I first went to Ruhanga in south-west Uganda in 2006 when I was invited by my safari driver Mr Denis Aheirwe. He took me to see his compound – the family land given by his father – and I immediately saw its potential. It is right on the  main road that runs from Kampala to Rwanda and the home of the mountain gorillas,  but it was in a rural  area where passing visitors had no reason to stop. Denis’s dream was to build a Guest House so tourists would stay awhile and thus he could provide employment for his local village people.

He was already employing men to make bricks, as the clay there is very good quality. Some bricks he sold and some he used to begin building his house. He introduced me to his family and friends in the village and I found them all so friendly and welcoming despite their poverty, that I was bowled over – all the rest of my spending money was soon gone in the local hardware shop buying cement, nails and iron sheets.

Denis and I talked over new ideas of how together we could even further help to raise the income levels of some of these impoverished farmers and the many orphans in the area. I came back to the UK, did some fund-raising, and put in money of my own and was out there again after a few months.

Getting Started

After completing the main rooms in the house  – now the lounge, the bar and two staff rooms -  we concentrated on getting four bedrooms built at the back. This started to generate a small income as it was adequate for local guests, although not of a standard suitable to invite volunteers. We needed to clean the whole place up and build better toilets and washrooms if we wanted to attract Mzungus (white people).

I discovered that I could pay local men the equivalent of a pound a day for labouring and they would be queuing up for work,  so we got them filling in the holes left behind from making bricks, levelling out the land and generally getting  it looking less like a building site.

As I raised more money here in the UK  from giving talks about Uganda and running raffles and sales, I sent it out to Denis and each time I went back I found many improvements. We built four individual African Bandas and a new toilet block nearby.

We put in an electricity supply and TV was a novelty for a long time especially with the teenage boys.  We are one of the few places around that has power. Now that we are getting some more visitors and volunteers we have been able to build another two guest rooms  at the far end of the compound.

Community Hall

I met with the local chairmen and leaders of the women’s groups and we formed and registered a CBO (Community Based Organisation) I asked questions to discover what facilities they wanted so the villagers would get some more direct benefit from me being there – at that stage they could not see how the Lodge would be to their benefit in the long-term!

The result was a large hall that they could use for meetings and training sessions and also hire for parties and concerts.  After travelling out there with me, my daughter Tracie came home and together with her friend did a Bungee Jump; they collected  almost £1,000 and that paid for iron sheets on the roof of the hall.

Craft Centre/Workshop

An Aunt from Australia sent some money and we began to build a craft centre/workshop. This remained partly built for almost a year but in October 2008 with the help of a UK friend Ida Horner,  I  held an African themed auction and dinner  and we raised about £1,500. This I took out with me in January and we completed the walls with a reinforced concrete  band and many air bricks, got the roofing timbers up and fixed the iron sheets on the roof.

The exchange rate had dropped considerably and all building materials had gone up in price. So now we need about £2,000 to get it completed, and ready to start vocational training classes

The Nursery School

This building started out in life as a chicken house and we did raise nearly 1000 chickens, but found it cost more to feed them than the income we got from them, so we left it empty for awhile. The parents were asking us to start a Nursery School as primary does not start until they are seven so I suggested we utilise the ex-chicken house.

After much discussion it was thoroughly cleaned and painted and with pictures on the wall, mats on the floor, and a blackboard it already puts many government schools to shame. Volunteers have taken out crayons and colouring books, pens & pencils, clipboards, plastic bricks, dolls and toy cars, and many small reading books.

Eventually we plan to replace the chicken wire with proper glass windows, concrete the floors to stop the dust, and have benches and desks made – maybe in our own workshop?  We currently have over 40 students and they look so sweet in their new school uniforms .

Toilets in the Nursery Compound

Currently (April 2009) we have dug and part-bricked  a large hole for a septic tank so we can have some permanent toilets but this is proving costly due to the high water levels.  When it is completed the Education Officer has said he will sign the papers for our school to become registered.

Further Classrooms

Foundations for a new classroom and teachers office have begun, as we have found parents of many of the oldest nursery children are reluctant to send them to the government schools. The standards are poor and private primary schools are far away as well as being very expensive. We do charge fees at our nursery but only enough to cover expenses and make it self-funding , as so many of the families are in a very low income bracket.