A letter from John Njendahayo

Nkuru-Nziza Foundation Progress Report 2019

Dear friends,
Hope you have had a good start to 2019. I must first apologise for taking long to send in a report on where things are since my last visit to the UK. Your prayers and support are continuously being appreciated. We continue to be blessed in different ways and we thank God for that.

Since my last visit to the U.K, I have been very busy particularly with the development of a new Vocational and Business College now known as ‘Nkuru Business and Vocational College’ which opened last year in February. I have also been busy with family life!

Family wise, we continue to push on and we send our warm greetings to all our well-wishers, supporters and friends. Our Daughter Patience is now six years and joined primary one this year! Unfortunately, my mum has not been so well and we have been in and out of hospital with various complications. She is putting on a brave fight though and she is with us now, so she can receive our support. She is nearly 80 years.

College Development and Kid’s Joy Nursery School
Through the development of the VTC, and the Nursery section, it has been possible to provide some kind of employment bearing in mind that many young people in the area are, for one reason or the other, out of employment. Over 20 people in construction alone have worked on site in the busy months of construction. During this time, they earn an income to support their families.
The income earned has also filtered through the local economy as these people spend some of this income in local shops etc we can hence talk of a multiplier effect. Much of the building materials are sourced locally too.

Since our focus is on sustainability, we brought in new ways and methods of construction including ISSB technology. This has allowed us to move on fast but also local residents have been impressed and are now wanting to copy and paste given the opportunity!
The college aims to provide quality education at the least cost possible through its sustainable methods (water harvesting, Biogas, solar energy and sustainable food production using aquaponics etc). Many of those technologies have been implemented and are beginning to bear fruits but as always, good things take time!

As a result, lots of people (both local and international) have been coming to check on us almost daily to learn from us! We have hosted people as far as from Australia, Austria, Germany and the UK! I have been invited to be part of the Namutamba Child Rehabilitation Group.

Just before Christmas, we had the joy of having ‘college and community salon’ open for student training and for community use. Being a festive season, we had lots of customers and the two staff members where kept busy indeed. The primary focus now is on new students that have enrolled to do a course in Hair and Beauty. Some are boarding students from afar.
This facility was well built, conscious of the environment where the graduate students might be working in the future.

This was in addition to ‘college and community restaurant’ having been opened some months back. Like the salon, this also doubles as a catering training centre but also as a community restaurant. Our main customers are the local people, workers from the nearby tea factory and missionaries from Namutamba.

Both the college section and Nursery section are now employing 12 teaching staff in different teaching departments and 8 non-teaching staff (20 people altogether)

Looking forward to 2019 academic year
New term started late February and slowly by slowly we are registering new students to do different courses in Hair and Beauty, building construction, Green technology, catering, fashion and design and secretarial. In the future we hope to offer Boda-boda Mechanics and repair, carpentry, electrical installations and plumbing.

Next to the college, we have added a nursery section! And this is near completion. 70% of the work has now been done and resources allowing, the rest of the work should be completed soon.
Because time was running out to get the nursery started, I came up with plan B. To temporarily use one of the available rooms for the nursery and so we opened the doors to 22 young kids as pioneers of ‘Kids Joy Nursery school

The kids as well as their parents are over the moon to be studying in a conducive environment and with good teachers. Hopefully, these kids will have their ‘new home’ soon where they can play, learn and enjoy life! During the ‘unofficial opening’, parents and well-wishers came to visit and check on the development of the college and Nursery

All together, we now just over 42 young people (college and Nursery) being educated daily. With limited boarding facilities, we are limiting numbers for now until we are ready. We want to grow at a pace that is manageable.

The Bishop of Mityana diocese briefly visited us and when we have worked out the date for the official opening, the Bishop and senior clergy will be willing to come and bless the occasion! The college has a Christian Foundation and Ethos.

This year is getting busy with various things at college but also with some groups booking in to come and visit us. We have a small family team in April.  As usual, we have our SDC family team coming in July headed this time round by Zoe. We also have a Cred team that will be arriving at the same time, another team in October going to Mbale and the campsite. As always, it is our pleasure to have our home open to all our families and friends. That is what real community is about ‘sharing and learning from one another’

I am sure there is a lot that I have forgotten to include in this report but for now let me wish you an amazing new year full of God’s blessings. Love and warm greetings to you all.

Yours, John Njendahayo.

#BalanceforBetter

International Women’s Day 2019 has taken the theme of #BalanceforBetter, to raise awareness of the ongoing need for a more gender-balanced world. After all, it seems fairly sensible to assume that a balanced world is a better world.

This led me to think through the CRED portfolio of partners, and to consider how gender-balanced are the organisations that we partner with?

Top of the list are the three partners that are headed up by women:

Alice heading up Butterfly Space in Malawi, Etenesh who founded and leads Berhan Lehetsanat in Ethiopia, and Janaki who did similar with FIAM in India

And then if we dig a bit deeper we find Seble and Sabah supporting Nebiyu at Ellilta, Josephine co-leading with Aaron at Chisomo, and Pendo heading up the community work with Daniel at TVST.

Add in Cherry, who founded Ellilta, and Dr Jember, who founded IHA-UDP which in turn gave birth to AHISDO and CBISDO, and we have a wonderful set of inspiring women who are all making massive differences in the world, and really raising the profile of women in leadership.

But, they are working in cultures and communities where gender-balance is often anything but the norm, and where day after day they are having to take a stand against patriarchal and unequal mindsets.

Child-brides, abusive and arranged marriages, domestic servitude, prostitution, communities where it is the cultural norm for the men to sit and discuss the day whilst the women go out to work, girls who miss out on education because they are expected to stay home and look after the younger siblings, girls who arrive late at school because they first had to collect water, girls who miss one-quarter of their education because every month they are unable to attend due to a lack of tampons or sanitary pads,  – these are just some of the issues that our partners are experiencing in the communities in which they work.

And gently, subversively, tactfully, through action and example, our partners are making inroads, and changing mindsets. Women are being given a voice, girls are equipped to be able to attend school even when on their period, provision is put in place so that children are looked after, conversations are had with community leaders to discuss how to tackle some of the patriarchal and cultural norms that are no longer seen as acceptable.

This is being done by the women I’ve mentioned, but it is also being done by our other partners, who happen to be led by men, but who are just as focussed on pursuing the rights of girls and women in the communities in which they are based, and through the work that they are doing.

This International Women’s Day, as we celebrate the role of women around the globe, I give thanks for our partners, and for all that they are doing to forge a more equal, gender-balanced world.

And I ask myself, and you (if you’d like the challenge), what can we do - in our communities, our schools, our places of work - to help raise awareness against gender bias, to help promote gender equality, and to take steps, one at a time, towards a more just and equal society for all.