December 2021 Letter from our Founder
Dear friends and family, wonderful donors, and supporters of our work in Bududa, Back home again, I ponder on the experience of my latest stay in Bududa and am overwhelmed by the enormous gratitude of all the faculty and staff at Bududa Learning Center as well as all the orphans we support and their families. This gratitude is due to the fact that we continued paying all salaries throughout the pandemic and provided regular food donations to the orphans and needy children. Uganda suffered one of the most severe lockdowns of any country in the world. Essentially, they had no school for two years. There were curfews and there was no transportation. Most private schools in Bududa were unable to pay salaries and so our staff were most appreciative of our Board’s decision to do this.
Our school is growing and achieving new heights. It is taking a little time to get the enrollment numbers up to where we were before the lockdown, but it is coming. I think now, a month and a half after we opened up on January 10th, 2022, we have the same number of students, 161, as we had before the pandemic started. It brings a smile to my face to walk to school in the early morning and see our graduate students at work on building sites or at work outside on a stoop with their sewing machines. I do believe we are making a difference.
The Children of Bududa Sponsorship Program also seems to be thriving. We do not see a huge number of students at the Saturday program as we have over thirty who are going to outside boarding schools and cannot come on Saturdays. The usual attendance seems to be between 35 and 40 students. Many students came to me with letters for their sponsors or letters for me to say thank-you for the help during the lockdown. There is still a legacy from this severe lockdown - people are poorer than ever and there is greater need than ever. The guesthouse where I stay seemed to have a constant stream of visitors. All needed something but mostly they needed help paying school fees. Happily, we were able to help the majority, but we still have a long list of families who would like to have a child in the program. To admit new recruits, we need to find more sponsors.
This time we had three volunteers and they all gave in their own way and shared their talents at our vocational school and with the orphans. I love to introduce Bududa and the way of life there to our volunteers. I think this is part of our mission. We go there to help the people of Bududa. To walk hand in hand with them as we attempt to provide something so desperately needed, a vocational school in their very own district. In so doing, it becomes clear to me that in some cases we are helping the volunteers as much as we are helping the locals. We as volunteers learn so much about another way of life, another set of values, another perspective on life. Mary Louise, Weezy, as we called her, said it best when she wrote about her visit. “I will look forward to going back and learning more, as we seem to always learn more than we teach and receive more than we give. “
There are so many stories to tell and I have already recounted many of them, but here is a story I have never told: One morning, as I was walking to school with Court Young, one of our visitors, we met an old woman on the path. As a whole, I had observed that local people looked healthy and strong. However, some older women looked extremely lean and sad. Here was one of them right in front of us. On the spur of the moment, I opened my wallet and pulled out a bill to give her something in case she would not be eating that day. Of course, she said thank-you in her language but she did more than that. She stopped and stopped me and put her hand on my head and said a prayer for me in her language. I knew it was a prayer because I heard “Jesu” and she had her eyes closed. I was touched but Court was in awe of what had suddenly happened in front of her eyes. Obviously, it meant a lot to this caring woman and I came away feeling blessed but really I was just sorry I had not pulled out a bigger bill. I looked for her every morning after that, but I never saw her again.
A few observations following my 19 years of visits to Bududa: the population of Bududa has grown. The change was visible and even the back valleys where there are no roads, were teaming with young people. * Many people, but not a majority, have some electricity in their homes for light bulbs. * Most people have cell phones and everybody would like to have a smart phone but few people have them. * The population is visibly young and to my eyes they are lean and strong and healthy in appearance. * There are a few older people one meets who appear lean, dejected and poor and are probably hungry and suffering.
Let me end with a letter I received from our guesthouse gardener.
Dear Barbara,
Thank you for everything you have done to make life more pleasant in my family. We also appreciate your help during Covid 19 Lockdown. We got food, soap, money and others; thanks for helping us in that way.
I wish you a blessed 2023 and hope that you will be well and happy.
Sincerely, Wamakiya Robert, Gardener.
( Since Robert is an employee of Bududa Learning Center he was paid throughout the lockdown, and his son is in the Children of Bududa Sponsorship Program so he received food weekly.)
With Great Appreciation & A Smile on my Face,
Barbara Wybar aka Bubby