Feb 2013 Newsletter

February 2013

ETS Global Donates Pencil Boxes to the Students of St. Lawrence School
    
“Pens for Success” from ETS Global
Thanks to a chance conversation on an airplane, students at St. Lawrence School in Migyera now have basic writing tools to begin the new school year.  On his journey to Uganda last summer, CALU Vice President Dave Thelen sat next to Lucia Loyo, Director of Global Affairs for ETS Global on the flight to Amsterdam, the first leg of his trip. Dave told Lucia about CALU and its mission to empower children to become change agents in their country through improved education, health care and income generating activities.
Lucia told Dave about ETS Global’s program “Pens for Success” to provide basic school supplies to children in developing nations. She agreed to help CALU.
Pens Success classroom
St. Lawrence Students will begin the 2013 school year well prepared.
A few months later, a van pulled up to St. Lawrence School and delivered cartons filled with metal school boxes. Each box contains a pen, pencil, ruler and eraser and every student received one.
Parents are responsible for providing writing tools for their children attending government-sponsored schools, like St. Lawrence. However, in Migyera, many parents cannot afford these supplies or they are not educated themselves to realize the importance of equipping their children with the required items.
  Pens Success two  girls
“The best gift you can give a poor country like ours is to educate the children who are the future of our nation,” said Fr. Lawrence K. Kimbowa, CALU’s Director. “Education will empower them, open doors for them, and forge a destiny of opportunity for them.”
CALU remains grateful to Lucia Loyo and ETS Global for their support and partnership in our mission.  ETS or Educational Testing Service is best known in the United States for its college and graduate school entrance examinations. 

New Student Photos and Report Cards Coming Soon

photo rebeccah
Ambasize is promoted to Gr. 4
Rebbecah Report
Ambasize Rebeccah’s Report
This year we are trying a new approach to inform our sponsors about their child’s performance. Our CALU team in Uganda has been e-mailing us updated student photos and report cards which, over the next month, will be printed and mailed to you. Our goal is to keep you updated and committed to the educational journey of your student. Your feedback is important so let us hear from you.
Ambasize in the photo above is from a family consisting of 11 members.  Most of her siblings have dropped out of school because the family was unable to pay school fees. Ambasize is a good student and ranks 3 out of 66. We are grateful to the Chen Family for making this educational opportunity possible for Ambasize.

 QuartersForWater  
 “Let it H2O” Brings Water Project Closer to Completion
In the spirit of the holiday season, Kathy Fable of Quinn Fable Advertising in New York City, creator of CALU’s beautiful website, announced to her clients that she had made a contribution in their name to the QuartersForWater Program.
Let is H2O
Holiday “Let it H2O” card from Kathy Fable and Quinn Fable Advertising
  
With the help of famed advertising photographer Chip Forelli, Kathy designed a special holiday “Let it H2O” card explaining our effort to provide a steady supply of clean water to the students at St. Lawrence School, to the patients and staff at St. Francis Health Center and to the people of Migyera. She invited her clients to donate to the project, too.

 

“Through the program, we’re helping build water collection tanks for on-site drinking water, enabling the continuing educational studies of many children at their new school in Uganda,” she wrote. “So your donation will truly help change a life.”
 
Let is H2O Photo
From Chip Forelli’s water photography collection.
As a memento of their donation to the QuartersForWater program, each client received a beautiful signed print from Chip’s water photography collection. Clients were invited to visit the CALU website to  learn more about our mission, become Corporate Sponsors, and receive a complete set of four framed Chip Forelli water images.
A big thanks to Maria Quinn and the staff of Mammoth Advertising for their holiday contribution.  

___________________________________________________________

QuartersForWater
Power Lines Bring Water Project Closer to the Finish Line
Power lines
Power lines installed!
It has been a long journey from 2009 when our CALU team committed to bringing water to St. Lawrence School and health center. The recent installation of power lines, funded by a Segal Family Foundation grant, moves the project closer to the finish line. The “race for water” began four years ago when our school children had no water and previous attempts to drill traditional wells in this semi-arid area failed. 
The beginning of any journey is the first step. For CALU, it was research and community input. This was followed by project planning, installing rain water collecting tanks, hiring a hydrologist, searching for and finding water, drilling a well, building a pump house and constructing a 50,000L water tower and of course key to all of this, fundraising. We have raised over $154,000!   
water tower pump house  
With two thirds of the work behind us, our 2013 goal is to install a pump and lay the network of pipes to connect the pump house to the water tower, school and health center. 
Wouldn’t it be wonderful that during the next DRY season, instead of filling jerry cans with dirty pond water, the children will drink clean water from our new well? Remaining project balance is $73,000.  $20 buys one yard of pipeline.  
Can you help?

St. John’s Academy New QuartersForWater  
School Partner
Schools are participating in the QuartersForWater Project and CALU welcomes St. John’s Academy in Hillsdale, NJ as a new school partner. Students at St. John’s donated $1200 – or sixty yards of pipeline – at their Thanksgiving service project.
St. John's  
Schools interested in learning more about our water project click here to view our video and may view the list of ideas for projects for their students.
QuartersForWater  
Community Partners  
CALU supporters might reach out to churches, schools, businesses, organizations and corporations near where they live and invite them to become Community Partners.
That’s what sponsor, Bill Flynn did with the Rotary Club of Spring Lake, NJ. The Rotary is committed to community, national and international service projects. CALU appreciates their generous donation to our water project and thanks Bill for his leadership and initiative.  
CALU welcomes our newest community partner, the
CColts Neck Churcholts Neck Reformed Church in Colts Neck, NJ. In addition to sponsoring a child and funding a unique women’s sewing project, the congregations has embraced  
QuartersForWater as the Church’s Lenten service project. We are also excited to have Jill Niehaus and Ginne Hooper travel to Uganda this June to launch the women’s sewing project.  Stay tuned for more updates about our exciting partnership with the Colts Neck Reformed Church.  Thank you Rev. Scott Brown for your leadership and caring.
  
The children and families of Migyera remain grateful to you – individuals, families, groups and schoolchildren – who have made this “pipedream” a pipeline of clean water for them.

QuartersForWater  
Be Part of the Team That Makes It Happen
Pond
Pond during the dry season.
Dear Friends of CALU,
We are so close to completing the water project in Migyera that we hope to wrap it up as soon as possible. We invite you to be  part of a team that makes that happen!
   
With $72,000 to go, we are seeking 60 friends to pledge a monthly gift of $100 for one year. That’s 60 people contributing $1,200 each for a total of $72,000. Gifts may be made through credit card, on-line via PayPal, or a monthly billing and payment. You decide what works best for you.
   
We hope to have the 60 pledges in place by the end of March so we can proceed with the final phase of the project.  A team, all 60 of us, working together to lay the last yards of pipe line, install the pump and supply clean water to the school and health clinic.
   
Please join our Team of 60. Every time you make your $100 monthly pledge payment, you will be turning on the faucet and giving a Ugandan child a fresh cup of clean life-sustaining water.
   
Email or call today! Let’s get it done!     girl getting water
 jsemler@changealifeuganda.org   732 833-1736

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