Berkshire scouts will be embarking on a trip to Uganda this year in July as part of their project Africa though their coming may not be tourism centred as it will seem more of a charity trip. Currently, eight of the 79th explore scouts together with their leaders are on a fundraising campaign for a life changing trip to Uganda to support Project Africa.
These eight scouts and their leader are said to travel to Jinja, Eastern Uganda as they will be spending close to three weeks in the land of Kyabazinga working on and helping the local community as part of their Project Africa works.
According to the Berkshire scouts, this will not be a holiday but rather an opportunity to help others and experience completely different cultures that will undoubtably shape their futures and how they perceive the world around them.
They add that, the trip will be quite challenging and one of the most life changing experiences that they will ever go through. The Berkshire scouts will be reaching out and helping those in need as they believe that the experience will not only benefit the community they are to work in but also help them develop as young people and give them important life skills as they prepare for Adulthood.
Project Africa is a Berkshire Scouts global awareness programme launched in 2010. The team has been coming to Uganda so far two times and their 2019 visit will be their third visit for project Africa, their first visit was in 2011 and second visit in 2015.
During their first visit to Uganda in 2011, they completed project work at the Bukeka Children’s Centre in Mityana and Kavule School for the Deaf in Mbale district where they built three classrooms, kitchen and washrooms plus general refurbishment at the schools.
On their 2015 visit, they embarked on project works at two rural schools in the north of Jinja at Butagaya and Lwololo primary schools respectively. The 2015 project work was through a partnership with Soft Power Education (SPE), a British charity working in central Uganda, this enabled them complete building works for three new classrooms, two teacher houses and general refurbishment.
Project Africa continues to support its four project schools, and this has included funding teacher wages, sponsoring deaf children, and funding additional work such as water harvesting schemes, providing electricity, and upgrading the project buildings.
Fundraising by Berkshire Scouts to support the above projects over the years is now in excess of £110,000 and the fundraising and project work continues.
Many scouts mainly Beavers and Cubs have been involved in the project Africa challenge Badge that encourages weekly programmes to help young people understand the lives of their peers in a developing country which also helps with fundraising for projects.
