Africa Christian Teaching Service
News Letter 2021
Dear Partners,
We Pray for God’s peace and grace to be with you all.
It has been a very long winter for us, isolating due to Covid-19 and also working from home without the support and encouragement of colleagues, family and friends. We have taken our daily exercise walking inside the house but sadly without sponsorship! However, we hope that you are enjoying the benefits of mass vaccination and looking forward to reconnecting with family and friends. Regrettably some of you haven’t heard from us since the sad loss of some of our key supporters of Herridge Technical School, Stewart Darlow and Marguerite Ackroyd and ACTS Trustees Roy Danson, Colin Eastwood and Revd. Keith Jarvis. We send our sincere condolences to their families and hold each of them close to our hearts as we give thanks for their generosity and support of our work in Africa.
In this edition, we want to give you a snippet of the restructuring work we are carrying out in order to future proof the work of ACTS and the people we support and to thank you for sustaining all our projects. Yes, we are so grateful for your continued commitment to the education of orphans and destitute children. Despite Covid-19 and the immense impact it has had on all of our lives your dedication and love has remained resolute and a solid rock on which we can depend. Thank you and God's blessings from all the trustees.
ACTS involvement in each country is summarised below:
Rwanda:
A new charity, operating independently of ACTS, is being set up to continue the support of one child still in primary school, five elderly widows and any appropriate future undertaking.
Kenya:
Schools in Kenya have also been under lockdown but reopening on 4th May 2021. For the six children in his care, William has given a summary of school fees, currently he needs about £1900 per year. Based on existing support he will only get £1200, a shortfall of £700 per year. He has been notified and is in the process of reducing his commitment.
Uganda:
Four children are being supported, one still in primary school, two in secondary education and Sumaya at University. Education has resumed for all of them after a year lockdown and presidential elections. Costs are not available.
Neema Mission School:
The Neema Mission School in Bulange, Uganda, continues to grow and there is some small progress on the buildings. In the past year, a donor has built a house for the director of studies, Stephen Dhairawa, and his family in nearby Iganga. The mission continues to feed over 300 children each day through donors.
A recent evangelistic mission in a nearby village has brought in over 400 new converts, and a pastor has been appointed to look after the new work there. Inspired by the reports on face book, a church from the States, has sponsored the drilling of a well in this new village and has pledged to build a chapel and school building at the new site. Our Chairman Revd. Kevin Jones continues to support the work and receives monthly accounts of the finances and progress.
Burundi:
With international travels to Burundi severely curtailed since 2015, incidences of Covid-19 in the country have been very low. All school activities continued throughout the years 2019 and 2020. For the first time, Teachers’ performance is being regularly reviewed by a school inspector. It has been a great help since none of us was able to visit the school, instructions and all necessary communications are performed electronically.
From the school administration and performance point of view, the school has retained a high standard of a hundred percent pass rate, the results at the top end in the national tests and most of our students finding full time employment after graduation.
For the sake of supporters not contacted last year, an outline of future development plans is given below. Towards the end of year 2018, the Ministry of Education made three requests to secure Herridge Technical School with a solid fence, to provide recreational facilities and to increase school capacity. We were neither given the deadline nor the priority, rather the urgency to prevent the risk of school closure. At the same time, the two objectives of enhancing the school performance and the feeding programme had to be maintained.
Soldiers guarding the school were withdrawn and alternative school security arrangements had to be put in place.
The task lent itself into three convenient parts according to the estimated costs:
- Building of a basket ball court.
- Building the fence.
- Building dormitories, prior to increasing pupil numbers. With your help, we set out to deal with the new situation.
Part 1: A state-of-the-art basket ball court was completed at the end of the year 2019. The money for the basket/volley ball court came in record time.
Part 2: Building the school fence project is ongoing. The total funds for the “Buy a Brick” scheme stands at £15,990, half of the estimated cost. Though we are operating under very strict financial constraints, this is the ideal time to be planning the purchase of bricks and getting the fence started.
We are so grateful that there is no shortfall to forty thousand required annually to run the school, thanks in no small part to supporters who gave extra to mitigate the Covid-19 additional costs and the reduced opportunities for fundraising. Thank you for blessing our mission.
In memory by Revd. Kevin Jones:
Many of you will have been saddened at the loss of our former ACTS chairman, Revd. Keith Jarvis. Keith was one of the founding trustees of the ACTS charity and continued to work with the charity right up until the end of his life. He was never happier than when in fellowship with his African Brethren, and has supported and encouraged many children through their education from primary to university level. Keith was a great networker, and many people began sponsoring children through his encouragement. His life has had a direct effect on so many people. He was deeply blessed by the work of God coming out of the East African Revival, and greatly enjoyed the sabbaticals he was able to spend in Kenya; Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi. He said to me that he felt at home in Africa and had no fear of being there, saying, 'Africa has always welcomed me with open arms.' He had a great impact on the Mpumudde Methodist School in Jinja, with one of the school 'houses' being called 'Jarvis' house. His wisdom and skills will be greatly missed.
Geoffrey and Georgette Butera,
on behalf of the ACTS trustees.