If these children are going to have to any kind of future, they will need some practical skills; remember that hardly any of them will be able to benefit from secondary education. That will be beyond the aspirations of any but the fortunate few.

The state cannot give them these skills and this is where Dream Scheme Uganda comes into the picture. Their leaders work extremely hard, but without help they will lack the resources to support these youngsters.

We, at Les Amis d’Ouganda, are doing all we can to give them those resources. But what we can do will never be enough.

What then have we achieved so far (we only started in 2004)?

- helped to buy land in the poverty-stricken village of Bubebbere; this will allow youngsters to learn farming skills : pigs, eucalyptus trees, fruit and vegetables - to feed themselves and as cash crops.

- helped to rebuild the Little Angels Primary School in the same village. This school is run by Dream Scheme people, so there is interaction between that, the training and the community service.

- financed the construction of a classroom in the village of Bulumbu which until then had nowhere for the children to learn.

- found sponsors for village children. The money paid for school fees not only enables the children to benefit from education, but gives the schools stability. Now the teachers can be paid on a regular basis and qualified staff can be attracted. In addition a poor area is being rejuvenated.

- funded a number of self-sufficiency schemes: three poultry projects, three sewing groups, one woodworking project and a piggery. The principles are simple:
a) few of the children will have the opportunity to go to secondary school but they receive training which will eventually help them to earn a living.
b) the schemes act as models which will enable others to learn from them and replicate the ideas.
c) the produce is sold to ensure that the projects can stand on their own two feet.

- run a course in basic healthcare.
In Europe we take our access to medical care for granted. Many Ugandans don’t have that luxury. The course, based on a book called “Where there is No Doctor”, dealt with basic nutrition and problems of diarrhoea and dehydration in very young children. The task of our 14 students is much more difficult than ours was. They go back to their communities and help people with little or no English and very limited resources to live in as healthy a way as possible.