Students Helping Students
Caledon Central students help build a school in Uganda

The Tekera Group of Caledon Central are shown here with the poinsettias they sold to raise money to build a school in Tekera, Uganda. They are from left to right; Zach Moreth, Aaron Anastacio, Rebecca Hollister, Katie Maxwell, Adam Rodrigues and Zach Fuentes.

Since September the intermediate students of Caledon Central have been raising money to help set up a community resource centre in a small village in southern Uganda called Tekera.

The suggestion for this originated with Mrs. Gowland, whose sister and brother-in-law are currently working there as part of a volunteer force. Our goal is

to raise $3,000 this school year which will be used to construct a new two-room school. Since this initiative is funded by the volunteers and other sponsors, every penny raised goes to assist the village.

The Tekera Resource Centre serves as a clinic and educational institution for about 15,000 people living in Tekera and surrounding

settlements. It provides health care and education for both children and adults. The villagers work to improve the village and are paid in a created currency called the Tekera "peso" which they can in turn use to access much- needed medical assistance.

A small school leadership group called The Tekera Group has been working

with Mrs. Gale on a variety of activities to raise money. They have created slide shows, an informative bulletin board to track the school's progress and have become pen pals with students in the existing school in Tekera. There are currently 120 students in two classrooms in the existing village school!

Mr. Daley, one of the main participants in this initiative, visited our school in November to share an inspirational multimedia presentation about the village with our students.

Since then the students have been dedicated to the cause mounting unique fund raising activities such as dances, donations, poinsettia sales and a hat buyout day. To date, the school has raised more than $1,500

which is enough to begin building the school in January.

Caledon Central appreciates all of the student and community support as we work on this humanitarian activity. If you wish to assist us in our efforts, please contact Mrs. Gale at Caledon Central Public School (519- 927-5231). For further information on Tekera please see www.ugandavillage.org.