Our wishes for 2027

The €35 a month from a sponsorship covers primary and secondary school: fees, uniform, keep and materials. It doesn't cover the much higher fees for our apprentices and students – in Uganda, vocational training can cost as much as a university degree.

When a sponsored child is about to start training or university, we ask the sponsors whether they can raise their contribution. Many can't; they keep paying the regular amount, and we are very grateful for that. But someone has to close the gap.

Then there are orphans we haven't yet found sponsors for, whom we keep at our secondary schools up to Senior 4 or even Senior 6 because they do so well. With good results, we want to give them training or a degree too.

For some years we have put enough of the Christmas donations without a payment reference into a study fund to get through the year – every contribution helps.

For secondary schools that are badly needed, we may apply to the Bingo-Umweltstiftung Niedersachsen again and again. We hope for approval for 2027; building is to start in Lirima early in the year.

For every application, Bingo asks the applicant – that's the Freundeskreis – to pay a share. For Lirima it is set: €4,000. As the Freundeskreis has no capital of its own, we rely on donations for it.

Elisabeth will gladly send you the full applications with photos, cost estimates and building plans.

In Butiru, 19 teachers work at the nursery and primary school and 72 at the secondary school – for 2,500 pupils in all. Many come from elsewhere, but so far the schools have housing for only 14 primary and 20 secondary teachers, and there are no proper flats to rent in or around Butiru.

Eight flats have been built on the schools' land over the last three years. There is room for two more semi-detached houses with two flats each. The teachers also need their own latrine block with washrooms and a 10,000-litre rainwater tank.

Elisabeth will gladly send you the detailed cost estimates.

There are 38 women on the waiting list – widows and grandmothers caring for orphaned children and grandchildren. For €600 we build a family a new, weatherproof house and furnish it with a bed, mattress, blanket and bedding.

Six of them are shown here in front of the huts they live in today.

62 villages are still waiting to start their own microfinance group for women. Each group needs start capital of about €1,000 – the women borrow their first loans from it, and what they repay becomes the next loan.