Help for Tororo/Uganda.

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen

Dear friends,

This year I returned to Saarbrücken in March 2025. Luckily, the weather had been very kind to me when I arrived and welcomed me with plenty of sunshine and relatively pleasant temperatures. I had actually planned to fly out in May, but for bureaucratic reasons in Uganda too, my visa was not extended after 6 months. I was advised to regularise my residence status so that I no longer enter the country on a tourist visa and thus for 3 months at a time, as I have done all these years, but instead apply for a so-called ‘resident’ visa from the outset so that I can stay longer. As I'm aiming for this in principle, I'll initiate it from here, e.g. with a police clearance certificate!

I experienced the start of the new school year 2025 at our school. As in previous years, we had been able to carry out various renovation works with donations, as well as installing solar lighting in all rooms of the school. There was also a lot to organise on the part of the school staff. The new headmaster had to recruit new teachers and, if necessary, organise a staff exchange. It is customary in Uganda for them to receive employment contracts in line with their appraisal. We were also able to appoint a deputy for the headteacher, whose duties cover both the academic and administrative areas. It is clear that the Ministry of Education has been creating more and more organisational requirements in recent years. Since 2024, a new curriculum for all secondary schools has been particularly complex, which is also a change for teachers and takes some getting used to. Even the grading of the secondary school leaving certificate for the 2024 school year is based on these new requirements. Fortunately for our school, I can report that our students' results were good to satisfactory and all of them qualified for vocational training or further schooling up to the Abitur.

As I wrote before, our school has been equipped with more computers. We have also recently been able to install the internet in our rural area, which is future-orientated for our pupils. In addition to an IT teacher, we have employed a young student who attended school with us and is studying computer science online at a university in Kampala. This is a good coincidence, because teaching in Uganda is no longer based solely on textbooks as it has been for years, but increasingly on the Internet. Our school library is still quite well equipped and well attended, but young people are now increasingly focussing on information on the Internet.

I can also report that a video conference with pupils from our school and Marie-Luise-Kaschnitz-Gymnasium/ Völklingen took place on 1 April 2025. The main focus was on discussing various topics, in particular water supply/energy, climate change, school lessons and school closures during the coronavirus pandemic. The feedback from both sides was that this video conference went to everyone's satisfaction and that further dialogue is planned.

Another important date last week was a meeting of parents and teachers from our school, a so-called PTA (Parents and Teachers Association) meeting. This parent/teacher association is anchored in all schools in the country and is required by law. It is about the right of parents to have a say in school matters. They have a say if, for example, a school fee/salary increase is planned or if there are disagreements with the school staff. The chairperson is a full member of the school's supervisory board. As our school is also attended by pupils from the north of Uganda, one of their fathers was elected chairman by the parents present, and a mother of a pupil who came to us from our partner school in KwaMoyo was elected deputy chairman.  

Finally, I can report that, thanks to a donation from ‘Cents for Help e.V.’, a Bosch company, some of the long-standing wooden beds in our boarding schools have already been replaced with metal beds. We recently received a grant from the Saarland Ministry of Education and Culture, Development Cooperation Department, for the purchase of further metal beds, so that the requirement of the Ugandan Ministry of Education from last year will soon be fulfilled.

And so I come to the end of my newsletter with the news from the first few months of 2025. As always, I would like to thank you very much for all your support and will report on further news from our projects as soon as possible.

I wish you all happy Easter holidays and send my best wishes from Saarbrücken.

Sincerely Christiane Maleika Saarbrücken, 14 April 2025

Tororo, d.29.12.2024

On the threshold of a new year, I would like to give a brief review of the year 2024 and all that has been achieved:

In February, at the beginning of the school year, the English and Music teacher, Mr Julius Odoki, came to our school from the north of Uganda. It quickly became apparent that he could be appointed as deputy to the headmaster, Mr Julius, who was appointed in 2023. This turned out to be a good coincidence, as this new headmaster moved into politics in May and has been in a position of responsibility at district level ever since. In June, the supervisory board therefore decided to appoint his deputy as headmaster. This change, which came as a surprise to all of us, naturally caused a certain amount of disruption to school life, but the school year ended well. I have already reported on this in my newsletters.

A well was dug on the school grounds with donations from the Saarbrücken-Dudweiler Community School, which is now working well after initial difficulties and is a great benefit for our school. The homework room was completed, necessary renovation work was carried out and the requirements of the inspectors from the Ministry of Education for increased school safety, such as the provision of fire extinguishers and smoke detectors in the girls‘ and boys’ boarding houses, were fulfilled. They also ordered that the double-decker wooden beds that had been used for many years in the girls‘ and boys’ boarding schools be replaced with double-decker metal beds.We have already been able to replace some of these with donations from the Bosch company, ‘Cents for Help e.V.’.We submitted an application to the Saarland Ministry of Education and Culture, Development Policy Department, for the procurement of additional metal beds for 2025.  20 computers were procured with the support of the Ministry as well as 7 microscopes donated by the Rotarians Saarlouis/Untere Saar.

Thanks to a new partnership with the primary school ‘KwaMoyo’ (www.kwa-moyo.de) in the neighbouring district of Mbale, we were able to admit their pupils to the first class of our secondary school, which is also planned for 2025.

This collaboration is very pleasing for everyone involved

At the beginning of the year, the ‘Yoanina Kindergarten’ was opened for children from the rural population in our neighbourhood.The official opening ceremony took place in November.

All these projects as well as those of the ‘Masimiliano Ochwo Omiel Memorial Centre’ - grain mill, tailor shop, office service and grocery shop - are still going well, also thanks to the support of the school run 2024 of the pupils of the 6th grade of the Saarbrücken-Dudweiler community school, the Advent bazaar of the Albertus Magnus secondary school in St. Ingbert and the many individual donations.

During Mrs Robert Omiel's visit to Saarbrücken in July, we had the opportunity to present our projects at the Albertus-Magnus-Realschule and the Gemeinschaftsschule Saarbrücken-Dudweiler and to personally thank the school management for their many years of support. 

We also visited pupils in year 6 at the Marie-Luise-Kaschnitz grammar school in Völklingen. We reported on our projects in Uganda and exchanged ideas with a very active group who call themselves ‘climate heroes’.We agreed to intensify this with the teacher responsible for this, Mr Adrian Ulmcke, but the change in our school management and various teachers involved in the issue of climate change have delayed this project. 

We therefore intend to take up this important topic in the 2025 school year.

I would also like to briefly report on the girls and boys who are thankfully supported in their school education or studies by individuals with monthly donations through our association:

In our ‘Masimiliano Ochwo Omiel Memorial Secondary School’ Ezra, Michael and Gloria attended the 1st class; Ziphola, Sophie, Christopher, Patrick and Moses the 2nd class, Geoffrey the 3rd secondary school class.

They were all promoted to the next grade for the year 2025.

Rachel went into the 5th secondary school class and will graduate in 2025, 2 boys with the same name Max will also graduate in 2025, Mary will graduate in 2025, Kizito will finish his training in computer science next year after a very good Abitur.

Another young man, also with the first name Max, finishes his law degree in May 2025. Gavin is currently studying theology at a university in western Uganda after completing his philosophy degree.

Edy successfully completed his training in tourism in 2024 after graduating from high school and is now doing an internship at ‘Uganda Airlines’. His brother Paul joined a Roman Catholic religious community, the ‘Consolata Missionaries’, after graduating from high school and is currently studying philosophy in Nairobi/Kenya.Prisca is training as a 2nd year nurse in a hospital in the north of Uganda in Gulu, Doreen is also training as a 2nd year nursery teacher in 2025.  Joan achieved a very good result in her A-levels this year.Unfortunately, various circumstances meant that she will not be able to start an apprenticeship until the beginning of 2025. The professional situation of Veronica, who recently had her second child after graduating from secondary school and is still looking for a suitable apprenticeship, is not so fortunate. Her family and financial situation is very difficult, especially as the children's father is unemployed.  

We can report that our younger sponsored children Cyprian, John Paul, Florence, Christin and Dorcus are attending primary school with good results.

As in previous years, I will continue to report on the sponsored children and send report cards.

Formerly supported young people such as Masimiliano, Marion and Wafula work as teachers, Marcelus and Doreen as accountants, Robert in a plastics factory in Kampala where Sairus also works as a technician, Oliver Mary as a qualified nurse in a hospital in Kampala, Emily as an employee in the Ministry of Home Affairs in Tororo.

Grace is still looking for a job after her training in accounting and the birth of her son.

With this review of the year 2024, we would like to thank everyone once again for all their support and wish you a happy new year with this saying from Albert Einstein:

                                    ‘If the old year was successful

                                      then look forward to the new one.

                                         And if it was bad,

                                         then even more so.’

Best wishes from Uganda

Christiane Maleika and Father Robert Omiel          

News from Uganda in December 2024

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

Dear Friends,

The school year 2024 came to an end last Friday, 6 December 2024, with the start of the long Christmas/New Year holidays. In contrast to other schools in the country, lessons continued at our school until the very end. It is a widespread practice for pupils to be sent home early 1-2 weeks after the end of exams. However, they then have to come back to school on the last day in order to receive their certificates. The main reason for this is to save on operating costs and food for school meals. On 3 February 2025, the 

the 2025 school year begins.

In the last week before the end of the school year, various meetings were held with the school's governing body - the supervisory board, the board of directors and the headteacher - to analyse the work of the school staff in 2024 and to plan for 2025. The current headteacher, who has only officially been in office since July, has launched a good initiative to assess the work of the teachers in particular, including their strengths and weaknesses. Individual staff cases have also been discussed, which require disciplinary measures up to and including warnings or possible dismissals. In the past, this tended to be avoided as the relevant ministry's guidelines were not clearly formulated. I have repeatedly seen the local Ministry of Labour disregard decisions made by school management due to formal errors.This should be avoided in future.

With regard to the work plans during these long school holidays, the focus is particularly on the renovation of the school buildings, the power supply, especially with solar, and the requirements imposed by the school inspectors during their inspection visit in May 2024, including work clothes for the support staff. They emphasised the requirements for safety in the school.Some things have already been done, such as replacing or adding fire extinguishers and installing smoke detectors.I brought these with me from Germany.Another regulation, such as replacing the wooden double-decker beds that used to be common in schools with metal ones, has been started. One of the main reasons for this is to prevent the recurring fires in the boarding schools as far as possible.In the past, these have often claimed lives.

 Fortunately, we received a donation from ‘Cents for help e.V. / a joint campaign by employees and companies of the Bosch Group Germany, to help us equip part of our boarding school with metal beds.

However, as we need more metal beds for the girls‘ and boys’ boarding school, we are applying to the Saarland Ministry of Education and Culture/Department for Development Cooperation for a grant for the year 2025.

The well at our school is still a great asset and is working well.It guarantees the water supply in our school.The rainwater tanks are also always helpful with all the rain.However, the frequent and strong tropical storms have destroyed some of the rainwater supply pipes.Repairing these will be one of the tasks during the school holidays.

The national water supply has largely collapsed and there is no sign of it improving in the foreseeable future.As we were told, the water reservoirs are too small given the increased consumption.

So we decided to build a village fountain.

That was an exciting challenge. The ground in our area is very stony, sometimes with large boulders.This was a hindrance when drilling.The first attempt was unsuccessful as the drilling machine couldn't break through some of these boulders.So we tried another spot, which was fortunately successful.With a lot of effort and the use of their drilling machine, which kept breaking down, the 4 workers reached the groundwater and were then able to cement the well from the depths. Yesterday we inaugurated this well.As of today, we receive water for our daily needs using a hand pump. There is now the possibility of installing an electric pump or a solar pump. This will happen in the course of time.

On 20 November 2024, we celebrated the official opening of our ‘Yoanina Kindergarten’. The 30 children from the first year of the kindergarten's existence walked through the villages with a band to draw attention to it as a kind of advertisement.The children then presented pictures and dances to the parents and invited guests/local politicians. 6 boys and girls who ended their kindergarten years with this graduation ceremony received their certificates and were specially honoured.Many of those present expressed the wish that we build a primary school to ensure a seamless transition from kindergarten and then on to our secondary school. 

In this context, I would like to refer you to the pictures on our website under ‘Gallery’, which are constantly being added to.

So I will conclude for today and we would like to thank everyone for their support.This thanks also includes the entire staff of our projects, such as the secondary school, kindergarten and the Masimiliano Centre with flour mill, office service, tailoring and grocery shop.

 We are very happy and grateful for every donation, which we can really use.Without this help, it would be extremely difficult for us to maintain our projects here.

We wish everyone a relaxing pre-Christmas period and send our best wishes for Christmas and the New Year.

Christiane Maleika and Fr Robert Omiel, OSB Tororo, d.8.12.2024

18.10.2024 

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen, 

dear Friends,

I have now been back here in Tororo for a good month and have settled in after the initial stress of the changeover. 

It is particularly difficult for me to cope with the water shortage at the beginning. At the moment, the waterworks have a policy of shortage distribution - for our area, the water pipes are only opened for a few hours at night on Wednesdays and Fridays; other areas have different times. However, as it is always raining and often very heavily, accompanied by heavy storms and thunderstorms, the supply of rainwater is currently another source of water in addition to the village well, from which people fetch water for domestic use in canisters.

For our school, the newly built well next to the rainwater tanks is a good help, especially as it means there are no charges and the water is very clean. However, the hand pump recently had to be replaced. The young people were pumping water into their canisters with all their strength, which the canisters could not withstand. In addition, it was necessary to drill even deeper to ensure a more effective supply of clean drinking water. 

The frequent power cuts, especially during the daily power cuts as a result of storms, are more tolerable as there is a solar power supply. I am very glad that we installed solar lighting in our private house and property years ago, when solar was still largely new and expensive in Uganda. Fortunately, when the electricity fails, we are not left in the dark inside or outside. It is interesting to note that these storms regularly occur in the afternoon or evening. The sun shines in the morning until the afternoon and it's really hot. And then it suddenly kicks up so much that it scares me sometimes.

Recently, the storm was so strong one evening that the roof even blew off one room in the hostel for boys. The students were temporarily housed in our homework room. Fortunately, nobody was injured. It has to be said, however, that this roof of the original school building was covered 21 years ago with the usual corrugated iron and is now due for a new roof. 

Shortly after my arrival, the 3rd term began and this is always a time of exams, like the one for the intermediate school leaving certificate this week. This year there are only 16 pupils, 12 boys and 4 girls. This clearly reflects the difficult economic situation in our rural area. Families only have the bare necessities to live and pay for school.

According to the ‘Global Hunger Index 2024’/World Hunger Index, Uganda ranks 105th out of 127 countries that were able to be recorded on the basis of sufficient data, which means a serious hunger situation. 

I quote from a report of the Global Hunger Index: 

‘Agriculture plays a critical role in the Ugandan economy. 68 per cent of Ugandan employees work in agriculture, seven per cent in industry and 25 per cent in the service sector. At the same time, 25 per cent of GDP is generated in agriculture, 20 per cent in industry and 47 per cent in the service sector (World Bank 2019). The country's most important export product is coffee, although it was surpassed by gold for the first time in 2018 (BOU 2019).

Uganda has a high level of biodiversity, fertile volcanic soils, various freshwater lakes with irrigation potential and two rainy seasons per year, which benefit agricultural production. However, Uganda's agriculture has recently been affected by droughts and devastating plant diseases and pests. 

It also mentions that ‘Uganda has received a considerable number of refugees in recent years, with the total number rising from around 200,000 in 2012 to more than 1.2 million in 2019. The refugees mainly come from neighbouring South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (UNDP 2017; UNHCR 2019). The reception of refugees is characterised by an exceptional welcoming culture, which is why the UN High Commissioner for Refugees describes Uganda's refugee policy as one of the most progressive in the world (UNHCR 2018). In contrast to many countries where refugees are often relegated to refugee camps, in Uganda they are given a piece of land and access to services such as healthcare and education and are integrated into society. Due to limited resources and problems with mismanagement of funds, it is becoming increasingly difficult for Uganda to provide for the growing refugee population (CSIS 2018).’

I would like to end my newsletter for today, but will report again soon at the end of the 2024 school year.

Sending warm greetings from Uganda.

Christiane Maleika

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen

Dear Friends

In today's newsletter, I would like to report on the latest news from our projects - the school and the kindergarten - in Uganda:

When I was preparing for my flight back to Germany at the beginning of May, we invited our headmaster to discuss school matters with him. He had taken over this role a year ago and we wanted to discuss further plans for the school with him. At this meeting, he hinted that political activity with the district government was on the cards, but without making a clear announcement. Shortly after my return, I learnt that he had already been earmarked for the position I had in mind. He then left the school without giving any notice.

 Fortunately, at the beginning of this school year in February, we were able to appoint a deputy head teacher who came to us from the north of Uganda. He proved to be competent and committed and so, together with the supervisory board, we decided to give him the role of head teacher on a trial basis.

This short-term change in school management meant that, among other things, planned personnel matters and activities already underway to procure computers and microscopes were temporarily interrupted during this transitional period.

And right at the beginning of his official work as the new headmaster, school inspectors recently visited our school as a matter of routine. They drew up a so-called list of deficiencies, e.g. for the girls' hostel, the infirmary and the administration. This requires support from us as an organisation, but also from the local school administration. For example, the replacement of the existing wooden beds in the boarding school with metal beds as a precautionary measure for fire safety, a waste incinerator, especially for waste that the girls produce every month, and the storage of ingredients for school meals were listed as particularly important. This also includes fire extinguishers, some of which were already in place but need to be replaced or more procured, as well as smoke detectors.

At the upcoming general meeting on 12 August 2024, we will discuss how we can help with the existing donations and which applications we will submit for future donations.

We can report that 30 children currently attend our kindergarten, 17 of whom are in the ‘Baby Class’, 8 in the ‘Middle Class’ and 5 in the ‘Top Class’. These 5 children are being prepared for primary school and have not previously attended a kindergarten. As there are of course also costs for the salaries of the staff - kindergarten director, kindergarten teacher and assistant - as well as the maintenance of the kindergarten, it is necessary to pay a ‘school fee’, which parents in these villages are not always willing or able to pay.

Finally, I would like to draw your attention to our 23rd general meeting. It will take place on 12 August 2024 at 6 pm in the meeting room of Nauwieser 19, Nauwieser Str.19 on the 1st floor above Cafe Kostbar. Guests are welcome.

Christiane Maleika 

20.7.2024

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen, 

dear Friends,                      

I recently returned from Uganda and our local coordinator, Mr Robert Omiel, arrived in Saarbrücken shortly after me.

Today I am only writing a short newsletter, as we are currently busy with various activities here.

We came back from Uganda with the following request: If anyone has a smartphone that is no longer being used and is lying in a drawer, we would be very grateful to be able to take it with us to Uganda.

Smartphones now play a major role in communication in Uganda too. I am particularly impressed by the fact that people are constantly using them to access all kinds of information on the internet. This is particularly helpful for young people when they go to school or university, as they can often avoid buying expensive books or do group work online.

 The smartphone has become an integral part of everyday life in Uganda. For example, it can be used to pay bills and transfer money, which reaches recipients all over the country in no time at all. It can even be used to pay in larger shops or restaurants. I have seen all of this time and time again.

However, I have a request to only give away a smartphone without a contract. I can be reached at the telephone number: 0152 28727135.

Best wishes for today.

Christiane Maleika and Mrs Robert Omiel

Saarbrücken, 30.5.2024

Ladies and gentlemen, dear friends,

I'm starting today's newsletter with the weather, because I keep getting asked what it's like here at the moment. I can only answer that it is currently very hot with temperatures over 30 degrees, which is unusual at this time of year. Even if you just sit at your computer in the shade and do nothing else, the sweat is pouring off you. Today's newspaper writes that we are having a heatwave and that even the dogs are more aggressive than usual!

Fortunately, our school is now well supplied with water in this heat. A well, which was drilled some time ago and unfortunately not deep enough at the time, is fully functional again. This was also quite difficult now, because at the time when the well diggers started drilling, we had constant heavy and persistent rain. So it looked as if they had quickly reached the groundwater level. However, when the rain stopped, there was no more water. So a drilling machine had to get to work to break through the rocky subsoil and reach the real groundwater. Fortunately, this worked and now we can enjoy clear water from this well. One problem during this construction period was that pipes belonging to the national water supply were destroyed during construction work on a nearby country road and it took over a month for this to be repaired. As our rainwater tanks were quickly empty during this time, we had to buy water, which was delivered by companies in large containers. But that's pretty expensive, as you can imagine. And with the current drought, the rainwater tanks that we have at the school are empty.

Here in Uganda, I have learnt to really appreciate the good supply of water in Germany, as well as the fact that we take it for granted.

I can also report that four days ago we celebrated the 20th anniversary of our school with all the pupils, the school staff and some guests. We especially enjoyed the performances by the girls and boys. As they come from different parts of Uganda and therefore belong to different ethnic groups, they proudly presented their respective traditional dances and songs. And of course, such a celebration includes a mass, speeches and a communal meal. The young people concluded the event by dancing to ‘their’ music.

Yesterday we drafted a memorandum of understanding with our new friends from a neighbouring school run by the ‘Kwa Moyo’ association, whose pupils have been attending Year 1 at our secondary school since this school year (I have already reported on this). Thankfully, their coordinator and a social worker had already prepared it so well that we quickly agreed on what it should contain.It regulates the special co-operation between the two schools, which are both part of German associations. 

 In mid-February, the national results of the intermediate school-leaving certificate were published.Our sponsored children Rachel and Max received the best marks with a 1, followed by another Max with a 2, Veronica and Tony with a 3. With the exception of Veronica, who has started an apprenticeship as a hairdresser, they are all continuing at school with the aim of completing their A-levels in two years. Joan did very well in her A-levels, which we are all very happy about.

The results of our school were not bad, but we had hoped for better results.It is now a matter of the new headmaster and his team of teachers analysing why it was only mediocre and what needs to be improved.Young teachers will hopefully have fewer difficulties implementing the new curriculum, which the Ministry of Education has made compulsory in all schools from this school year.At least that's what I keep hearing when I talk to our long-standing teachers about it.Among other things, this curriculum places much more emphasis on supplementary practical training to enable better preparation for career choices.The fact that we have started an agricultural project for our school fits in very well with this.Computer lessons have also been made a compulsory part of the curriculum, which is in line with our application to the Saarland Ministry of Development Aid.We have applied for the purchase of a further 20 computers and hope to be able to buy them soon.

Last but not least, it remains for me to wish everyone a good Easter and to be grateful for any support.

Best wishes from Uganda

Christiane Maleika and Mrs Robert Omiel Tororo, 24 March 2024