As The Uphill Trust approaches it’s 4th birthday we are delighted to be starting another year of building at Uphill Junior School. Thanks to the fabulous fundraising from our supporters last year, plus a very generous grant from the UK charity, Meeting Needs, we are building another block of Ventilated Improved Pit latrines plus 4 […]
The Uphill Trust has a special relationship with Dollar Academy. Three of the trustees are former pupils and, when Chairman Max approached the Dollar Academy Charities Committee in 2013 after his first visit to a fledgling school in the crater lake hills of western Uganda, they were happy to help. Since then the Trust has […]
In Ugandan rural communities, being able to raise food and livestock on a small scale is an essential life skill. For many children attending primary school, this will be the only formal education they receive, so any practical experience in agriculture and animal husbandry is extremely helpful. These topics are included in the Ugandan National […]
Did you know that only 0.05% of Ugandan rural school children have access to hand washing facilities? This means that over 99 % of rural school children do not wash their hands after using the latrine. Did you know that only 30% of rural schools clean their latrines with soap every day? Did you know […]
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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
