AUSTWICK CoE Primary School has been busy raising funds for the Jinja Educational Trust in Uganda. Keeley Crockett, a member of the school's Parent Teacher Association, describes how it is benefitting the children, and the wider community.

Austwick Church of England Primary School is a small school nestled within the Yorkshire Dales National Park which is contributing towards making a big impact on the lives of school children in Uganda.

The school has established links with a charity called the ‘Jinja Educational Trust’ which provides educational resources, support and expertise for a small number of schools in Uganda.

It also helps to provide food and clothing for children in three orphanages.

Inspired by the stories and videos of Jinja, and by a list of much needed items provided by the trustees of the charity, the pupils decided to raise money to be able to provide two cows for one of the schools.

These cows would provide children with the opportunity to learn husbandry skills and also provide much needed milk for pupils. The pupils embarked on a series of fund raising activities in order to raise money including coffee mornings, cake stalls, name the cow and a whole school 'spell-a-thon.' In addition, many members of the wider school, church and village community of Austwick helped by raising further funds to ensure that enough money was raised. In addition, members of the community made 250 cloth gift bags which contained a stationary set for every child in one of the schools and parents of the school donated items of clothes.

In November, head teacher, Jo Lister was able to self-fund a visit to Jinja for a week, taking the funds raised, gifts and providing educational support and advice to the head teachers of the schools in the Jinja project. During the visit, Miss Lister was able to see first hand the impact of purchasing the cows for the school and was able to take many photos and videos which could be shown to the pupils of Austwick School back home.

The pupils of Austwick School have found the whole experience and links with Jinja unforgettable. Their curriculum is enriched as they study both the geography and history of Uganda. The School moto, 'Giving every child the roots to grow and the wings to fly' is being realised and the pupils see effects of their hard fund raising work through the pictures and videos that were captured during the head teachers visit. On asking the key stage two pupils why they wanted to help this charity, one said: "We take education for granted but now we can see that it's important; we're lucky and now we can help them to have a great education too."

They also said that the visit to Jinja made the visit personal and they could see their fundraising brought to life through watching the videos and photos that the head teacher made whilst there.

Miss Lister said: “I have been extremely impressed by the way in which our pupils have been motivated by this whole project, not just in raising funds but also in learning about Uganda. As a school we are very keen to continue this project, both in providing help for the charity but also in establishing strong links between our pupils here and those in Jinja.”

So looking to the future, Austwick School, supported by a vibrant parish community, is continuing its fund raising efforts for the Jinja Educational Trust. In particular they will focus on raising money to develop a new school, called ‘Twinkle’ which is being helped by the charity. They are grateful for the support received from the wider community such as a huge donation of clothes from Hannah Evans, owner of the Picalilly clothing company, and hope to make it a community project. The next big fund raiser will be the Austwick School Summer Family Fun Event to be held on Friday July, 14 which will feature live bands, raffle, lots of good food and the 'Great Austwick Bakeoff' competition.

The pupils are now making scrapbooks which include highlights from their school year to allow them to exchange stories with the children attending the schools in Uganda. Through this partnership, most importantly the pupils of Austwick continue to experience a richer curriculum whilst actively engaging in the school’s ethos and values. To quote Aristotle, “Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.” Information about the Jinja Educational Trust can be found at jinjaedtrust.com.