Help dig a well for Goshen School.
Remember the last time you drank a glass of cool, clean, refreshing water? It tasted good didn’t it? And if you are like me, you probably didn’t even think about it.
For the last three years I have spent two weeks each January based at Kiwoko Hospital in rural Uganda helping to promote Christianity Explored and train local clergy and pastors to use the course. Kiwoko Hospital is situated at the centre of the infamous Luweero Triangle where hundreds of thousands of civilians were massacred in the 1980’s. It has literally brought life and hope to thousands of people.
Shadrach Luwago is the pharmacist at Kiwoko Hospital. He pastors a local church and also leads the hospital mission team. He helped translate the Christianity Explored course into Luganda and Swahili and trained thousands of pastors to use the course. He and his wife Nora also care for around 30 orphans in their own home.
A year ago Shadrach founded a much needed school in the nearby village of Nkondo. Goshen school has already proved very popular with 240 children registered. Besides needing additional permanent buildings (another story), their most pressing need is for clean water, and that is where you come in. The nearest safe water supply is 3 kilometres away.
Pastor Shadrach Luwago talks about Goshen School in Nkondo, Uganda
I need your help to build a well for Goshen school and Nkondo village. It is going to cost £3,750 ($6,000) to survey the ground, dig the well and install a pump. Providing safe clean drinking water will significantly reduce mortality rates as well as sickness and disease for hundreds of people. Within a day we have been promised £1,200 which is a third of the way there.
A Ugandan based charity called Fields of Life which helps build schools in East Africa has the necessary drilling equipment. So all we need is £6,000 ($10,000). I have promised Shadrach I will raise the money by the end of August. I feel so strongly about this, I am prepared to take out a bank loan to cover any shortfall. Shadrach sent me this news update recently.
Dear Stephen,
Greetings from Goshen family. Thank you very much for the email. I am sorry for the delay to reply this email. I have had problems with connections and many days after work i had to go to school to collect water for the kids with the pickup. The nearest water source is approx. 3 kilometres. Because at the school now we have 240 kids, it becomes very difficult to fetch enough water for all of them, especially during lunch time when it is very hot and every child after having lunch is thirst for some water. It is difficult for them to run 3 kms. to the well and 3 kms. back for the afternoon classes.
This is why i have to fetch for them some water for drinking and also for cooking, but because I go after work in the hospital, time does not allow me to fetch enough water for them. It is in the evening and everybody in the village is coming to fetch water so we have to queue. You can find over 50 jerry cans in a line. By the time they finish getting their water it is already dark. After class all the kids get their jerry cans and walk with a teacher to fetch their own water to wash.
Whenever it rains we use gathered water in the ponds but this kind of water is very polluted and makes many kids sick. right now we are looking for ways of getting drugs to deworm all the kids at school. Most of them are sick with worms.
We have even decided to buy a donkey as you can see in the photo with a plan of making a cart for it to be able to pull the cart with some jerry cans of water to bring to the school. Thank you very much for considering to support Goshen school and the people of Nkondo village as well.
God bless,
Shadrach
So, will you help me? If you wish to make a contribution to provide safe clean water to Goshen school and Nkondo village, you can do so through Christ Church, Virginia Water, which is a registered charity. You can give via a Bankers Order Form or by cheque payable to PCC EPCCVW and send it to Revd Dr Stephen Sizer, Christ Church, Virginia Water, GU25 4PT, headed “Goshen School Well”.
You can watch a short video I made of Shadrach talking about his school. I also interviewed Craig Dyer of Christianity Explored and Jim McAnlis of Fields of Life about their involvement in Shadrach’s work.
You can also download a copy of this article for wider distribution.
P.S.
Charities like Christ Church are able to reclaim basic rate tax (22%) on your donations if you are a UK taxpayer. This equates to approximately 28% of the gift you give us out of your taxed income. If you pay UK tax and have not already done so, please download and return the Gift Aid Declaration. If you are a US/UK dual taxpayer, please be advised that Christ Church is registered with the CAF American Donor Fund enabling you too to give tax-efficiently claiming Gift Aid in the UK while still benefiting from a tax deduction in the US. Click here for more details.
