This could suit an early retired person, someone looking for a new interest between jobs, or perhaps a young person needing to do some volunteering towards their Gold DofE, Queens Scout etc.

If you are unable to give your time, can you offer a suitable prize for our forthcoming raffle? Maybe voucher for meal out in a restaurant or a beauty therapy session, or can you offer a few days break in a holiday home in the sun?

If you can help please contact Ann in UK ON 01932 562757 Many Thanks

Natasha Mellor and Carl Mace are holding a fund-raising raffle at the Engine Room's Halloween Party for their trip to Uganda.

Couple are real bricks with mission to help village in Uganda

Friday, October 23, 2009, 08:00

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A COUPLE are going to Uganda to teach and help improve water supplies for villagers.

Natasha Mellor and Carl Mace, both aged 19, will be travelling to Ruhanga on November 4 to spend seven weeks in the village.

As a qualified bricklayer, who used to work for Amos Developments, Carl will extend an existing well with the help of villagers as well as pass on his skills of the trade to residents.

Natasha will be teaching English in the village school.

The pair are no strangers to travelling, having spent a gap year in Australia last summer where they worked in bars.

The trip to Uganda has been organised in conjunction with the Ruhanga Community Development Network, a community-based organisation which is registered with the Ntungamo District Government Office and was formed in 2007 by members of three villages in Ruhanga Parish, South-West Uganda.

Natasha said: “We went to South East Asia on the way back from Australia and spent six weeks in Cambodia.

“We spent a day in an orphanage and it was quite emotional.”

Carl said: “It was inspiring what we saw and I just wanted to stay at that orphanage to help the children.”

Both Leek born-and-bred and former Westwood College students, the couple have been back in the Moorlands since the end of August.

Natasha is working behind the bar at The Engine Room while Carl is working in telesales in Hanley.

Natasha said: “Family and friends are being supportive of our trip to Uganda.

“I am looking forward to helping people.

“The teaching experience will be great as I am thinking about becoming a teacher.”

Natasha and Carl, who live in Orchid Court in Leek, are self-funding their trip to Uganda but are also fund-raising for cash to be used for the building materials for the well.

As well as a sponsored pub-crawl from Endon to Leek on Friday evening, the pair are hosting a raffle at the Engine Room’s Halloween Party on Saturday, October 31.

Local businesses – including Over The Rainbow, The Retreat, Biba and The Naz – have chipped-in with raffle prizes.

Once their forthcoming trip to Uganda is over, the pair are already planning where to go next.

Carl said: “We want to go to South Africa next year, we would love to be able to go all over the world.”

Anyone wishing to sponsor Natasha and Carl can call the couple on 07503 267155.

FINISH BUILDING TOILET BLOCK

PUT IN WATER TANK AT UGANDA LODGE

FINISH BUILDING LAST BANDA in COMPOUND

LANDSCAPING GROUNDS AT LODGE

PUT UP  MARKET STALLS / SHOP OUT FRONT

FLOOR & WINDOWS IN NURSERY SCHOOL

SOLAR FRUIT DRYING PROJECT

MUSHROOM GROWING

UPGRADING  NURSERY CLASSROOMS

FRESH WATER FOR THE LOCAL VILLAGES

INTRODUCING NEW POTTERY METHODS 

A  FUN   “INDOOR RACE EVENING”  with  a  DIFFERENCE

Saturday 16th MAY 2009  7pm at Laleham Village Hall (Surrey)

Race Evening Sat 16th May……….Following our highly  successful dog racing evening in January, when we raised £500 for our projects in Uganda, we decided to hold another similar fund-raising evening on the above date.

We will show filmed races, and even though you are only betting 50p at a time it gets very exciting as your chosen animal approached the winning post.

I will be your host and Jason will be the MC for the evening, ably assisted by some  volunteers manning the betting tables.

Please bring enough drinks and snacks to last the evening as there will not be a bar.  Well-behaved children are welcome if you cannot  find a baby-sitter.  (Under 12’s are free)

Tickets are £6 each and are available by calling Ann on 01932 562757 or via the  PayPal   “DONATE”   button below.

Alternatively you can buy tickets direct from any of  the organisers  or  send  a cheque payable to   “Uganda Lodge Community Projects”   and post to   44  Cranwell Grove,   Shepperton,  TW17 0JR

All profits from this evening will go directly out to Uganda Lodge to finish the building and furnishing of  this   CRAFT-CENTRE  and  WORKSHOP

CAN YOU HELP TO  COMPLETE THIS TRAINING FACILITY?

We have tools and equipment out there waiting to be used to teach disadvantaged village youngsters a trade or skill.

At the Craft Centre we still have to put in the doors and  windows,  add electrical wiring, cement the floor and walls, and  add a ceiling.  Then we need to paint the classrooms and provide stools and workbenches. We estimate £2,000 is  needed to complete.

You can support us by  PURCHASING some TICKETS for this event ,  or simply by giving a DONATION.  You can be sure that your money  will be going directly to a grass roots project.

The Dinner Dance and Auction we held at the Hilton Hotel in Cobham in October 2008 was a fantastic event.

During the evening we  had a DJ, an African live band playing Ugandan music  and a fashion parade as well as the auction and a raffle.

Many friends donated time, gifts and services and we raised £1,500 in total. This has gone a long way to completing the building of a craft centre/workshop.

Many thanks to everyone who attended and supported us.

Bringing fresh water to

the people of Ruhanga

Sep 17 2008 Mark Goode, Surrey Herald

TWO women who plough all their spare time into raising funds for a poor African village are organising a big charity event in a bid to get fresh drinking water for villagers.

Ugandan-born Ida Horner, of St Vincent Road, Walton, and her friend Ann McCarthy, of Cranwell Grove, Shepperton, are staging the black tie event – called Let Them Help Themselves Out of Poverty – at the Hilton Hotel, in Cobham, on Friday, October 17.

The pair want to raise £6,000 to pay for pipes to take water to the village of Ruhanga, in south west Uganda where residents have to walk for three hours to fetch water from a muddy river.

They also want to raise £2,000 to finish building a community centre where women can also make their crafts for sale to support themselves.

Married mother of one Ida, 43, who works full time in the housing department at Kingston Council, started raising funds for the residents of Ruhanga when she visited the village on holiday in 2006.

She said: “I walked around and I was horrified by all the poverty and began to think how lucky I was to have left Uganda and to have lived in an affluent part of England.

“When I got back I decided to try and help them.”

Ida began buying craftwork, such as baskets, bed linen, and silk scarves, from women in Tanzania, Uganda, and Madagascar, and selling them on a mail order basis to people in England.

The non-profit business, called Ethnic Supplies, was formed in October 2007 and by giving the women money up front for their wares, she is helping the families to survive.

Ann, 66, who runs Littleton Nurseries B & B, in Cranwell Grove, Shepperton, met Ida when they discovered they had both been doing charity work in Ruhanga.

Last year Ann helped to build a hostel in the village so travellers could stop for the night before going into the jungle to see the gorillas. She also had the idea to build a community centre in the village.

She read an article about Ida and her business, Ethnic Supplies, and the two get together to combine their ideas and efforts.

Ida said: “Now we want to get water pipes from the top of the mountains to the bottom of the valleys. At the moment it takes the villagers three hours to get water from a muddy stream and then back again.

“They don’t boil the water because it takes extra work getting the wood.”

She added: “A lot of the villagers are HIV positive and have malaria and we need to raise money to get them clean water.

“Surrey is a very rich place and if 10,000 businesses all gave a pound it could help the villagers. Hopefully people will find it in their hearts to come to our black tie event.”