Ballywatt GB help Uganda

Ballywatt Girls’ Brigade has been celebrating the 125th anniversary of the Girls’ Brigade movement by helping to raise funds for a Uganda school project.
Ballywatt GB Company section presents the giant cheque for the Uganda School Project to Heather Sweet, GBNI Vice President. [photograph by Kirsty Caldwell]Ballywatt GB Company section presents the giant cheque for the Uganda School Project to Heather Sweet, GBNI Vice President. [photograph by Kirsty Caldwell]
Ballywatt GB Company section presents the giant cheque for the Uganda School Project to Heather Sweet, GBNI Vice President. [photograph by Kirsty Caldwell]

The project is an initiative partnering Girls’ Brigade Northern Ireland with locally based charity Fields of Life.

GBNI had made a commitment to raise £125,000 towards rebuilding Karwa Centenary Primary School, Kisoro, South West Uganda so the Ballywatt Girls’ Brigade set themselves a company target of £1,250 to contribute to the project.

The £125,000 fundraising project will enable the construction of classroom blocks complete with furniture and textbooks, a nursery block, a kitchen, a clean water source, staff and student accommodation. The gift of water is both life changing and lifesaving

Through the efforts of the Ballywatt GB girls and the generosity of parents and friends, they managed to beat their target and raise £1,550.

This was achieved by Enrolment Service offering, selling fireside quiz sheets, holdiung a table quiz and a coffee evening.

Each section in the company studied the topic “Uganda” for their service badge work. The girls learned about the country and its customs, researching the geography and culture.

Julie, one of Ballywatt GB’s officers, gave a very interesting talk about a previous team visit to Uganda, giving everyone a flavour of what the country is really like and her impressions of it. The topic also involved finding out about and fundraising for the GBNI Uganda School Project.

At the Coffee Evening, each group of girls gave a presentation to the audience. Juniors told us about the country and culture of Uganda; Explorers sang a hymn in Ugandan; Seniors outlined the GBNI School project with a powerpoint presentation they had made and Brigaders explained how the company planned to raise money to help fund the school.

Heather Sweet, GBNI Vice President, kindly travelled to Ballywatt to join the company for photographs with the giant cheque they presented her with.

A spokesperson for Ballywatt GB said: “We all look forward to hearing of the further success of the Karwa Centenary Primary School.”

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