for our teacher's to use in class.

More work projects..

Gift baskets are loaded into the truck and the team is off on home visits!!

We hear slashing is the hardest work project..

Kibaale Outreach Team

2009-03-16T06:01:00.001-07:00

Every year a team of grade 11 and 12 students from Pacific Academy School come during spring break to Kibaale. This year's team arrived yesterday morning and today have jumped right into their activities!

The day begins at the Primary class for singing, prayers, greeting the team and then devotions in their classes.

TEAM 3

Team 3 spent time on home visits so they were off property for most of the day but had a great experience!! Here they are with Jamie Davis in the KCF office.

TEAM 2

Team 2 did work projects all day; laundry by hand, sweeping and mopping, slashing the fields, painting and even helping with the digging of some holes for our new fish farm!!

TEAM 1

Team 1 is working in the Primary classrooms today. They also had a chance this afternoon to help make some materials needed for Math lessons.

2009-03-15T22:56:00.000-07:00

Kibaale Sponsorship

The Kibaale Children's Fund was established to allow caring individuals and families to support individual children attending the Kibaale Community Schools. Today we have close to 800 students being sponsored through KCF and other organizations such as ICCF Holland.

Cost of sponsorship is $25.00 (Canadian) per month for primary students, $30.00 (Canadian) per month for secondary students and $40 per month for special needs students. One hundred percent of the money received goes to Kibaale and for the benefit of the students and their families. This includes education, participation in the feeding program, medical care and family needs. Administrative costs are covered by Pacific Academy and from other sources.

Go to www.kibaale.net to see the new nursery students waiting for sponsorship!!

Day of Prayer and Fasting

2009-03-15T10:47:00.001-07:00

Once each term our chaplain, Pastor Eric, arranges a day of prayer and fasting for all of the staff. We gather for about 6 hours for worship, prayer and teaching with a guest speaker. We were very encouraged to see about 80% of our staff come out on Thursday.

Construction

2009-02-21T04:52:00.000-08:00

We have two building projects at the centre right now.

This is a new storage building for KCF.

We are also building a computer lab.

Making Beads

2009-02-21T04:38:00.000-08:00

We are very excited about how well the Women's Groups are going, today over 50 local women came to the centre for a workshop, put on by Rachel and Christine, to learn how to make paper beads, they all did an amazing job for their first time!!

Women's Groups

2009-02-09T05:29:00.000-08:00

One of the arms of our Community Services Department at KCC is Women’s Groups. We have a social worker on staff, Christine, who heads up this program.

Every week she spends time with these different groups around our community, some are AIDS support groups or bible studies. One of the largest groups is women who make crafts to provide income for their families.

Last Saturday, Christine had the chance to show the women some new ideas for crafts they can make which they all loved, we will be offering training to help with some of these new ideas in the weeks to come. All the crafts made will be sent home to the PAOS office at Pacific Academy School.

Chicks

2009-01-30T05:40:00.000-08:00

We just added over 400 chicks to the farm, we'll soon have 1,000 egg laying chickens!!

Water Project

2009-01-24T02:21:00.000-08:00

This past week we completed installing a new bore hole. We decided to put it right next to the dirty river where young children collect buckets and buckets of filthy water everyday.

It has been SO exciting seeing those same children filling up there cans at the new well. The water is clean and safe to drink right out of the tap.

2008-12-31T00:12:00.000-08:00

We hope you all had a Merry Christmas

& wish you a Happy New Year!!

Christmas Cup Final

2008-12-31T00:07:00.000-08:00

Just before Christmas, the final game of the cup took place. Of course, the game couldn’t start without a little bit of drama. The Taxi Drivers did not want to start the game until the grand prize cow was paraded down to the field. After all this was sorted out, the game began.

Just 3 minutes into the game, Our Kibaale Community Centre team took the lead. We managed to hold onto the lead for the rest of the game, winning an exciting, end to end game 1-0.

This tournament has been a great way for our centre to reach out to the community.

The Christmas Cup

2008-12-15T08:42:00.000-08:00

This year our centre has sponsored a soccer tournament. It has been called “The Christmas Cup”. There were 6 local teams including our own team of builders, teachers, maintenance workers, kitchen staff, students and even a mzungu (white guy)! The other teams have come from local villages. There have been some great games with huge crowds. The whole town comes out to watch.

The favourites to win are the taxi drivers of Kibaale. They won the last organized tournament. This coming Friday is the championship game. It will feature the Taxi Drivers VS the Kibaale Community Centre team.

We were even able to buy the biggest, most delicious looking cow as the grand prize. Second place will receive a goat.

The crowd as you walk towards the field

The guys in blue are from Byakajula, a neigbouring village, and KCC is in grey.

This is the semi-final game which we won 2:1 in dramatic fashion.

Grand prize cow!!!

Farm

2008-12-03T05:42:00.000-08:00

One of the biggest projects we do here in Kibaale is the farm project. We have 3 major departments on the farm; cows, chickens and trees. Our farm is approximately 65 acres.

Chickens. We have around 400 chickens and they lay around 220 eggs per day. We use those eggs to feed the children that go to the school. Any left over (which is a lot), gets sold to local shops or even some bigger hotels in nearby cities.

Cows. We have 17 dairy cows. 2 of which are milking right now. Every day they produce around 12 Litres of milk. This milk is also used to feed the children at the school. Another 7 of those cows are due to give birth any day now. We recently lost one of our cows after it was bit by a cobra snake.

Trees. Last year we planted around 14 000 pine trees. This is an excellent source of income, if you have the patience to wait. These will mature in the next 15-20 years and can then be sold for around $400 per tree. Each seedling only cost us about 30 cents! We hope to plant another 10 000 pine trees in the next year.

Elkanah is our Farm manager. He is a former student here and has a Bachelors degree in Vocational Studies of Agriculture.

Staff Loans

2008-11-26T05:31:00.000-08:00

There are many different branches to the Kibaale Community Centre and a lot of staff needed to run it, right now there are almost 150 staff members! A large number of our staff have spent their entire lives in Kibaale and are not very well off.

Byinda is one of those staff members. He grew up in Kibaale and even went to our school many years ago. He is now 30 years old and his job is to man the main gate and the visitor’s guest book. He makes a very modest salary of around $42 per month. He is the only member of his family who has a steady income. With that money he supports his mother, sisters family, his brothers family and of course his own family. He has one small boy. His newborn daughter died 2 months ago from tetanus.

You can imagine how difficult it is with those circumstances to have spare money to do anything with. His 70 sq ft house was made of mud, and every time it rained, it would start to cave in on him.

One thing we offer to employees is a staff loan. Many people use it to buy cows, or other livestock. But many use it to improve their houses. Byinda was able to build an entire new house with his staff loan! Construction of the new house!

Byinda and his wife in their new home!

Byinda's sister and her children who also live there.

Mom, neices, nephews...

Enjoying a local treat, jackfruit!!

Nursery Applications

2008-11-20T02:34:00.000-08:00

Every November the school and the sponsorship department begin the agonizing task of taking in the nursery school applications. I say agonizing because there are so many needy children and we just can’t accept them all into the school. This year there were 398 applications. The kids that live too far away, are too young or haven’t yet learned how to speak are the ones that don’t go on to the next step. The 398 children were shaved down to just 132. Now it’s up to the sponsorship department to visit their homes and their families to determine which of these kids are the neediest. At the end, we have just 45 spots.

Please pray for our staff in the sponsorship office that has to make these difficult decisions.

Jamie Davis hard at work in the KCF office!!

Special Gifts

2008-11-14T05:53:00.000-08:00

Once a month, our child sponsorship program, KCF, gives out special gifts. Special Gifts are purchased by the sponsor back in Canada. They can choose from a wide variety of things from gift baskets, to goats, cows or even gifts as big as water tanks, kitchens or houses for the children ands their families.

Today is gift basket day. The children are SO excited for this. The gift baskets have things in it like soap, toothpaste, salt, sugar and other food items.