I would like to begin by thanking you, from the bottom of my heart, for all your support over the past few years. You have really helped so many children in Uganda to find hope and build a future for themselves.
As you know, I have been trying to house, feed and educate orphans in Uganda for the past 5 years and I am pleased to say that 27 children have been looked after and educated well.
Most of you will know that I have big aspirations for the orphanage. I was initially fundraising with the idea of buying 5 acres of land to build a large orphanage and grow food. This is still a dream I have.
However, since my last visit in October, I have been in deep thought and prayer about everything. I am finding it hard to keep the Mydel Boys Home in a condition which I am happy with and it is proving increasingly difficult to manage a project in Uganda whilst I am living in the UK.
Taking all this into consideration, I have decided to close down the current home and place all the children into boarding school. The children in the boarding schools are fed and cared for well and are therefore growing faster and developing better. I have personally visited the boarding schools and they are of very good quality and the children are very happy there. So if you do sponsor a child, nothing has changed, they are still being educated and are still really happy :)
In terms of the future project, I did really want to make this work but as Uganda is changing so fast, buying land is not only more expensive by the day but also more complicated. Too many risks would have to be taken to trust others with large sums of money and, as I am going to remain in the UK, both myself and the potential trustees couldn't see how it could work. It really needs someone who is physically in Uganda to manage the future project properly.
I want to be able to be completely confident with the decisions I make as I feel a strong duty of care for these children. I therefore feel that buying 5 acres of land to build on right now would be too big a jump and it would be a jump into the unknown. Therefore, I have decided that the money we have fundraised will be given to Mydel to buy 1 acre of land with the purpose of growing food. This will support the notion of 'don't give them a fish, give them a net'. I will keep in contact with Mydel to see how they are doing with the land and will reassess whether we can support them further after a year.
If I am completely honest, I think I took on too much with Mydel. I was trying to manage the home, food, rent, medication, education and future plans from the UK and it was a lot of responsibility for me. I could just about manage it when I did not have a full-time job but my life has changed now; I now have a full-time teaching job in the UK and by August I will be married with hopes to eventually start a family. Trying to manage a development project in Uganda on top of this is just too much.
I hope that you are all happy with these decisions, it has been a difficult few months for me whilst I have been considering what to do, but I believe that this is a wise decision for the good of the children.
I really wish I could thank each and every one of you personally by wrapping my arms around you and saying 'THANK YOU' a million times. You have literally been amazing!
Thank you again for your continual support,
Tiarna xx
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