Event report by Liddy Laird After weeks of glorious sunshine in Scotland, the morning of 19th August 2018 was cold, wet and windy – just the weather you need to embark on a 26 mile sponsored walk…NOT. This didn’t deter the bunch of 12 hardy Scots lasses and two hardy Scots lads/gentlemen who had agreed […]
Wherever there are children with high spirits and the joy of rising to the challenge, occasional accidents will happen. In this young boy’s case, his attempt to leap across the drainage ditch that channels water away from one of the Uphill classroom blocks didn’t go as planned. He fell in, breaking his leg when he […]
Clean water is essential for good health, everywhere in the world, but this can be difficult to achieve at times. When we first became involved with Uphill Junior School even access to water was difficult, as the community shallow well regularly ran dry and the next water source was some distance away. Providing water at […]
We were very excited to receive these photos from School Director Elius in early June – Uphill Junior School now has electricity! Power for Education! At the moment only the new administration block, the Isobel Duncan Building, has been wired up and connected to the power lines that pass through Iruhuura community, but we plan […]
Whenever I say I am going to visit Uganda for the Uphill Trust, those who know my profession immediately say, “Ah, you’ll be going to look after their teeth.” In fact, as we have a school to build, the pupils’ dental health is only a very small part of my role as a charity trustee […]
When you think of school transport you probably think of a white minibus, or one of those yellow American school buses, and Uphill Junior School would LOVE to have such a thing. But, in Uganda, small rural schools have to start with small rural transport – and this usually means a bicycle or, it they […]
Sometimes it’s the simple things that bring the greatest rewards. As there is no electrical power at Uphill (yet) and it was the rainy season, the kids have very little to do during break times. It was a great fun to show them a few of the “low tech games” of my childhood. When I […]
We were very privileged to introduce independent film maker and photographer Geraint Hill to Uphill Junior School during our recent trustee visit. By happy coincidence Geraint was staying in Fort Portal whilst we were there over the Easter period and an exchange of emails resulted in a meeting over coffee, a day at the Uphill, […]
On Sunday 25 March 2018 Elius Muhimbisemarried his lovely bride Shalot Tushabe in St Peter’s Church, Iruhuura. Their gorgeous daughter Sandra celebrated the day with them, along with some 2,000 guests from the local community and further afield. The ceremony was held in conjunction with the Palm Sunday celebrations and the church was filled with […]
We are hugely grateful to Phil Horne of Edinburgh-based e-business promotion for donating the considerable time and expertise of his team that has resulted in the new website for The Uphill Trust that you see today. As with so much of the support we receive, personal contacts and networking were key to the offer to […]
All private schools in Uganda are expected to have at least one health care provider on site to attend to the first aid needs of the children. For the past two years, health care has been available on an intermittent basis in Iruhuura Trading Centre by Bagonza Evester, a qualified nursing assistant, and Nurse Eve, as […]
Uganda is full of micro-enterprises, and making beads for paper bead jewellery is just one of them. The trust has forged a strong relationship with the Woro En Ryeko collective based in the Banda Kireka shanty town in Kampala, which makes beads using recycled paper from magazines and books. Uphill Trust Chairman, Max, buys beads […]
Another in our series of posts about some of the children being supported in school by the Pupil Support Fund: R joined Uphill Junior School in April 2016. At the end of his first academic year he achieved top marks across all subjects and he continued to do well, maintaining his position at the top […]
The new McNabb classroom block was completed in August 2016, just in time for the beginning of the final term of the school year. The walls were still bare brick and there was a cavernous roof space over all three classrooms, but the teachers and pupils were keen to move in – the teaching space […]
Event 1 – 2015 On Saturday 17 October the day dawned clear and cold and ‘Danny the Paralympian’ and three members of The Uphill Trust prepared to head out on the long-awaited 10 km sponsored wheelchair run through the streets of Dundee. It was a most excellent event, and we were encouraged on the way by […]
Finally, we have a playground for Kindergarten! We don’t yet have permanent buildings for the Uphill Kindergarten but, after much deliberation, we decided that a temporary playground made from old car tyres and wooden poles would be the best way forward in the short term as the wooden kindergarten classroom is also temporary and not […]
Clockwise from top left: Uphill Ambassadors Di Hartrup – Mags Black – Debbie Herbert – Joely & Bethan “I feel passionately that EVERYONE has a right to an education”. So says Uphill Ambassador Margaret “Mags” Black, a dental hygienist and the inspiration behind the Gladrags and Handbags Coffee Morning held in Newport-on-Tay on 17 September […]
In 2017 a large amount of school and trustee effort was directed towards liaising with officials from the Ministry of Education and various local government departments, as we worked towards obtaining a private school licence for Uphill Junior School. This is not as easy as it may seem and much of the year has been […]
Meet the Uphill Marathon Runners 2017! The Stirling Scottish Marathon, being held for the very first time in May 2017 and pretty much on the doorstep of The Uphill Trust, was too good a fundraising opportunity to miss. First to sign up was Becca, daughter of one of Liddy’s school friends: She says, ” Hi, […]
Catriona Laird, Scottish illustrator and comic artist, has written and illustrated a lovely book called Patience Goes Uphill. Catriona is Liddy’s daughter and has been involved in raising funds to help Uphill Junior School from the very beginning, through her involvement with 1st Newport Brownies. The book aims to inform children and adults alike on the […]
