When WSB co-publisher Patrick Sand talked recently with students at Tilden School (WSB sponsor), he invited them to keep us posted on any other news they wanted to share. Tilden’s Julie Enevoldsen has just forwarded a writeup from Ahna, and a comment from Vivian, regarding a current project to help students in Uganda (map) through a program called Sister Schools:

From Ahna —

“We need to help Uganda. I’m a fourth grade student from Tilden School and we are trying to help the Sister Schools. We want to raise enough money to buy a roof for the girls’ shower and maybe even some lights.

The Sister Schools takes place in Uganda in Africa. It used to be the best place in Africa but a bad war came and ruined the place. Now they have to walk about three miles to get water and on bare feet! Some of the people in Uganda don’t have clothes, they have to wear rags or tie their left-over clothes. So we are sending donations like shirts, pants, toys, and things like that, but not stuffed animals because of lice.

Terry is the one who brings the donations to them and he is a very great person to do that because he has to go all the way to Africa and back. We are also doing a penny drive but we don’t have to bring just pennies; we can bring nickels, quarters, dollars, and dimes, along with pennies. We want to raise $500.00 and we are almost there. We have $447.58. We want to raise money so we can help them renew everything like the girls’ bedroom because the girls’ bedroom has a problem with the girls on the top bunk. The top bunk of the girls’ room has the most heat–and a lot of heat–because the metal on the roof makes it really hot. We have to save Uganda and they need more help.”

From Vivian —

“Last year we gave items to Sister Schools, and when they saw the items their faces lit up with joy, so we are trying to make that happen again.”

Julie adds —

The enormous heap of school materials, clothes, and sports equipment the Tilden students collected was sent off today, on its way to Uganda. We look forward to Terry’s return next spring; he’ll bring photos of those faces “lit up with joy” to share with our students. Seeing their own donations in the hands of the Ugandan children reinforces the Tilden students’ understanding that they can make a difference in the world. Tilden School would like to extend our thanks to Viking Bank for their very gracious support helping count all those pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters! (Our updated total, so far, is $710.86.)

We encourage anyone who’s inspired by Ahna’s and Vivian’s stories to visit
the Sister Schools website, sisterschools.org; there are many ways to help.