Beauty and poverty, opportunities and challenges, dreams and needs…Uganda. It is for her children that we work to build a school…and thus to Build Hope in Kids.

Dear friends, benefactors and sponsors of St. Patrick Primary School in Isingiro Uganda,

I bring you love and greetings from the students and St. Patrick community in general.

We have been on holiday since 30th of April, but the teachers reported on May 20, to get ready to receive the students back on May 25. Parents Visitation Day will be July 13 and end of term two will be August 21. Our latest addition to our curriculum is computer classes from the 5th to 7th grades. Kids are excited about their classes and this will be very instrumental for them when they join Secondary School. I have noticed that our graduates who have joined secondary always perform very poorly in computer classes because they were not exposed before. However, now we hope our students will perform better when they join Secondary with skills acquired from our school.

Among the other things we would like to acquire for our school is the brass band. Some friends from the US donated a few instruments that the last group that visited and attended my anniversary brought along but we need a full brass band. If we get this our kids will be equipped with another skill, thus fulfilling our mission for holistic education. Some of our competitive schools have brass bands and it would be our desire to also get one. If we have the band it will be easy to get an instructor.

I thank Mrs. Cassi Smith (the Principal of St. Pat's in Washington, Illinois) for sharing the "Get to Know Us" about her school. I shared it with the staff, and we are going to arrange how to exchange information between the two schools. When I visit in the summer I will arrange a meeting with Mrs. Smith so we can discuss how best to implement this. 

I have booked June 12 for my visa interview at the US embassy in Uganda. Pray that all goes well because I am really looking forward to the visit and participating in the events the Board has organized, especially the annual Golf Outing scheduled for September 15.

Thank you so much for your support over the years and know that you're always in our prayers.

Warmer weather, sports going from spring to summer, and most important: Mother’s Day!!

May also ushers in our fundraising season. The first event is an opportunity to shop for a unique gift for the MOMS in your circle: the Spring Sip-n-Shop at the Barn III event center in Goodfield, Illinois. This semi-annual vendor sale will be Saturday, May 11, from 10 a.m. til 2 p.m. BHIK-U will have a booth there, featuring quilts that have been donated to raise funds in support of our school in Uganda.

Of course, a lovely quilt or a fun pillow will make a great gift for a graduate, too!

We have table runners, wall-hanging quilts, bed quilts, pillows … a lovely assortment! If you’re unable to make it to Goodfield, you can still see & purchase the quilts at our online sale: www.tinyurl.com/ugandaquilts. (They’re much more impressive than photos can show, however!)

We wish you a safe, busy, happy month of May!

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

I am happy to update you on our school as follows.

The new school year opened on February 3 with the boarding students arriving, and the day scholars joining them to start classes on February 5.

The P.7 students had reported two weeks earlier to start the curriculum earlier so that we target finishing it by end of second term.

We also held a full staff opening day retreat on February 1.

The 2024 enrollment has again increased due to the good performance of the school. We now have a total of 900 students.

Among the latest achievements in our school are the purchase of library books that are now being cataloged & put in shelves. Furniture for library is being made & will soon be in as well.

We also now have a generator that will provide back-up power for the entire campus in case of power failure.

We are proud to report that we had excellent PLE national exams performance where we got 46 students in Division 1 and 05 in division 2. We emerged number 2 out of 191 schools in the district.

Congratulations to our students and staff on this achievement. They worked very hard for it.

I am planning to be in central IL in the months of August-September this year 2024 and am looking forward to meeting some of you in person and sharing more about our school.

We continue to keep you in our prayers and thank you for your support towards achieving our dream.

Fr. Julius Turyatoranwa (PhD)

Building Hope in Kids - Uganda

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