For three years now, Grace Catholic has partnered with the parishioners of St. Maximilian Kolbe to assist our brothers and sisters in Uganda.  This year we once again reached out to help with Holy Angels College (HAC), a school for the poor.  The school’s student body is the equivalent of our grades 8-12.  Their goal is to grow the student body from their current size of 269 students to 400 students to make the school self-sustaining financially.  To help them reach their goals there were seven projects being proposed to help achieve this.

It is important for everyone to understand where they have been and where they are now.  For poor families, education is a way out of poverty and HAC is the steppingstone before a trade school or a university degree.  Starting in 2018, St. Maximilian Kolbe parishioners helped build two dorms, one for boys and one for girls along with a well for drinking water and a way to capture water for bathing. Each year since then, small, and large donations provided for solar, bibles, a science lab, computers with Internet and the starting of a library for the school along with tuition assistance for the poorest families.   Fast forward to 2024 and a need existed to assist the school to support students of the poorest families attending HAC.

One of the reasons for dorms was due to children walking long distances.  When school let out, there were students that had to walk great distances.  Parents were especially concerned about the girls being attacked, most importantly those walking longer distances into the night hours to return home.  When the first dorms were completed, there was joy among the parents and students for this great gift.  Due to the growth, they now have more girls wanting to attend school and they have used a makeshift classroom to accommodate them.  One of the first goals was to complete a dorm on the new property purchased by the bishop to resemble the ones currently in place.  It has a structure but needs to be completed and furnished with windows, doors, a roof and water.  This will allow the girls to occupy the current boy’s dorm, which is bigger and furnish more beds for the growing population of girls and have both dorms next to each other for the girls.  As of December 2024, the new dorm is almost completed due to the generous donations provided this year.

The second project is to complete the wall around the school to provide more protection to the school.  The parents have made this a priority and have completed 600 feet of the wall.  The goal is to assist them in completing the wall.  This will protect the students, teachers and staff and the current structures St. Max has helped put in place over these past five years.  It will also help with the next project to assist with food.  Donations have now provided for the brick and mortar and board and Head of School is working to fund the labor on their side.  Any donations toward the labor would help them tremendously.  It is estimated at this time they will need approximately $7000 more to complete the wall.

Food prices have soared in Uganda much like everywhere else.  Emmanuel, the Head of School, must go out almost weekly to try to secure food at a reasonable price to meet the needs of the school.  At times, this has been very challenging.  Fr. Henri worked with a family who lost their father and husband and have a son named Gabriel.  He was able to get Gabriel into the school and he has helped other students learn to grow tomatoes.  There is a need for much more.  One donor has agreed to supply the funds for a section of land.  The next goal would be to put a well on it to assist with irrigating crops and assist students with more food during the year beyond the bare minimum.  They would also hire a farmer for the main duties of the farm and train students to farm also.  The area historically were ranchers who raised cattle which still occurs.  Today crops like potatoes, tomatoes, sugar cane, vanilla and other crops flourish in the region, but there have been droughts seasonally which is why deep-water wells with tanks to hold water for irrigation is required.

The other projects have more to do with the basic needs of the school; 1) complete the library, and 2) purchase lab chemicals and tools, 3) textbooks along with agricultural tools and 4) more computers and solar to meet the new Ugandan government mandates to maintain and operate the school put in place in 2022 and 2024.  In America schools receive government funding for some of this.  In Uganda, a Catholic private school must provide all of this and adhere to any new regulations the government mandates. Another donor has provided $10,000 toward more computers for 2025 which will help with the new government mandates.  Your donations will help assist with this.  Thanks to everyone who contributes to assist students and families to a better future!

We hope you might consider helping this school to show your support for our brothers and sisters in Uganda with both your prayers for them and financial support.  Fr. Henri Agit, the twinning ministry in Uganda and the parents want all of you to know how grateful they are for what has been done so far.  They tell us they pray for everyone here constantly.  Pray and consider what you can do to help with these priorities.