Before Christmas, Mr. Amaral’s Grade 8 class, at John Knox in Brampton, started talking about Hippo Africa and our projects over here. Many of the students followed our website and several emailed to give us encouragement and ask what they could do to help.  Some sent us some of their babysitting money and allowance to help with purchasing our microscope and other supplies. 

 

At Christmas, we received a huge card with many kind words and messages from everyone in the class. We set it up right beside our little table top Christmas tree and kept it there well into February (hey, some of you are reading this with your outdoor Christmas lights still up – admit it). It was a steady reminder of how many people in Canada were praying for us and thinking about us and all of the families that we are intertwined with here. 

 

The class decided to raise money to help with our projects over here. In no time at all, they had raised $380 to help students on the other side of world, here in Uganda. Awesome!

 

 

 

What did $380 buy for the kids? Well, here it goes!

 

3 Nike soccer balls, 2 for our Banda school, 1 for the Mukono school

2 basketballs

1 basketball hoop

1000 exercise books for Term 2

15 large boxes of chalk

200 pens

500 pencils

5 large packages of construction paper

5 new skipping ropes

60 bars of soap

110 pounds of rice (50kg)

and 110 pounds of beans (50kg)

 

Amazing! 

 

It is very exciting when students from families who have so much actually realize how blessed they are and want to reach out and help the poor. They didn’t just watch the website videos, or discuss it in geography or world issues, they got involved, asked questions, raised the money as a group and made a HUGE difference in the lives of the kids here. Cool teacher, cool Grade 8s and a very cool example for all of us! Click on the youtube link to see a slideshow of the gifts given by Mr. Amaral’s class.