Newsletters

January 2024

What a joy to see these bright young ones flourish because of new opportunities available to them through the NMF ICT centre! These young people are being exposed to a light in ICT that will shine brighter and brighter. They may go on to become the future leaders not only in their communities but in Uganda.

December 2023

We are ending this year's newsletters with some wonderful photos of children who recently graduated from the Musoto Christian School (MCS) nursery class. They will start Primary 1 in the new academic year.

November 2023

Children in the final grade of Musoto Christian School (MCS) have just taken their end of year Primary School exams. Unlike SATs in the UK, these exams can actually determine if a child is able to continue into secondary education so they’re really important. We wish them all good luck with their results!

October 2023

The photo above is of the first set of graduates from the new IT Centre who have all completed the Certificate Course. And it's not just the graduates who are thankful for the new IT Centre. The children at Musoto Christian School wrote a poem to share their thoughts and gratitude.

September 2023

Dear Friends of Spotlight on Africa,

We are writing to inform you of the sad news that Jean Lale has passed away aged 95. Jean was one of the founders of the charity back in 2006, and helped to provide the vision for what has turned out to be an amazing charity delivering life-changing projects in Uganda.

August 2023

The Information, Communication and Technology Centre is up and running! 34 computers and a projector were set up as soon as they arrived so that the training could begin, with teachers from Musoto Christian School (MCS) becoming the first beneficiaries when they attended a typing lesson.

We're really excited to share this news with you - we have a new website! It was created by the Marketing Agency Strattons who gave their services for free as part of their corporate social responsibility programme. We are so thankful, as it must have involved hundreds of hours. Please have a look round the website as there is so much to explore.

June 2023

We were delighted to hear this month that Mazars Charitable Trust has kindly agreed to make a grant to enable our community maternal healthcare programme to be funded over the next 2 years. This new funding replaces the UK-Aid funding that had kept this vital outreach programme going over the last 2 years. Thank you to the trustees of the Mazars Charitable Trust, and to our supporter Jerome Brice for recommending us!

May 2023

Philip Lee Harvey is an award-winning Film Maker and Photographer and Spotlight on Africa Trustee. He has been on several self-funded trips to Uganda to visit our projects and taken incredible footage for us to share with you. In this newsletter, he shares some of the personal stories of the people he met there.

April 2023

Our Chairman, Hefin Rees KC, and trustees Dr Bethan Rees and Wendy Howson met up this month with the Ugandan High Commissioner to the UK, Her Excellency Nimisha Mahdvani, at the Ugandan Embassy in London. Her Excellency was very supportive of all the Spotlight on Africa projects in Uganda, in particular the Maternity Centre, the Secondary School, and the new IT Centre that we are building.

March 2023

We now have 3 construction sites up and running in Mbale! Progress on them all has been incredible this month and we have some brilliant photos to share with you showing their development.

February 2023

Construction is well underway on the Namatala Secondary School Campus. It has been an extraordinary team effort to get to this point, with contributions from many people. Despite the challenges along the way, this exciting project is now a reality.

January 2023

Happy new year to all our wonderful supporters! We are really excited for 2023, with so many amazing projects in the pipeline. Construction is well underway on the new IT Centre and work on the Administration Building for the Namatala Secondary School starts next week!

January 2023

Thank you to everyone who donated during the Big Give Challenge. We smashed our target - your generosity will make a huge difference to keeping the Community Health Promoter programme fully going in 2023.

December 2022

Thanks to your incredible generosity, we hit the target for this year’s Christmas Appeal and raised an amazing £17,185! Thank you so much. This will ensure that the Community Health Promoter (CHP) Programme can continue throughout 2023, providing essential healthcare in impoverished areas with high infant and maternal mortality. It really will save the lives of mothers and children in these communities.

November 2022

Our Health Clinic, Maternity Centre and 250 Community Health Promotors (CHPs) provide the only healthcare in the area where we work. Every day they save lives by minimising the spread of disease through health education, increasing immunisations against preventable diseases and reducing the high infant & maternal mortality rate through better maternal care.

October 2022

We are immensely proud to share the news that our Maternity Centre has been officially opened! This health facility is desperately needed in the Bukasakya community where we work, as this area has some of the highest maternal and neo-natal death rates (MMR and NMR) in the world.

September 2022

Our heartfelt thanks go out to everyone that donated towards our emergency appeal following the devastating floods in Mbale. Your incredible generosity meant that we hit our £10,000 target, enabling us to respond immediately to help these communities in desperate need after their homes and livelihoods were destroyed.

July - August 2022

The Worst Flooding in Mbale's History

Many of you will have seen press articles such as the one below from The Guardian, reporting on the deadly floods in Uganda that have taken many lives.

June 2022

The Girls Dormitory at Musoto Christian School is really taking shape. The foundations have been finished, so work has progressed to building the walls, ready for the roof construction that will start in the next few weeks…

May 2022

This is Esther, one of the pupils on our Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) programme. Esther lost her mother in 2016 when she was just 9 years old. She left behind 5 children; Esther's older sister who was ten, her younger brother who was seven, her little sister who was four and a one month old baby.

April 2022

This month's newsletter starts with some very happy faces of Musoto Christian School pupils on our Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) scheme receiving exercise books, pens, pencils and a solar powered torch. All 120 children on the programme were given these vital supplies to help them study, as their families cannot afford to buy the items for them.

March 2022

Some of our volunteers have just returned from a busy trip to Uganda where they visited a number of projects. The team of eight included HSoA Chair Hefin Rees and his son Josh; HSoA Trustee Will Treasure and his wife Gillian; Nick Maughan; Joshua Peasley and Cassie Li from Caukin Studio; and award-winning photographer Philip Lee Harvey, a local Harpenden resident and supporter of HSoA who is giving us his professional time for free.

February 2022

After nearly 2 years away due to the COVID pandemic, students at Musoto Christian School (MCS) have finally returned, with over 900 pupils attending on the first day. There was a wonderful buzz on site, caused by the excitement of the children to be back. They got straight back into the routine of school life and settled down quickly to start their class work, showing their eagerness to learn.

January 2022

Many of you will know that building a secondary school has been a dream of ours for some time, so that pupils from Musoto Christian School (MCS) can continue their education when they graduate from primary school. Sadly, right now, poor access to secondary education and prohibitive fees means that TWO THIRDS of all children in Uganda do not continue through to secondary education. We bought a 7-acre site in Namatala, to the west of Mbale, many years ago in the hope that one day this dream would be a reality and we are absolutely thrilled to report that having secured some initial funding from the Nick Maughan Foundation, we are finally able to begin construction!

January 2022

A huge THANK YOU to everyone who donated via the Big Give website and supported our Christmas 2021 Appeal.

We are delighted to report that we reached our target of £11,500 which will be doubled and go towards funding our Health Clinic and team of Community Health Promoters. Your generosity will provide health education, clean water, increase immunisation coverage and maternal care in an impoverished area in Uganda with high infant and maternal mortality.

December 2021

Some of you may remember Ruth, one of our Community Health Promoters, who featured in a beautiful film last year that was produced by Spotlight on Africa supporter Philip Lee Harvey. Well the film is now up for an award!

November 2021

Donations made towards the Christmas Appeal for our Healthcare Project during the next 7 days will be doubled until midday on the 7th December - making every donation worth worth twice as much as its original value!

October 2021

Amazing progress is being made on the new Maternity Centre construction works. The photos below show how the building looked 2 weeks ago, compared to the photo above that shows how it is now! Such a difference in just a few weeks. The local Mbale contractors are working really hard to complete this phase of the project so that they are ready for the next stage - adding a roof!

September 2021

After years in the planning, we are delighted to share the news that the construction of our new Maternity Centre is underway! Those of you that have been following Spotlight's journey will know that this has been a dream of ours for some time as in the Bukasakya community where we work, maternal and neo-natal death rates are amongst the highest in the world. Now, thanks to our generous donors, the Maternity Centre is a reality and will provide a much-needed health facility to reduce this tragic loss of life.

September 2021

Thank you to everyone who came along to our stall at Classics on the Common last week.

We were absolutely delighted to have been chosen by Harpenden Village Rotary Club as one of the beneficiaries of this years 'Classics on the Common'.

August 2021

With Climate Change on everyone's minds and an increased awareness on how we can all protect the environment, our latest project is something we are particularly proud of; an Eco-House. It has been built on the 7-acres of land in Namatala where we hope to one day build a secondary school. And has attracted a huge level of interest from other locals who also want to learn how they can construct similar houses that are both environmentally friendly and cheap to build.

July 2021

Last month we launched a Covid-19 Emergency Appeal to help support vulnerable children and their families throughout the lockdown in Uganda; families and children that without the appeal, could have gone for days without eating. But thanks to your donations, we have been able to set up an emergency food distribution point at Musoto Christian School whilst it remains closed. Food packages that will last for 42 days were given to all 120 orphans and vulnerable children on our OVC programme and another 97 children outside Musoto that the Mbale COVID-19 task force identified and asked Spotlight on Africa to help.

Abseil 2021 - 16th October 2021

Join us for our 2021 Abseil Fundraising Extravaganza.

Form a team to abseil down St Nicholas Church Tower (8 teams available) and help us raise money to bring our new Maternity Clinic to fruition.

Saturday 16th October 2021 (10:00 – 16:00 hrs)

St Nicholas Church, Church Green, Harpenden AL5 2TP

Open to teams of four people – can be business colleagues or friends

With a minimum team sponsorship of £2,000 the cost of the Abseil is met.

Harpenden Spotlight in Africa (HSoA) is transforming the lives of some of the poorest people in Africa with a focus towards long term sustainable impact.

Our latest project is to build a Maternity Centre in Mbale, Uganda where the mortality rate is one of the worst in the world (36x higher than UK). This is estimated to cost £185,000.

Please contact andrewhorne@hsoa.org.uk or neilmargerson@hsoa.org.uk by email for further information on www.hsoa.org.uk or 01582 461792.

July 2021

Thank you to everyone who drummed, baked or joined us at our first Garden Tea Party.

The garden looked superb and there certainly was a buzzing atmosphere of happy supporters, lively drummers (Damilare and Tosin Adetayo and family, Delight, Divine and Daniel) from YWAM, a talented face-painter for the little ones, and plenty of delicious cream scones and cakes.

We were honoured to have HSOA Patron Bim Afolami MP attend as well as former Mayor Cllr Nicola Lincare and her husband Tim, and (Chair) Bethan and (Patron) Hefin Rees who gave great support.

The raffle caused a stir as Bim was on top form, and he also conducted an impromptu auction for an illustrated sweatshirt and eggs from 'rescue hens' from Sarah Grace who is donating all sales from her rescue hens' eggs to the OVC programme.

About 70 people enjoyed cream teas in the beautiful garden in rain-free weather, and an amount of £2,248 has been raised so far with a promise of more to come.

Our hosts Mark & Sarah Vickers worked tirelessly - as did the Events team and we are most grateful too to other wonderful helpers from HSOA.

June 2021

We are thrilled to have been selected to benefit from a UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) Small Charities Challenge Fund (SCCF) project grant.

HSoA was chosen along with 13 other UK-registered, grassroots charities and our SCCF project aims to increase immunisation coverage and health education and to improve maternal care in Bukasakya sub-county in Uganda.

SCCF grants are given to improve the lives of the most vulnerable and marginalised. They are designed to support projects of up to two years duration, working to address the Global Goals (also known as Sustainable Development Goals). These goals have the power to create a better world by 2030, by ending poverty, fighting inequality and addressing the urgency of climate change. Guided by the goals, it is now up to all of us, governments, businesses, civil society and the general public to work together to build a better future for everyone.

Thank you to everyone who helped secure this grant and we look forward to keeping you updated on our progress!

June 2021

The Uganda Medical Association is currently reporting week-on-week increases in new Covid-19 cases. And the WHO has warned of a third wave pandemic across Africa, where vaccination rates are lower than 10%. This has led to the sudden lockdown of Uganda for a second time and it will have a devastating impact on orphans and vulnerable children like Moses.

May 2021

We are finally able to invite you to some fundraising events! We really hope you will be able to join us.

The first event is a Garden Tea Party on Sunday 25th July

Come and enjoy a traditional English cream tea blended with a touch of Uganda.

Those of you who were unable to join us live for the virtual East Africa Health Summit may like to watch this video recording of the event. It is split into 3 sections and centres around discussions on how to reduce the Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR):

The first section is all about the Community Health Programme and the role it plays in reducing MMR.

The second section is a panel discussion on Public Private Partnership (PPP) with HSoA Patrons Bim Afolami MP and Hefin Rees QC, who are joined by Dr Jonathan Wangisi (District Health Officer Mbale District, Uganda) and Richard Okotel (Executive Director Spotlight on Africa Uganda Foundation).

And finally, there are three short talks about the transformational effect of IT in healthcare in sub-Saharan Africa by Dr Peter Smith (EMR4DW), Lord St John of Bletso and Professor Peter Olupot Olupot (Clinical and Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Mbale Referral Hospital)

We hope you enjoy watching the presentations East Africa Health Summit Presentation

April 2021

Watch the Video Here

Our Community Health Promoters (CHPs) continue to work tirelessly throughout the pandemic, providing vital health education and services to their communities.

This month, they all received branded facial masks and hand sanitisers as part of the UK Aid Direct project grant. These may seem fairly standard items to those of us in the UK, but they are not widely accessible to our CHPs in Mbale and are essential for their outreach work. The branded versions give them a sense of identity and pride as they carry out their work.

April 2021

Join Spotlight on Africa on 27th April 09.30-16.15 UK time to discuss the global goal challenge to reduce the maternal mortality rate in Eastern Sub-Saharan Africa, in a world challenged by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Meet distinguished guest speakers from Africa and the UK as we consider changing health-seeking behaviours in the community, strengthening healthcare systems and the role of IT in providing healthcare.

Interact with us through a chatbox for a lively debate. We look forward to meeting you.

Please click below to register:

East Africa Virtual Health Summit Registration Form

It is a great honour that we have been given 1.5 hours to speak about maternal health and we hope you can join us.

March 2021

Following our successful grant application to the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Small Charities Challenge Fund, our Community Health Promoters have been begun expanding their healthcare work to additional vulnerable communities in the Mbale District. Here they are carrying out outreach work as part of the child and maternal healthcare programme funded through the UK Aid Direct project grant.

February 2021

We are thrilled to announce that we have been selected to benefit from a UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) Small Charities Challenge Fund (SCCF) project grant through UK Aid Direct.