Dear friends, sponsors, donors and benefactors of BHIKU!

Love and greetings from Uganda, St. Patrick Nursery and Primary school and from me.

Allow me update you on the school as follows:

Our Primary seven candidates and pioneers have now completed their curriculum. They will be writing their national exams on March 30th and 31st of this year 2021. Kindly keep them in your prayers.

The younger primary students will be returning to school with staggered, short terms as follows:

Primary 6 students report on March 1st for 14 weeks until May 21st.

Primary 5 & 4 students will report on April 6th for 8 weeks until June 4th.

The lower Primary 1 to Primary 3 students will report on June 7th for 8 weeks until July 24.

We hope this program will remain and school can resume without further interruptions. The School Management Committee and staff are ready to receive the students as directed by the Ministry of Education.

On capital development, we have now started construction of the school chapel. We are about to reach the Damp Proof Course (DPC) level (about to complete the foundation) and hope to be ready to cast the ground concrete slab by end of February. If funds are available the engineer says we should have the chapel ready for roofing by end of June. We will need to put a big retaining wall to prevent erosion since our property is on a hill. Our budget estimate for the chapel is $300,000. We kindly appeal for your generous support but also ask for your prayers to have this project accomplished.

Thank you for your support over the years. We wish you good health and be assured of our prayers.

BHIK-U-Newsletter-March_2021.pdf

Dear friends, sponsors, donors and benefactors!

Greetings from Uganda, from St. Patrick School and from me!

Join me to express our gratitude to God for His protection through the past year (2020). Am sure we all agree that it was a tough year mainly due to the global Covid-19 pandemic.

Am glad to update you on the current situation in our school as follows.

Our 7th grade students completed their school term very well. They did City Mock Assessment before Christmas break and emerged 4th best school out of the 90 schools that participated. Not bad at all for the pioneer class. The new term opens on 18th January 2021.

The national exams (Primary Leaving Examinations- PLE) are to be done on 30th & 31st March 2021; we hope the students will write them at our school since we acquired a National Examination Center Number.

As of now we are not sure whether the rest of the students will be allowed to resume school in February 2021 but government is going to issue a directive soon.

We are at 90% construction of the Perimeter wall around the school. We are on schedule and expect to finish it by the end of January 2021. Looking ahead, the architectural and structural designs of the chapel are ready. We only await the district officials' approval of the designs and we project to begin construction in February 2021.

The churches were reopened and we continue to follow stringent Standard Operating Procedures that include compulsory wearing of face masks, washing of hands with soapy water, use of hand sanitizers, and compulsory temperature measurements with temperature guns. Absurdly the numbers of Covid-19 deaths are now on the rise. Vaccinations have not begun but government has said in March we shall start receiving them.

Keeping you all in prayer for good health and wishing you choice blessings in the New Year,

newsletter-january-2021-v2.pdf

Dear friends, donors, sponsors and benefactors, 

Greetings from Uganda, from St. Patrick School, and from me.

Hope you are doing well and keeping safe from the Covid-19 pandemic. It has really changed the world but we thank God that we are still healthy. Am glad to update you on the current situation/ status in our schools as follows. 

Our 7th grade students/pupils reported on October 16. They are now fully engaged in academics and the headmaster tells me the progress is good and promising. The current term ends on 18th December 2020 and term three starts 11th January 2021, other factors held constant. The national examinations (Primary Leaving Examinations – PLE) are to be done on 30th & 31st March 2021.

As of now we are not sure whether the rest of the students will be allowed to resume school in February 2021. 

On capital development projects, we have now completed the teachers living quarters. We have been purchasing materials for the Perimeter wall. We have been securing hardcore aggregate stones, cement blocks and metallic bars for concrete columns. On Tuesday November 3, wall construction will commence and the project engineer expects it to be finished at the end of January 2021. 

Looking ahead, I have also asked our engineer to design the chapel. He will have the design and the cost estimates in the near future.

Putting the above aside, the churches were reopened and for a month now we have been allowed to celebrate Masses. We follow stringent Standard Operating Procedures including compulsory wearing of face masks, washing of hands with soapy water and use of hand sanitizers. We also do compulsory temperature measurements with temperature guns.

All is well with me and my two parochial vicars so far. We thank God no single case of Covid-19 has been identified in my parish and district at large.

Keeping you all in prayer for good health and wishing you choice blessings,

newsletter-november-2020.pdf

Greetings from St. Patrick Primary School in Rwakiruri, Isingiro-Uganda and from me. 

I am happy to update you on the status of our school as follows: 

2020 school year update 
Due to the continuous global pandemic of Covid-19, it is most likely that the 2020 school year will be a "dead year." We now have very many cases of infected people both symptomatic and asymptomatic and this makes it too risky to open schools.

Teacher's living quarters update:
We project to finish this by mid-September because now we have reached nearly 85% completion.

Upcoming third phase work on completion of the dormitories and perimeter wall: 
Nothing is being done currently, but I have notified the contractors to be ready in two weeks to come and complete the second floor (third level) of the dormitories.

The work on the Perimeter Wall is expected to start around September 20, pending the availability of funds. We will make a foundation of hard core stone and bricks, then use cement concrete blocks on top. It will be about 9 to 10 feet high. 

Allow me to extend our gratitude to our donors and benefactors who have enabled us to continue construction despite the Covid -19 pandemic, and a special thanks to all the new sponsors for students this year. 

May the Lord reward you abundantly. Be assured of our continued prayers and together we pray for the healing of our world from the Covid-19 pandemic and return to normalcy. Sincerely,

newsletter-september-2020.pdf

Despite the COVID-19 lockdown still underway in Uganda, the construction of the Teachers' Quarters continues. (Workers must live at or near the workplace, per Uganda pandemic rules.) Many, many thanks to all of you who have donated to BHIK-U this past year! Because of your generosity, a good number of teachers will be able to live onsite at the school during the 2021 school year.

Greetings from Uganda, from St. Patrick Nursery and Primary School and from me. Allow me to update you on the lockdown in Uganda due to Covid-19 pandemic that has adversely affected the entire world, and also update you on our beloved school. 

On March 20, all schools in Uganda were closed. Since that time the President of Uganda has partially opened up a few things (transport and some businesses) but with stringent Standard Operating Procedures. Unfortunately all churches and schools remain closed now, four months down the road. Everyone is anxious and unsure about tomorrow. We have had slightly over 1,000 cases of Covid-19 patients but almost all have recovered; we thank God no death has been reported. The public is pushing for total opening of the country since the cases are now very few but the National task force has advised the President that it is too risky. People are asking "how long will the lockdown be prolonged?" 

We thank all those who have donated funds for our school despite the hard economic conditions. Words cannot express our gratitude. May God reward you abundantly for your generosity. 

We still need your support to complete the ongoing construction of Teachers Quarters, finishing third level of dorms, and a perimeter wall around the school to prevent intruders from infiltrating the school. We have also been paying salaried staff, but have run out of funds and may not be able to continue after this month. We will continue to update you on the lockdown here and school-related activities in our newsletters. 

We pray to God to heal our world so that we may return to normalcy sooner than later. Be assured of our continued prayers. May God continue to bless you for your generosity and touching the lives of many needy and vulnerable children through your support. 

Fr. Julius Turyatoranwa (PhD), Founder of BHIKU

Newsletters

BHIK Newsletter volume VI, Issue 2

BHIK Newsletter volume VI

BHIK Newsletter Volume V

BHIK Newsletter volume IV

BHIK Newsletter Volume III