Whitworth family in Ugandan mission to run summer camp

A family from Whitworth spent four days helping to run a children’s summer camp in Uganda.

Peter and Carol Williams, their daughter Jade, 12, and son Peter, 10, made the trip with members of the Drumbeat Children’s Foundation, a non-profit organisation set up by Peter’s father, also called Peter.

Jade, who is in Year 8 at Whitworth Community High School where her dad is Director of English, said: “This was the first time that I had been to Uganda and I was part of a dancing group that taught the children two dances.

“My dad and brother were involved in sports; my mum did the arts and crafts and there was also first aid and workshops all run in the school where lots of the sponsored children go.

“My grandfather started Drumbeat after a boy, John, asked him if he could help pay for him to go to college and university. He started to sponsor him and that boy is now a man with children of his own. We met him and he took us to a house he had built for his grandma.

“Drumbeat offers lots of different types of sponsorship. My sponsored person is Resty, she is 15 and I got to meet her. She had had her ears pierced, but only had rice grains in the holes so my present to her was a nice pair of earrings.

 

“We send lots of letters and pictures to each other and presents. When we went to her house we were given a woven mat as a present and a brush that had been made with the left-over pieces from the mat.

“When we were about to leave, Resty came to my hotel and gave me a sugar cane, it was nothing like sugar that we know.”

Fellow Whitworth student Troy Swanick completed a duathlon and raised more than £200, which he donated to the organisation and that money ensured children on the camp were fed, it provided resources and paid for interpreters.

A group of around 16 people from all over the UK ran the camp. They took with them children’s clothing, pens and pencils to distribute.

Whitworth Community High School supported the work in Uganda and so far £260 has been raised through various events with more planned this term.

Jade said: “When I was served a meal, it felt wrong not to eat everything that was on my plate, even when I didn’t like it. I felt guilty if I didn’t finish my food.

“In two years we will be going back again. It made me value what we have.”

To find out more about Drumbeat Children’s Foundation visit http://drumbeatuganda.org/