Children of Kigezi
Our charity for 2025-26
Children at Mwisi school enjoying porridge.
The charity provides milk which, added to the porridge, helps prevent Kwashiorkor (see below)
Judy Atkinson, whose parents Ruth and Bill Sinton were founder members of St Alban's Players in 1973, first met the Rukeri Batwa Community in 2009 while traveling in the Kigezi region of south western Uganda. Realising that the children were poorly nourished and lacked any form of education, she was prompted to raise funds to help when she returned to Bristol. Now, Children of Kigezi charity aims to raise enough money annually to feed nearly 1000 children at least one meal of porridge a day.
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Here are the children's stories:
The Batwa people became conservation refugees in 1995 when they were evicted by the Ugandan government from their forest homes and made homeless, to make way for the setting up of National Parks.
Funds raised in 2019 by Gurt Lush Choir concerts and other donations enabled the Virunga Masif Community School to be built for the Rukeri Batwa community, Kisoro in 2020.
To cater for basic health needs, a clinic was set up in 2021 funded by supporters from Batala Bristol. Funds pay all staff salaries, clinic medical stock and breakfast porridge and lunch for Batwa and local non- Batwa children. Just £13 funds a nurse or teacher for a week.​
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Batwa and non-Batwa children eating together to lessen discrimination
It was soon found that the students of Mwisi School, Kabale, many of them orphans, were unable to benefit from the teaching provided as they were so hungry. Attendance and morale were low. However, funds from the charity now provide a daily mug of porridge for 600 children. For many this is their only guaranteed daily meal. Grace, a teacher at Mwisi school, says: “Rampant absenteeism and dozing in the classroom are now a thing of the past thanks to the power of the porridge”
Young children also receive milk, provided by the charity, to prevent Kwashiorkor (severe malnutrition from protein deficiency, causing fluid retention, a distended abdomen, skin/hair changes, muscle loss, irritability, and a damaged immune system, typically affecting young children in food-scarce regions when weaned onto a cereal-based diet).
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Honest, one of the most starving children at Mwisi school, receiving porridge to last her through the Christmas break from school
Lake Bunyonyi Education and Development Centre School. The school is on a small island for 120 orphans, disabled & street kids. Funds provide a daily mug of porridge for the children.
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Over 900 children are now fed at least one meal of porridge a day. For many this is their only regular source of food.
Just £40 feeds all the children for a day.
Celebrating World School Milk Day
Our Contribution
'Children of Kigezi' will be the focus of our charitable giving this year. We aim to make a single donation in the summer, but we have already given the proceeds of £600 from our New Year Quiz, to help pay for the urgent need to feed the children over the Christmas break.
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If you wish to donate, you may do so at any time via JustGiving. The link is:
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https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/feedthekigezikids?utm_medium=CF&utm_source=CL
