Latest News from Friends of Bwindi

Send 'Thank You' cards with Give As You Live

noreply@blogger.com (Friends of Bwindi) — Fri, 27 Dec 2013 17:45:00 +0000

If you want to say "thank you" for a Christmas gift, Moonpig offer an amazing selection of personalised cards. Half-price when you buy 5 or more - and Moonpig will donate up to 7.50% to our funds!

Give as you Live works with 3,054 leading stores that have signed up to donate a commission on every online purchase to the charity of your choice.

Please visit www.giveasyoulive.com/join/friendsofbwindi and discover Give as you Live today.

Give as you Live offer extended!

noreply@blogger.com (Friends of Bwindi) — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 01:04:00 +0000

The 'Spend £10 to raise £5' offer from Give as You Live has been extended until the end of 2012!

You can still raise £5 for Friends of Bwindi just by spending £10 via our 'Give as you Live' website - plus more every time you make a purchase from one of the ever-increasing number of shops available via 'Give as you Live'! You can use their app with your favourite web browser, or just visit

Support Friends of Bwindi when you do your shopping this Christmas!

Over 1,700 shops have joined including favourites such as Amazon, John Lewis, M&S - search the A-Z for your favourite shops or find special offers in the Offers section (there are usually several pages of offers so you can save while you raise funds!)

Please visit www.giveasyoulive.com/join/friendsofbwindi and discover Give as you Live today.

Find out more about how to join Give as you Live

The Give as you live app is now available for Google Chrome.

Spend £10 to raise £5 for Friends of Bwindi!

noreply@blogger.com (Friends of Bwindi) — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 16:14:00 +0000

Lots of special offers are available too!

You can support Friends of Bwindi every time you shop online - at no cost to you - and if you sign up by 31st March 2012 Give as you Live will donate an additional £5 to us after you spend £10 or more!*

*Offer now extended until June 30th 2012

With Give as you Live thousands of brands including Play.com, John Lewis and Expedia have signed up to donate a percentage of every purchase you make online to us. All at no cost to you and at no cost to us.

You can download an app or just visit the Give as you Live website each time you shop. Registering with Give as You Live means that you can keep track of your fund raising.

Great deals this month include

£15 off your first order with Ocado
30% off selected fashion items from La Redoute
Save up to 70% on clothing, homeware, beauty and electricals in the clearance online at House of Fraser.
Save up to 40% on Easter breaks worldwide online at Hotels.com.
Multibuy offers from Thorntons
and many, many more! Check out the Offers tab (there are several pages)

Use the A-Z to find your usual online stores, and some new ones!
Simply visit www.giveasyoulive.com/join/friendsofbwindi and discover Give as you Live today.

It costs you nothing to raise much needed additional funds for us every time you shop online. Please ask your friends to join too - we need 25 shoppers to spend £10 by the end of ~~March~~ June to receive £5 for each shopper, and the more people who join, the more we can raise and the more support we can give to orphans and communities in Uganda.

www.giveasyoulive.com/join/friendsofbwindi

More about how to join Give as you Live

Support Friends of Bwindi when you shop online!

noreply@blogger.com (Friends of Bwindi) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 22:17:00 +0000

Support Friends of Bwindi this Christmas and throughout the year by using our shopping links.

You can help Friends of Bwindi to raise funds by using our links when you shop online. You pay the same as usual - often less, as there are lots of special offers available - and we receive commission to help support students and communities in Uganda.

Buyat has now changed to Spend and Save. You can still find your favourite online shops there, as well as lots of special offers and competitions.

Or go to our Everyclick search pages and hover over the 'more ways to give' button to find the Give as you Live website - hundreds of shops, each paying commission to Friends of Bwindi for every purchase made when you click through the site to do your shopping. Searchable by shop or product, with lots of special offers. you can keep track of how much you have raised - you can even download an app for you computer!

Another place to shop is our Ethictrade web store, where you can purchase a range of good quality fairly traded goods, with a percentage of each purchase donated to Friends of Bwindi.

Friends of Bwindi Spring Sale

noreply@blogger.com (Friends of Bwindi) — Sun, 01 May 2011 00:20:00 +0000

Friends of Bwindi volunteers have listed lots of items in our ebay for Charity account this weekend, with most of the auctions ending on Bank Holiday Monday. We have new clothes, flower seeds and other items for sale, and other ebayers have also listed items supporting our fund raising. Get yourself a bargain and support our fund raising too!

Click here to see all ebay auctions currently supporting Friends of Bwindi

Competition success - thanks for your help!

noreply@blogger.com (Friends of Bwindi) — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 23:59:00 +0000

Before Christmas we entered a charity competition run by buy.at, who run our buy.at affiliate web shop.

The competition involved promoting buy.at-linked shops in creative ways. It ran for five weeks during November and December, with a prize of £1,000 available each week.

We made a huge effort for the fifth and final week of the competition and asked you to help by printing leaflets and posters and sending photos and locations, to show us promoting the shops in many places. As a result we won joint first prize, sharing the prize money with Mandeville PTA Webshop - find out more ...

The competition had very tight deadlines but lots of you printed posters and sent photos. As well as the posters we made a Christmas card and gift tag for supporters with the shop logos, a slideshow for our website and a selection of Christmas carols on Youtube with altered lyrics and accompanying slideshow/movie! We also had a Christmas header for our website promoting the buy.at shops for Christmas shopping, and our Everyclick page had a new Christmas background for the competition.

We promoted the posters and competition on our website, facebook page and other locations. You can see the poster/leaflets photos in a photo album on our facebook page. (Please click 'like' while you are there!)

A huge thank you to everyone who helped out. The prize money will be shared between our projects and will make a big difference to beneficiaries in Uganda.

Ethictrade - New Friends of Bwindi shop

noreply@blogger.com (Friends of Bwindi) — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 02:02:00 +0000

Friends of Bwindi have a new online shopping partner. Ethictrade is a business founded with the aim of raising money for charities on the principles of fair trade. They are committed to providing a high-quality range of products that have been ethically produced and fairly traded.

Last order date to ensure delivery for Christmas 2010 is today, 19th December - so have a look now for some fairly traded Christmas gifts!

New Year sale starts 1st January.

Visit the Friends of Bwindi Ethictrade shop

Still need to send Christmas cards?

This year we are pleased to be offering an email Christmas greeting option to all of our supporters. Everygreeting Christmas Cards are an easy and fun way to send a little extra cheer to friends and family, while making the holidays a little bit brighter for us, too.

For as little as £5, you can send 50 or more email greetings, knowing that every greeting you send will be helping support Friends of Bwindi.

Buy.at competition
Thank you to everyone who helped with our 'buy.at' charity competition entry, helping to promote the webshop by printing posters and leaflets and sending us photos. We are delighted to announce that we were joint winners and have won £500 for charity funds!

Find out more about our competition entry

View the photos on our facebook page

Christmas goodies from Friends of Bwindi

noreply@blogger.com (Friends of Bwindi) — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 23:44:00 +0000

Try the new virtual card service provided by our charity partner Everyclick!

We would like to thank you all for your support this year, and have made festive treats for you!

Print yourself a copy of our christmas card

Friends of Bwindi do not use your donations and our other funds on mass mailings etc so instead we have made a Christmas card for you to print out for yourself! It includes a poem about Santa, loosely based on a traditional carol!
Print your card (pdf 750kb)

If you use our buy.at shop you can print out gift tags for your presents - www.buy.at/Bwindifriends

Our new slideshow - How to use our Buyat web shop

View more presentations from Friends of Bwindi.

A Festive Musical Medley
We have recorded some of our own versions of Christmas carols, complete with 'movies'. View our videos on Youtube

'Hark the Happy Husbands' - Support Friends of Bwindi

noreply@blogger.com (Friends of Bwindi) — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 00:23:00 +0000

A musical moment from Friends of Bwindi!

We have had terrible weather this week - not great for driving to the shops, standing in queues, struggling with heavy bags .... and most of us have a lot of shopping to do during the coming weeks.

Our volunteers have been busy making a short musical slideshow to give our supporters a solution to this problem! 'Hark the Happy Husbands Sing' is sung to the tune of a well-known Christmas carol.

You can also view the video on our Youtube account

Please share it with your friends and don't forget to take the advice of the Happy Husband at www.buy.at/Bwindifriends

As well as telling you in song, we have an artistic depiction of the problem and its solution ...

Please download our A4 poster based on the above 'artwork' to display in your office or workplace, and encourage your friends to support our fund raising and stay warm and dry, with non-aching feet. (The snacks depicted above are optional. You may wish to substitute tea and biscuits or even wine and chocolate for the suggested coffee and cake). Download A4 poster (pdf)

Win funds for Friends of Bwindi at the Buy.at webshop

Last week we entered a competition with the Buy.at shop and were chosen as joint winners! The prize money will enable us to support a recently orphaned child next year, and much more, but the competition has not yet ended and we would like to do more for our beneficiaries this Christmas.

Help us to win again by visiting the 'competition' page of our Buy.at shop

You can find out how we won on the buy.at facebook page, www.facebook.com/buyat.webshops

Support Friends of Bwindi while you shop, at no extra cost!

noreply@blogger.com (Friends of Bwindi) — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 00:14:00 +0000

Shop and support Friends of Bwindi this Christmas!

Help us to support orphans and communities in Uganda this Christmas, at no extra expense to yourself!

You can support our fund raising while you do your online shopping – just visit our Buy.at webshop and click the links to a huge range of shops and services. There are lots of special offers too!

Direct links:

Get a free SIM from Giffgaff
Get a new phone for your new SIM card at carphone warehouse!
Woolworths - use code 'ZQ179' to receive £20 off all gaming consoles
Buy sporting gifts at intersport
Littlewoods is “The Home of Big Brands” offering you unbeatable value.

Use the A-Z search to find your favourite online stores, browse by category or use the search box to find specific items at competitive prices, from Amazon and other well-known stores.

Click to visit our buy.at shop

Help us to win £1,000 by entering the Buy.at competition!

This amount would have a huge impact on our beneficiaries; you could really make a difference by winning this competition for us! It’s easy to enter – you just need a good idea. (This update is actually a competition entry!)

Click here for competition details

If you win this competition for us we will keep you updated about how the money is used. Every penny will directly support our charitable activities as we have no office or staff costs – our organisation is run entirely by volunteers working from home.

This amount could enable us to add a recently orphaned child to our sponsor programme and pay for Stay Safe Children Foundation to run courses for orphans and street children next year. Your creative help could really make a huge difference.

Updates from Uganda - Stay Safe Children Foundation

noreply@blogger.com (Friends of Bwindi) — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 08:41:00 +0000

Earlier this year we sent a grant to Stay Safe Children Foundation, a community group supporting orphans, street children and families living in poverty in Kihihi, a town on the road between Bwindi Impenetrable Rainforest and Queen Elizabeth National Park.

This grant was possible due to the support of fund raisers at Co-operative Life & Savings in Manchester, and to the pupils of Fosseway School in Radstock, Somerset who held a non-uniform day to support our funds - as well as our eBay sales and other fund raising. The staff and members of Stay Safe Children Foundation have asked us to thank everyone who contributed.

The support provided by Stay Safe Children Foundation includes training in craft skills. Local people share their skills and training is provided at minimal cost. Counselling and life skills are also included in SSCF's programmes.

Our grant has funded the purchase of three sewing machines, a laptop computer and t-shirts with SSCF logos for members and volunteers. We are also supporting running costs (rent etc).

The people who run Stay Safe Children Foundation are volunteers from the local community, struggling to support the huge number of orphans and vulnerable children in the community. Although tourists pass through, few stay in Kihihi and it is difficult for organisations like SSCF to find outside support. This is a great shame because relatively small sums can make a huge difference to Stay Safe Children Foundation and similar grass-roots community groups- and the people who run them know the most effective way to use the funds.

The group aim to generate income by selling their products locally, and trainees learn useful skills. Many are orphans from child-headed families with no parental guidance and support, and life skills and counselling are included in the programmes.

Stay Safe Children Foundation have several ideas for projects, but need funding to make them possible. Please support Friends of Bwindi by using our search engine and by shopping at your favourite online stores via our webshop.

Up to 40% off with the Expedia summer sale

Summer Sale - save up to 75%

30% off selected BBQs and Outdoor Furniture

Support Friends of Bwindi at no cost to you!

noreply@blogger.com (Friends of Bwindi) — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 22:16:00 +0000

Here's a new easy way to raise money for Friends of Bwindi that does not involve parting with extra cash.

Everyclick.com has launched a new way to donate – it’s been christened “Give as you Live”. It means you can search the web, shop on line from your favourite retailers, trade on eBay and raise money for Friends of Bwindi.

You get great search results from Yahoo!, content from leading shopping providers and access to all eBay auctions. Every search you make creates a donation for charity.

Our special address is http://www.everyclick.com/friendsofbwindi.

All searches, shopping and eBay activity made from here will raise money for us.

Make sure you sign up so you can track your giving – it updates every 3 minutes, you’ll be amazed how quickly it adds up!

Everyclick has already raised over £1,062,865.95 for a wide range of charities around the UK, and Everyclick was voted website of the Year 2008 and has been recognised as a top 100 media tech company 2009.

Discover the new way to give to Friends of Bwindi. Give as you Live.

Why not try it right now!

If you register on the Everyclick site you can keep track of your personal contribution to our total.

Thanks to fund raisers

noreply@blogger.com (Friends of Bwindi) — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 10:11:00 +0000

We have received some generous donations from fund raisers around the UK.

Fosseway School is a school for children with special needs in North Somerset. They had a non-uniform day last term and raised over £260 for Friends of Bwindi. We will include this in our next grant to Stay Safe Children Foundation, an organisation supporting children with special needs and other young people in Kihihi, Uganda.

The fund raisers at Co-operative Life & Savings who have been raising funds for us and two other causes for the past year have far surpassed their target of £1,000 for each charity. Their contribution will make a huge difference to our beneficiaries.

A big thank you to everyone at Fosseway and at Co-operative Life & savings.

We will keep you informed about how these funds and other donations are used in our website, newsletters and blog.

We have a new page on Facebook - if you are on Facebook please have a look at our page

Friends of Bwindi on Facebook

Don't forget to check our eBay auctions

Thanks to supporters - Bwindi Hospital Poster Campaign

noreply@blogger.com (Friends of Bwindi) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 16:19:00 +0000

We were pleased to be able to support Bwindi Hospital's poster campaign and have received an email about their progress.

"Countless numbers of people will benefit from the knowledge that they can be tested and treated at Bwindi Community Hospital, as it is not only HIV positive individuals who will benefit, but also their spouses, children, loved ones, and the greater community as a whole. People who have been forced into dependence upon others because of poor health can become self-reliant once again. On behalf of Bwindi Community Hospital and the 41,000 people we serve, many, many thanks for helping us to make this possible."

This grant and the one made to Stay Safe Children Foundation were possible as a result of the generous support of the people of Denton, Norfolk. Most of the funds for these particular grants were contributed by them, topped up by our other fund raising.

Thank you Dentonians!

The posters have been made and put up around the region. Here are some more extracts from our letter.

"The HIV poster campaign has been very successful thus far. We have had all of our signs printed, and are currently in the process of posting them throughout the two sub-counties we serve. We have had eight very large billboards printed, and have placed four of them along the road that connects the Hospital to the nearest town, a distance of about 17 kilometers. We plan to place the four additional billboards at a distance further from the Hospital in order to increase the number of people who will be able to see our signs and subsequently learn about the free HIV/AIDS testing and treatment services available at Bwindi Community Hospital.

Six of the eight billboards are in Rukiga, the local language, and two of the eight are in English, so as to make sure that no matter what language one speaks, one will be informed regarding the HIV services available at BCH. There are over 40 dialects spoken in Uganda, and not all of the people currently living in the area were born here, so the English signs help to inform those who do not speak Rukiga about our services. English is the common language in Uganda, and many Ugandans speak it amongst themselves, as if they are from different areas they will have no other language in which they can communicate.

We made the billboards quite large so as to be visible from a distance, as well as to draw attention from anyone who might pass them.

The woman on this poster is Adah, and the poster says, “Adah says, ‘I sleep under a mosquito net. Do you?’ Mosquito nets are available for 3,000 shillings at Bwindi Community Hospital

Adah is one of our expert patients. She is openly HIV positive, and is an employee of Bwindi Community Hospital. She works to reduce stigma within the community surrounding HIV/AIDS and talks with HIV positive patients about the things they need to do in order to live a healthy and productive life. She educates about the importance of adhering drug treatment programs, the importance of proper nutrition, and the importance of sleeping under mosquito nets. Adah is also in charge of the distribution of mosquito nets at the Hospital. People who are HIV positive have a weakened immune system and are consequently more susceptible to contracting a serious case of malaria, and so it is crucial that people who are positive sleep under mosquito nets every night.

The woman in this poster is Isabellah, the head of our HIV counseling services. The main purpose of our poster campaign is to raise awareness about the free HIV testing and treatment services available at Bwindi Community Hospital, and this sign helps to do just that.

The man featured on this poster is George, and the poster says, “George Bitti says ‘I am still alive because of ARV’s’. Free HIV counseling, testing, and treatment is available at Bwindi Community Hospital.

George is also an expert patient, and is openly HIV positive.

He, like Adah, works to reduce the stigma in the community surrounding HIV/AIDS. He leads a patient support group once per month, during which he talks about the ways in which someone infected with HIV can lead a positive, productive life. He talks about nutritional requirements specific to someone living with HIV, he educates about the importance of adhering to one’s drug treatment plan, and he speaks about his own experience with HIV. George also follows up with defaulters; people who have missed treatment appointments. He goes to their houses, asks them why they have missed an appointment, encourages them to come back to the Hospital for treatment, and also takes anti retroviral drugs with him in case people are very hesitant to return to the Hospital.

When George first came to us as a patient, he was almost forty pounds lighter than he is now. His CD4 count was less than 100 (a healthy person has a CD4 count of around 1,000). This is a small community, and everyone knew that George was very ill. People now see the man who was on death’s doorstep three years earlier as a healthy, happy man working at the Hospital. He is a wonderful example to the entire community of how if you take care of yourself and stick to your treatment program, you can be a productive, valuable member of society with or without being HIV positive. For this reason, we choose to feature George on one of our signs.

The woman on this poster is Vaster, and the poster says, “Vastor says: ‘always use a condom’. Free HIV/AIDS counseling, testing, and treatment is available at Bwindi Community Hospital.

Promoting condom use is a huge area of focus at Bwindi Community Hospital. Last year we distributed over 50,000 condoms throughout the two sub-counties we serve. We did this primarily through our 40 condom distributors, people to whom we provide a continuous supply of condoms who then distribute them to members of the community, and through the 42 wooden condom boxes that we have placed in trading centers, bars, pool halls, video halls, and other local gathering places. The poster campaign has helped us to further emphasize the importance of condom use.

We are in the process of putting 330 smaller signs throughout the two sub-counties we serve (the faces and messages on the signs are the same as those on the larger billboards). While we are focusing on putting signs in areas that have a large number of people passing through, such as trading centers, bars, pool halls, and churches, we are also putting signs in more rural areas that do not have large trading centers. I went to track the gorillas last Saturday in a place called Ruhija, about an hour and a half drive from the Hospital, and on the way I saw one of the signs of Isabella posted on the door of a very small shop. It was encouraging to see that within such a short period of time we had been able to place the posters at such a long distances from the Hospital, and it was even more impressive that the posters were in such a rural area; the road to Ruhija is terrible, and it takes about 2 hours to travel 50 kilometers.

We are extremely confident that the poster campaign will result in an increase in the number of people who come to the Hospital to utilize our free HIV testing and treatment services. We would not have been able to launch this campaign were it not for the generosity of the Friends of Bwindi, and are incredibly grateful to everyone there who helped to make this poster campaign possible. Countless numbers of people will benefit from the knowledge that they can be tested and treated at Bwindi Community Hospital, as it is not only HIV positive individuals who will benefit, but also their spouses, children, loved ones, and the greater community as a whole. People who have been forced into dependence upon others because of poor health can become self-reliant once again. On behalf of Bwindi Community Hospital and the 41,000 people we serve, many, many thanks for helping us to make this possible. "

A Chip in the Sugar - 7 successful performances!

noreply@blogger.com (Friends of Bwindi) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 15:21:00 +0000

Jon Taylor on stage

"Jon was amazing, and everyone was very impressed how professionally delivered the whole production was." (quote from Karen at L&S)

The staff at Co-operative Life & Savings continue to make amazing progress with their fund raising, which will be shared between 'Friends of Bwindi' and two other charities.

Huge thanks to actor Jon Taylor and to everyone who supported the events.

A Chip in the Sugar - Co-operative Life & Savings Fund RaisingTheatricals!

noreply@blogger.com (Friends of Bwindi) — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 17:50:00 +0000

The fund raisers at Co-operative Life & Savings (see previous posts) have organised fund raising events at the Good with Money theatre, Miller Street, Manchester on the Wednesday 16th, Thursday 17th and Friday 18th of September.

Colleague-turned-actor Jon Taylor (pictured in the poster) will perform the Alan Bennett monologue 'A Chip in the Sugar', with a choice of three lunchtime and one evening performance during the week.

If you live in the Manchester area why not go along and support Friends of Bwindi and the other nominated charities. If the theatre doesn't appeal to you, look out for their other fund raising events over the next few months.

For more information visit www.achipinthesugar.ning.com

Stay Safe Children Foundation - New Premises!

noreply@blogger.com (Friends of Bwindi) — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 17:49:00 +0000

We recently awarded a grant to Stay Safe Children Foundation, and they have used it to rent a building which can be used for offices, accommodation and training. Our grant covers the rent for a whole year, plus enough to make a sign to go outside and some left over for furnishings and stationary.

The front of the building, before ...

And after painting!

Bwindi Hospital HIV/AIDs awareness project

noreply@blogger.com (Friends of Bwindi) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 12:32:00 +0000

Friends of Bwindi are now supporting Bwindi Community Hospital, which provides health care to people from a wide rural area around Bwindi.

We have awarded a grant to pay for posters to raise awareness of HIV/AIDs and to publicise the hospital's testing and treatment programme. They want to put up posters in each trading centre, school, college, church and other institution in the area advertising their HIV testing and treatment services, promoting condom use and reducing stigma against people living with HIV.

Until December 2006 there was little HIV testing and no treatment for a population of 41,000 people in Kanungu district. Since this time, Bwindi Community Hospital has begun free HIV counseling and testing, and has tested over 17,000 people, finding a prevalence rate of 7%.

In March 2007, the Hospital began offering a free doctor-led HIV treatment service with drug adherence counseling, a basic care package, TB screening, education sessions from an expert patient living with HIV, and antiretroviral drugs provided by the Joint Clinical Research Centre (http://www.jcrc.co.ug). More than 900 patients have enrolled in the HIV/AIDS care program at Bwindi Community Hospital. HIV/AIDS outreach clinics are provided by a team who travel to remote areas to provide testing, treatment, education, and prevention of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV (PMTCT) services, saving many people a days walk in each direction.

In February 2009, the Hospital completed a new clinic building that brings together HIV, TB, PMTCT and family planning services.

These are some of the posters produced with your donations - they have also been produced in Rukiga, one of the languages used locally.

One of the posters features George Bitti, a fifty-five year old ex-headmaster who has HIV. In 2004 he was dying of AIDS. He had been bed-ridden for months, was wasted and had lost hope. A friend persuaded him to sell his last remaining piece of land and made the trip to a hospital in Kampala with him. He started on anti-retroviral drugs and has never looked back. He is now a vivacious, strong, spirited man who is a powerful advocate of ARV’s. His enthusiasm is exactly why the hospital employs George as an “Expert Patient.” Every time someone is diagnosed with HIV they meet George. He is able to help people in despair build a vision of a healthy future. ARV’s really can keep people with HIV/AIDS alive and well for many, many years.

You can find out more about the hospital at http://www.bwindihospital.com/, or on our website
http://www.friendsofbwindiorphanage.org/bwindicommunityhospital.php

Support from staff at Co-operative Life & Savings

noreply@blogger.com (Friends of Bwindi) — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 15:49:00 +0000

We were very happy to be informed that Friends of Bwindi have been selected by the staff at Co-operative Life & Savings in Manchester (UK) as one of their three supported charities this year.

Each year the good people of L&S select three causes to support, and organise fund raising events throughout the year, dividing the proceeds at the end of the year. They have exciting plans for lots of events, some of which will be open to the public so if you live in the Manchester area please follow our blog for updates and support the events if you can!

The other supported charities are a local group, Stockport Dynamo's Kids Football Club, who support under privileged children in the local community, and national charity RNID (The Royal National Institute for Deaf People), which is also the Co-operative Charity of the Year and specifically the ‘Hearing Matters' campaign.

Author donates royalties to Friends of Bwindi

noreply@blogger.com (Friends of Bwindi) — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 13:25:00 +0000

Judith Carrier visited Bwindi in 2005. She is a Lecturer and Professional Head of Primary Care/Public Health Nursing at Cardiff University School of Nursing (UK) and recently published a book on the management of long-term conditions. She has a regular column in Practice Nursing. Judith has generously offered to donate the royalty payments to charity, split between 'Friends of Bwindi' and 'The Gorilla Organization'.

Managing Long Term Conditions and Chronic Illness in Primary Care
by Judith Carrier (Author)

Stay Safe Children Foundation website is online!

noreply@blogger.com (Friends of Bwindi) — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 16:27:00 +0000

Friends of Bwindi have agreed to support the work of Stay Safe Children Foundation (SSCF), a community based organisation operating in Kihihi, a town in the region surrounding Bwindi Impenetrable Rainforest. Stay Safe Children Foundation aims to support street children, children with disabilities, child-headed households and other orphans and vulnerable children.

Unlike some towns and villages around Bwindi, Kihihi does not benefit from tourists passing through and it is very difficult for organisations like SSCF to promote their work and secure funding. They have very limited access to computers and the internet and must pay an hourly rate to use public computers, making it difficult and expensive for them to contact potential supporters, make a website etc.

Friends of Bwindi volunteers have made a website in conjunction with Stay Safe Children Foundation, who . The website is jointly administered by Friends of Bwindi and SSCF, who have editorial control. We are currently using the free 'google sites' service for hosting to keep costs down.

View the website at http://www.sscf-uganda.org/.

Supporters can make donations specifically for Stay Safe Children Foundation via Friends of Bwindi, and UK taxpayers can use Gift Aid to increase the value of their donation by completing a Gift Aid declaration on our website.

Make a donation to Stay Safe Children Foundation's projects online using a credit or debit card or your Paypal account

Your donation will be processed by Paypal's secure online service. We can accept online donations in any currency. You do not need a Paypal account to use this service.

You can also make a postal donation by cheque or postal order. Find out how

Graduation Ceremony for Dixon

noreply@blogger.com (Friends of Bwindi) — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 00:48:00 +0000

Dixon graduated on 20th January 2009 - the same day as the inauguration of President Barack Obama in the USA.

Dixon invited 'Friends of Bwindi' volunteers to attend, which would have been wonderful but was not possible. Instead we sent messages which Dixon read to his guests, and Dixon sent us some photos of the day including one of his beautiful daughter, now 4 months old.

Dixon and Eunice are very happy and hope to marry soon. Dixon hopes to undertake further academic study and research in future, and Eunice also hopes to continue her education with a university degree.

We would love to hear from any individuals or organisations interested in supporting the education of talented young Ugandans like Dixon and Eunice.

Click here to send us a message or to sign up for our newsletter

Amim's Parcel Appeal for Bwindi Orphans

noreply@blogger.com (Friends of Bwindi) — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 16:21:00 +0000

Amim was the first beneficiary of 'Friends of Bwindi'. Jo met him during her April 2007 visit to Bwindi, and started our organisation when she returned. A few months later Amim received his exam results and was offered a place at Makerere University Business School, Kampala, to study for a diploma. When we heard that he could not take up the place without funding we decided to sponsor Amim for the duration of his course.

Amim is renting a PO box in Kampala to enable him to have a postal address and, inspired by a TV charity appeal, he had the idea to use it for a parcel appeal for the orphans and vulnerable children in his village. A Friends of Bwindi volunteer is raising funds to send parcels using her personal eBay account, and has started a blog to publicise the auctions at http://splodgums.blogspot.com/.

This is Amim's own project, not a Friends of Bwindi one. We are delighted that Amim is using his opportunity to benefit the children in his village. We hoped that our work would have 'knock-on effects' to benefit others but did not expect it so soon!

You can read about Amim's parcel appeal on his website - http://sites.google.com/site/amimsorphanappeal/.

Our first graduate and first baby!

noreply@blogger.com (Friends of Bwindi) — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 23:41:00 +0000

September 2008 was a busy and proud month for Dixon Ampumuza, who has completed his final project on ‘Strengthening of Dissemination of Reproductive Health Information’. We managed to raise he needed for his final semester just weeks before the deadline, and meanwhile his first baby was due to be born.

Dixon gained a 2:1 degree (upper second class), an excellent result for anyone but particularly impressive considering the circumstances. We were not able to raise living expenses, only fees, and Dixon was working to keep himself and Eunice while completing his project.

Eunice gave birth to a healthy baby girl, Ainembabazi Lakisha Amanda on 8th September.