History
During August 2007, 33 members of Heswall Church Youth Fellowship visited Masaka School to learn about the developing world and to run holiday clubs, and serve the community. We met Fred Ssendi who is the inspirational director of the school. The school is in a remote rural setting where HIV was first identified. The population are poor with little education, and a large number of HIV/AIDs orphans. There was no clean water supply, no electricity, teachers were on half the recommended wage and the children would go all day without any food.
Projects
In 2 years we have paid to rebuild the school at Masaka with proper classrooms; funded the teachers up to a national wage; provided a clean water supply at school; built new toilets; provided a nurse to look after the children and to do health education; created a farm to improve self sufficiency and a truck to get produce to market; and started to feed the children at school. In addition in 2008 we started to support a school in the suburbs of Kampala at Antioch.
Current Projects - Click Donate button at the top to contribute
Paying Teachers salaries and feeding the children at Antioch
Antioch is in a very poor part of Kampala. The people have barely enough to survive but they know that the only way that their children will have a better future is through educating them. The Church has started a school but cannot pay the teachers a basic salary of £75 per month on a regular basis. The children come to school without any food. At the moment they can only afford to give half the children a mug of porridge on alternate days to sustain them until they get home in the evening. We are looking for people prepared to pay £5 per month to sponsor a child.
Fred's Fish Farm
Masaka is a rural setting and therefore to fund the school we are encouraging Fred to develop farming to become self sufficient. Fred has identified some land which is water logged which would be ideal to develop as a fish farm. Fish is nutritous, valuable and in short supply. This makes an ideal cash crop. We need £6000 to get this built and we have raised over £2000 so far through our harvest appeal including over £1300 from Birkenhead Junior School.
Maize Mill in Kampala
In order to make Antioch self sufficient we want to start up projects which provide employment and make a regular profit to fund the schools. We plan to build a maize mill to make maize flour. The bran is good pig feed and the cobs are used for fuel. Maize is cheap in the countryside so if we buy it and transport it to Kampala for milling there is pofit to be made. The Cost will be about £18,000 but when running fully should make about £20,000 per year.
Masaka School
The government insists on certain requirements before a school is officially recognised. These include having an assembly hall which can be used for exams, separate nursery and primary sections, and a school playing field for football and netball. St Peter's School, Heswall has just raised the funds to pay for the playground which has been graded flat and is about to be sown with grass. We are looking for funds for the Assembly Hall and Nursery School.
Antioch School
Antioch School is in very cramped conditions with inadequate space for the number of children who want to attend. Following the Heswall Youth Fellowship visit in July 2009 they decided to fund the purchase of 4 additional houses to expand the school to a reasonable size. This cost £16,000 and has been funded out of the extra money that they raised for their trip. The first houses have been bought and funds will be needed in the future to develop them.
Who we are
Christine Blair
Chairman
I am a volunteer youth worker and counsellor/psychotherapist. My involvement with Uganda started in 2004 when my daughter spent 6 months of her gap year there. Since then I have led two large teams of young people from the Wirral to do voluntary work in Uganda.
Alastair Crammond
Secretary
I originally trained as a teacher and now work in educational recruitment. I'm keen to use my experience to support the educational needs of the schools. I've been a Trustee since 2007 and recently visited Uganda to see our projects first hand. I've come back inspired and excited by the improvements to education, health and self-sufficiency that have been achieved. Together we are making a difference!
Stephen Blair
Treasurer
I am a Surgeon on the Wirral and I first went to Uganda in 2007. I was struck by the great need but also by the inspirational leaders that I met who are honest, hardworking, reliable and have a proven track record of delivering huge improvements in a short time span to deliver real change.
Stephanie Cambridge
Trustee
Having been to Uganda this Summer and seen the phenomenal changes orchestrated by Fred since our last visit, I know now that the donations the Trust receives really are life changing. The visit made me stop and re-evaluate my way of living.
Phil Weston
Trustee
Phil's involvement with the trust began early 2009 when he lead the 13 strong adult trip to Uganda staying at Lungujja and Masaka. During the visit, the vision and dedication of Fred Ssende was a huge inspiration to all the adults and upon returning home, Phil was determined to help wherever possible and was delighted to be invited onto the Rock of Joy trust as a trustee.
Ed Gibbs
Youth Advisor
In the summer of 2009 I was lucky enough to travel out to Uganda and experience the very different way of life that the people there lead. What I saw out there inspired me to make a change and that's why I became involved with Rock of Joy.
Lucy Stephenson
Youth Advisor
I chose to get involved with the trust because of the Ugandan people. They were always asking for us to be blessed, whereas I can see that they are the ones who should be blessed, and I believe the trust can help with that.
Olivia Perriam
Youth Advisor
I am a youth advisor for Rock of Joy charity and feel that the inspiration of the Ugandans partnered with the financial and spiritual support of Rock of Joy Trust can and will make a huge difference in Uganda.
Sophie Kellner
Youth Advisor
I have been a Youth Advisor for Rock of Joy Trust for a year now and I am really enjoying meeting up with the other trustees and youth advisors to talk about how we can use our financial resources to help develop the schools that we will be visiting with the youth team this summer.
