Our History
The Help Uganda Trust has been involved with the young people of St Michael's since the Charity’s inception in 2006 by HUT founder Fr John Pearson (RIP). He had initially started working with the home in 2002.
Fr John wanted to ensure that the young people in the home had as normal an up bringing as possible despite having lost parents and family from AIDS or the armed conflict which had raged in Uganda until 2007. Fr John’s philosophy was simple - every child no matter their religion or background deserved to be unreservedly loved, trusted and provided with a good education through to university or training so they could become independent adults. Former students have gone on to become Doctors, Teachers, Engineers, Priests, Nurses and Mechanics so we know the approach works!
As many of the young people delayed the start of their education because of the trauma in their young lives most will not complete their education or training until their mid-20s. From a peak of more than 85 children their remains 37 in the HUT care. Seventeen young people are still in school and the remainder are at university or in vocational training.
Our Challenge
It costs around £1,000 to keep a child in school, (quality free education does not exist in Uganda), and a little more than £1,000 per year for training or university. In one sense this is such a small sum, yet in aggregate it’s a challenge, it means HUT will need to raise approximately £40,000 per annum for the next few years to see the children through their education. The Trustees of the HUT have no plans to expand their commitment to other young people, but we want to complete what has been started. As many will know Fr John passed away in March 2018 and the Trustees would love to compete his legacy.
Whilst the education you sponsor is of a very high quality the children continue to live very simple lives living in dormitories at St Michael’s and sharing very basic food supported by a small staff of four and several kind volunteers.
What can you do
Your financial support and prayers are greatly received and essential. If you are UK tax payer by completing a Gift Aid declaration you can increase your donation by at least 25% at no cost to you. You can give on line on our website www.helpugandatrust.org as a one off or as a regular donation or you can write a cheque to Help Uganda Trust. For the HUT to benefit from Gift aid the HMRC requires that we can link your donation to your gift aid form so please put it in an envelope and write your name and a contact number on it.
If you would like to consider sponsor one of our children, we would be delighted to hear from you. We can match the time you would like to sponsor a child with one of our children.
Please join our email list. We won’t often but we would like to update you about our young people’s progress. The easiest way to sign up (for us) is to do sign up online on the website. Or you can fill the details on the attached form. This form covers our email list and gift aid (only fill in the bits you want). Or alternatively email us at trustees@helpugandatrust.org and we will sort out whatever needs doing!
The Help Uganda Trust has been involved with the young people of St Michael's since the Charity’s inception in 2006 by HUT founder Fr John Pearson (RIP). He had initially started working with the home in 2002.
Fr John wanted to ensure that the young people in the home had as normal an up bringing as possible despite having lost parents and family from AIDS or the armed conflict which had raged in Uganda until 2007. Fr John’s philosophy was simple - every child no matter their religion or background deserved to be unreservedly loved, trusted and provided with a good education through to university or training so they could become independent adults. Former students have gone on to become Doctors, Teachers, Engineers, Priests, Nurses and Mechanics so we know the approach works!
As many of the young people delayed the start of their education because of the trauma in their young lives most will not complete their education or training until their mid-20s. From a peak of more than 85 children their remains 37 in the HUT care. Seventeen young people are still in school and the remainder are at university or in vocational training.
Our Challenge
It costs around £1,000 to keep a child in school, (quality free education does not exist in Uganda), and a little more than £1,000 per year for training or university. In one sense this is such a small sum, yet in aggregate it’s a challenge, it means HUT will need to raise approximately £40,000 per annum for the next few years to see the children through their education. The Trustees of the HUT have no plans to expand their commitment to other young people, but we want to complete what has been started. As many will know Fr John passed away in March 2018 and the Trustees would love to compete his legacy.
Whilst the education you sponsor is of a very high quality the children continue to live very simple lives living in dormitories at St Michael’s and sharing very basic food supported by a small staff of four and several kind volunteers.
What can you do
Your financial support and prayers are greatly received and essential. If you are UK tax payer by completing a Gift Aid declaration you can increase your donation by at least 25% at no cost to you. You can give on line on our website www.helpugandatrust.org as a one off or as a regular donation or you can write a cheque to Help Uganda Trust. For the HUT to benefit from Gift aid the HMRC requires that we can link your donation to your gift aid form so please put it in an envelope and write your name and a contact number on it.
If you would like to consider sponsor one of our children, we would be delighted to hear from you. We can match the time you would like to sponsor a child with one of our children.
Please join our email list. We won’t often but we would like to update you about our young people’s progress. The easiest way to sign up (for us) is to do sign up online on the website. Or you can fill the details on the attached form. This form covers our email list and gift aid (only fill in the bits you want). Or alternatively email us at trustees@helpugandatrust.org and we will sort out whatever needs doing!