Isaac’s House
Newsletter
March 2018
About Isaac’s House
As a small charity, we are extremely appreciative of our
sponsors, donors and supporters. The success of Isaac’s
House and the positive difference that has been made
to the lives of the children we support in Uganda is
wholly thanks to the passion, commitment and
generosity of our supporters.
Isaac’s House continues to be a personal charity with a
vision to help vulnerable children in Uganda. We care
for 19 children living at Isaac’s House children’s home in
a safe, stable, family environment. Thanks to their
sponsors the children have access to education and
health care, and more importantly they have a place to
call home. As a charity, we also support children in the
community with their education, to give struggling
families the opportunity to send their children to school
and the chance for a bright future.
With your support Isaac’s House are continuing to help
in the community too; with various projects, business
start-ups and family support.
Latest News
Education updates…
We are delighted to inform you all that last month we received the results for Sam, Lawrence, Rachel, Julius and
Bosco for the equivalent of their GCSE examinations. All of the children passed! The examinations were not easy,
with only 9% of children in Uganda achieving a 1 st grade this time around, and sadly even 9% failed examinations
altogether. We were thrilled all of our children passed their examinations as we know how hard they have been
working over the past 4 years towards this how much these qualifications will help them with their future careers
and chosen paths.
We would like to thank our supporters as Rachel, Julius and Bosco would not have had the opportunity to
continue with their education and achieve their certificates without your donations. Sadly only 1 in 4 children in
Uganda reach Secondary level due to the expensive school fees or not reaching the required grades at the end of
Primary.
We are extremely proud of Sam as he was amongst the 9% in the country to score a 1 st Grade and as a result is
continuing onto his A-Levels and has chosen to study Sciences.
Lawrence has chosen to study Building Construction,
and is going to be attending Nakawa Vocational
Training Institute in Kampla, this Insititue is set up in
a similar manner to a university so he will get to
experience a student’s life.
We wish both boys the best of success in this next
chapter and will keep you updated on their progress!
Our lovely Gloria who is studying Cambridge also received her IGCSE results and scored
3 A’s, 1 B and 4 C’s. She was delighted with this result and in Uganda’s education system
this is considered the highest grade. We are so proud of Gloria as she puts so much hard
work and efforts into her academic studies. Gloria has always wanted to be a lawyer and
still has this interest in the future, however over
the school holidays, following work experience at
an Medical Centre and helping with Medical
Community Outreaches, she now wants to pursue
a career in Nursing.
Great news too for our Simon who excelled in his end of Primary
examinations and scored such a brilliant grade he has now joined one of the
top Secondary schools in Uganda! Well done Simon.
Thank you from Florence…
Thank you to everyone who kindly donated to support Florence. Florence sadly lost her husband when thieves
broke into their family home and she too was badly injured, losing her arm. Florence wanted to be able to work
and support her 4 children herself. With your donations and support we were able to help Florence finish
constructing her new home, and set up a small business. Our lovely Pappa Charles took time out recently to go
and visit Florence in her new home, in her village, around 3 hours away from Kampala. He was very happy for
Florence and also extends his thanks to the charity for being able to help.
2017 Review…
Our lovely Jjajja…
Our lovely Jjajja is retiring and moving back to her village. Jjajja is a wonderful
lady, who we first met when we began helping educate her Granddaugher
Livius. Jjajja became our Crafts teacher and grew a close bond with all our
children. Sadly as she is getting older her eyesight and knees cause her pain
and discomfort. Jjajja owns land in her village and has more support from her
family there. She wants to be able to live a peaceful life and will be able to eat
what she grows. Thank you to everyone who donated to help Jjajja with her
retirement and all the lovely messages she received via Facebook. As a charity
we are committeed to continuing to support Livius with her education and she
will be visiting her lovely Grandmother during the school holidays.
2017 was a brilliant year for Isaac’s House, and marks 10 years since Paul Howells first visited Uganda and where
Isaac’s House all began.
2017 Review…
In 2017 we had two volunteer trips to Uganda led by Paul himself, and a Weightmans staff trip in May thanks to
organiser and trustee Hayley Gilroy. As a charity we really promote these trips as they allow our supporters to see
for themselves the good work of the charity and what a beautiful country Uganda is, along with meeting all the
wonderful children and families we support.
Thank you to everyone who attended our fundraising events in 2017; the Curry Night in Formby and Haloween
Party in Liverpool. An incredible amount of money was raised and will help us continue our good work in the
community and running Isaac’s House children’s home. All the children continue to be happy, healthy and making
us so proud!
Thank you from the children at Isaac’s House!
As a small charity, we really appreciate those who organise fundraising or sponsorship events themselves. We
understand the effort and time that goes into fundraising and we are so thankful to you all for choosing Isaac’s
House.
A huge well done and thank you too for Victoria Bell who swam Lake Windermere to help raise funds for our
beautiful children and Victoria’s family and friends who sponsored. Victoria herself has never been to Uganda but
still chose to support us and we hope knowing that 100% of the money she raised goes directly to helping the
children we support helped make the swim all the more worthwhile.
In 2017 we also began selling Christmas cards made by the children, this was a huge success and we hope to
repeat again this year. Christmas in Uganda is very different to Christmas in the UK. With no snow, Santa, or
presents, the day is focused on spending time with family, eating lots of food and attending Church. Our children at
Helping in the Community
As we have previously mentioned, education in Uganda is fee-paying. This causes many parents to be unable to
send their children to school, or for children to have periods where they are out of education. The staff at Isaac’s
House came up with a wonderful idea on another way to give back to the community and opened up James Dunn
House of Hope in the afternoons to children who sadly are not currently in school. Thanks to our donators we have
a good selection of books and education material, and with most of our children grown up the staff had some free
time to sit with the children, reading and teaching. We understand this does not replace a good quality education,
but we hope to at least be able to give the children some routine and keep their brains and minds active.
When we first started last year we had a family of 5 siblings; their father worked on a stone quarry and had
become badily injured and unable to work for 6 months, and therefore unable to pay school fees. However, we are
deighted the children are now back in school, and did not need to re-sit the school year thanks to our help and
support during this time. This is just one example of a family who have really benefited from this set up and we
continue to help those in the community.
This video show the children at the end of last year performing songs and dances to show their appreciation.
How £5 a month can make a difference….
Did you make a resolution to give back this year? Isaac’s House can help you!
Set up a monthly donation of £5 today to Isaac’s House via www.justgiving.com/isaacshouse.
This is just £1.25 a week, which can be spent on a coffee in the UK but in Uganda can make such a difference…
• £5 provides clean water into the children’s home for 7 days
• £5 can feed a child with 3 healthy meals for 10 days
• £5 purchases medicine to treat malaria
Photo Moment
Concy, Gloria and Ruth laughing away
whilst Gift stays posing. We love this
photograph of the girls at the beach,
on the shores of Lake Victoria. It is so
lovely to see how the 7 girls who live
at Isaac’s House have become so close
over the past 8 years and really see
each other as sisters. They care and
support each other, and bicker
sometimes too! Their bonds will stay
with them, long after they leave Isaac’s
House and this is something we are
really proud of and can also smile
about.
Please help!
When Isaac’s House began, we received so many donations and supporters but did not manage to collect all
addresses. Anyone who supports Isaac’s House with monthly donations, regardless of the amount recieves our
yearly calendar so please get in touch. We really want to be able to keep in touch with our supporters so if we
don’t have your address or e-mail address, please get in touch to isaacs.house@hotmail.co.uk. This will also help us
with reclaiming back Gift Aid (25% of all donations!).
Website: www.isaacshouse.org
E-mail: isaacs.house@hotmail.co.uk
Facebook:
www.facebook.com/isaacshousecharity
UK Registered Charity: 1124542