Alongside the work of our parent company, UBM Live, with the Events for Namuwongo project and the donation to The Gorilla Organization following a fundraising in the UK, the Routes team were also delighted to get involved in another project to support an initiative at a school in the suburbs of the Ugandan capital Kampala. Ahead of the event staff collected a range of books – both new and second-hand – and other products such as footballs, pens and paper etc to deliver to the Masooli School, a project that helps underprivileged children to get a better education.

This big parcel was collected for the school by Kevin Kiganda who was absolutely delighted by the kind generosity of everyone. “I am so excited to be able to collect all these very kind gifts from the people at Routes and its parent UBM. I mentioned to the children at the school that I was coming to collect a small donation and they will be absolutely delighted to be able to read many of these books and to play with the footballs between lessons. The children’s favourite team is Manchester United and they will love Manchester even more now thanks to the kindness of everybody at Routes,” he explained to The HUB.

Kevin used to be a driver who was responsible for transporting some of the sponsors of the school to and from their hotels and this involvement led to him taking a more active role in liaising between the sponsors and the school, keeping them informed of all developments. It is a school that has a large number of children from poor communities and many do not have access to books or a uniform. The sponsors initially provided exercise books, chalks and chalkboard to aid the education of the children and built a clinic at the school to help the children get back to good health.

Subsequently many other private groups have sent their own donations. “The donations we receive make us feel so privileged,” said Kevin. “Many children would grow up illiterate without good schooling and it is important for the future of Uganda that we can give these children the opportunity to develop a career. Our sponsors plan to send many of the children on vocational courses to skill them in individual fields and I feel so happy to be involved in such a project.”

In the slideshow below you can see Kevin collecting the bags of books from Jon Howell, Tourism Development Manager, UBM Routes during Routes Africa and images of the children at Masooli School following the delivery of the package.