HUG Partners

HUG partnerships aim to connect individuals, families, groups, businesses and schools on a level that is mutually rewarding for all involved. Not everyone wants to be involved in exactly the same way and we hope to cater for everyone on a level that suits them. Check out some of the partnerships that have already been formed. You may like one of these ideas or you may have one of your own. Email us here to set up your own HUG partnership

Individuals

Many individuals are now communicating between Kyabram and Kyabirwa Village. Australian people have been matched with friends in Uganda who have similar interests and/or life experiences; children with children, teenagers with teenagers, mothers with mothers etc. Through sharing what their lives are like through letters, both Australian and Ugandans are learning from each other. Although their lives are very different in many ways they are also discovering that they have similar hopes and dreams for the future and their families.

Many of these partnerships are based soley on friendship through letter writing while others have moved to sending gifts to their Ugandan friends or even supporting them in a financial way. It's all about connecting on a level that suits the individuals involved.

Marty and Silagi

Marty and Silagi were among the first group who began life long friendships though letter writing.

“I am learning new things about how different “I really like sharing information with Australian

our day to day life is compared to other countries.” people... I can tell them about my lifestyle and then

hear about their lifestyle too.” Marty - Kyabram, Australia

Silagi - Kybirwa, Uganda

Families

The Neales and Auma’s

Sue Neale and her two sons have been comunicating with Robina Auma and her two sons in Uganda. They have been learning a lot from each other, including how different their lives are but also how they have many things in common. The boys love of football is shared and Sue and Robina share stories and dreams for their family. Letters received are cherished by them all.

"It is a wonderful chance to swap experiences “I can speaks some little english, you can teach of life with another family across the me now. I can also teach you our local language”

other side of the world." - Robina. With her two sons Jonah and Emma - Sue. With her two sons Thomas and Samual

The Ellis’s and Mpango’s

Tom, Sandra, Jess and Sam Ellis have made a real connection with Silagi, Cissy, Maria, Resty and Natasha in Uganda. What began with two teenage girls, Jess and Maria, writing to each other, soon became a major project for Jessica Ellis in Kyabram.

After seeing video footage of the Mpango family at their home in Uganda and hearing about their aim of building a new two roomed house, Jess was inspired to help. The Mpango family had raised enough money to buy bricks and had built the walls of their dream home but had run out of money to put the roof on. When Jess (14 years old) heard that all they needed was 13 sheets of iron at $17 each ($221 total) she set about raising the money herself. She made up a flyer with all the information and then approached family, friends and neighbours to see if they would help. When she found she still hadn’t reached her goal she enlisted the help of her father Tom to help her sell things on Ebay.

What an achievement for a teenager in country Victoria to be able to say “I helped a family in Uganda to put a roof on their house!”

The Ellis and Mpango families are sure to remain friends for life.

"We can't believe we will soon have a brand new "I feel very lucky to be part of a family in Uganda. iron roof thanks to a family in Australia!" Writing and helping them has made me feel really, really good. Maybe one day I will meet the - The Mpango Family, Uganda Mpango Family :-)"

- Jess Ellis, Australia

Groups

KCLC Ladies Craft Group and Kybiriwa Pre School

The KCLC Ladies Craft Group put their talents to work and decided that they would like to make small childrens clothing. Many young Ugandan children wear clothing that is either way too large, or riddled with holes and very often only own one set of clothes.

The ladies in Kyabram used left over material from other projects and also material that was donated to make 72 skirts and 50 pairs of shorts to send so that each child at Kyabirwa Pre School would know the joy of wearing something made especially for them.

"We've made lots of things for other groups over- "The children were jumping and singing and

seas, but this is the first time we have received dancing when they received their new clothes"

photos of where it all went. It was terrific to see

the children so excited!" - Anna, Kybirwa Pre School

- Heather, KCLC craft group

Koori Womens group and Masaka Widows group

Kyabram Koori Ladies have been writing letters to a group of Ugandan widows for over a year now. The red, yellow and black on the flag of both groups is not the only thing that ties them together. Both groups of women have a strong sense of family and their grandchildren are highlights in their lives. Earlier this year the koori women made necklaces and bracelets to send the Ugandan women and after being taught beading during a HUG visit, the Ugandan women returned red, yellow and black neckleces to the koori women.

"I was excited to receive the letters from the "We love having friends in Australia that are

Ugandan widows and just couldn't stop talking grand-mothers like us. Their letter make

about them to all the women in the group!" us very happy"

Kaye - Aboriginal Women group - Kyabram, Aust. Nankya, Babirye, Teopista, Cissy and Josephine

Ugandan Widows group - Masaka District.

Schools

St. Augustine's College, Kyabram, Australia & Watitaka, Uganda

Children from grade 5 and 6 at St. Augustine's in Kyabram have been communicating with the children from Watitaka Primary school in Uganda. St. Augustine's first wrote letters prior to the March 2008 HUG trip to Uganda. Their letters were hand delivered to their excited new friends in Watitaka. The Ugandan children were amazed that children on the other side of the world had taken time to write to them and were interested to hear about their lives.

On her return from Uganda, Helen from HUG visited the St. Augustine children and told them all about what life in Uganda is like for children of their age. They were shown photos and video footage of the Ugandan lifestyle. The St. Augustine children were then given their letters from the children of Watitaka and were amazed by what they read. This lead to many questions and a variety of learning about such a different culture from their own.

The two schools continue to write to each other. They are both benefiting from learning about another culture and sharing their stories. Friendships continue to grow and maybe somewhere in the future the children will be inspired to visit a country that they never would have considered prior to making this connection.

Dawes Rd Primary School, Kyabram, Australia & Nakanyonyi Primary School, Uganda

The children of Dawes Rd Primary School become a HUG partner after Helen Brown visited their school to speak to them about how ordinary people can make a difference in the world.

Helen told the grade five/six students the story of how she was so inspired by an ordinary British lady by the name of Hannah Small who had started Soft Power Education about seven years ago. Helen and her husband had spent 6 weeks volunteering with Soft Power in 2007 and witnessed first hand the amazingly positive impact Hannah and Soft Power had made to tens of thousands of children through their work to rebuild schools in Uganda.

After realising that Hannah was just an ordinary woman who had said “I’m going to do something about this” rather than thinking ‘the problem is too big to over come’, Helen was inspired to start her own charity in Australia. HUG was born!

From hearing Helen’s story the children at Dawes Rd learnt that you don’t have to be a sports hero, a movie star or even a Rhode scholar to inspire people and have a positive impact on the world. In fact they were so inspired that they wanted to know how they could begin to make a difference themselves.

The Dawes Rd – Nakanyonyi partnership was formed. It began with exchanging letters, which in itself has a positive impact. Both the children in Australia and Uganda learnt about a completely different culture to their own and realised that someone on the other side of the world cared about them. They learnt how different their day to day lives were but also that they had a lot in common.

The Dawes Rd children discovered that the Nakanyonyi children had a love of football and sport just as they did but they had next to no sporting equipment at their school. So it was decided that Dawes Rd would hold a football day at school where the kids could wear their favorite team colors and have footy food at lunch time. Each of the Dawes Rd kids made a donation on the day and all money raised was sent to Nakanyonyi to buy much needed sports equipment for the children in Uganda.

Dawes Rd and Nakanyonyi now happily write letters to each and their HUG partnership continues to grow. Ugandan and Australian children are gaining invaluable knowledge, understanding and friendships and as the HUG (Help Us Grow) name suggests, it is helping us all to grow!

Balwyn High School, Melbourne, Australia & St. Joseph’s Primary School, Nakawanga, Uganda

On March 5th 2008 students at Balwyn High School held an out of uniform day with all money raised going to establishing an organic garden and the installation of a 10,000 litre water tank at St. Joseph's Primary school in Uganda.

In April HUG visited St Josephs with their Ugandan constultant, David Ssemwogerere who called community meetings with parents, teachers and students from the school. They were told of HUG and Balwyn High School’s willingness to supply them with a water tank and organic garden. However they were also made aware of their responsibilities. The ability to empower Ugandans to make a difference in their own lives meant community involvement and ownership of the project from the beginning was essential.

This saw students, teachers, mothers, fathers, and in some cases grandparents, working side by side to build the base for the water tank. And after two full days of cooperation and hard work the tank was proudly in place and Balwyn High School's name was forever etched into the hearts and minds of everyone at St. Joseph's.

During the April visit HUG also delivered gardening equipment that was purchased with money raised by Balwyn High School. This equipment will be used on an ongoing basis to help educate students on permaculture practices that can in turn be taught to their families.

Since April not only the children from St. Joseph's, but also surrounding schools have been taught many skills including soil preperation, double dug farming methods and seed cultivation. They are all learning new skills that will improve their ability to be able to farm the land in a sustainable and productive way. Plantations of various vegetables and fifty mango trees that were bought and planted earlier in the year are all doing very well. The food being produced is being used for school lunches with excess sold off to help to raise funds for needy children to buy school materials. The children no longer have to walk for kilometres to get to a water source and can enjoy a drink throughout their long day at school.

What a change Balwyn High’s generosity has helped to make in the day to day lives of these Ugandan children!

Our Lady of Assumption School, Cheltenham, Australia & St. Thomas Primary School, Namulanda, Uganda

Our Lady of Assumption School in Cheltenham, VIC, became involved with HUG throughout August and September of 2008.

HUG board member, Chad Brown, had a connection with the primary school before his trip to Uganda in March '08, after the senior-school students took part in a physical activity program provided by his business, In The Game. When staff at O.L.A. heard about Chad's trip to Africa and the wonderful experience that he would be having, they were very keen to learn more and find out how they could become involved.

Upon his return, Chad was invited to speak to the students of O.L.A. about the time that he had spent in Uganda with his Mum, Helen, and youngest brother, Brenton. The students were fascinated by the information and pictures that Chad discussed, and were blown away by some of the things they heard about, including the fact that most of them had larger BEDROOMS, than many Ugandans had for entire houses!!

After each year level had seen the presentation and asked some fantastic questions, the students were told that the upcoming 'Mini-Olympics' that was scheduled at the school would also be used as a fundraiser to support a wonderful project for a similarly-sized primary school on the other side of the world! Kids could be sponsored by friends and family for their participation in events at the mini-olympics. All of money raised would be donated to HUG to be used for the installation of a new 10,000 litre water tank and construction of a wonderful organic garden for St Thomas' Primary School, Namulanda, in the Masaka district, Uganda. A single day of fun-filled games in Australia would be enough to ensure that the 450 students of a distant primary school in eastern Africa would have clean water and enough food to see them through each and every day.

Through their brilliant fundraising efforts, the students of O.L.A. were able to raise an enormous $1,855 for HUG Charity Inc. which was proudly presented to Chad Brown at a special assembly on Monday September 8th, 2008.

By late September a brand new water tank and garden equipment had been delivered to Namulanda.

The generosity of Our Lady of Assumption school in Cheltenham Australia will continue to make the lives of many Ugandans a little easier and prosperous well into the future. Well Done!