A LYMM woman who has worked tirelessly to help build a school and church in a small village in Uganda, while providing housing for qualified teachers and paying them, is looking for support for her new charity.
Back in 2014, long-term Lymm resident, Helen Owen, visited the small village called Namataba a few miles outside Kampala in Uganda. She came across a village school which was little more than a chalkboard and a few wooden railings.
There were no teachers, just a few mothers trying to pass on what education they had to the few children that were able to attend. All around was starvation and abject poverty.
The struggles of the Namataba people stayed in Helen’s thoughts after her return to the UK. The children needed her most, many had lost both parents and some had only one; she wanted them all to have a proper education in a proper school. She also wanted them to have at least one nutritious meal a day. It was this goal that lead to the beginnings of the Helen Margaret Owen Foundation (HMOF) as a registered charity.
Through huge efforts, mainly by herself, she has funded the building of a school, a church, provided housing for qualified teachers and paid them. She has also bought farmland to grow crops that provide food for the school and the wider community. Inadequate food, disease and death are still common occurrences in Namataba so Helen, in conjunction with the village Pastor, has developed a support system to look after the children that are left without parents or a home.
Although a lot has been done to try to raise the community above the poverty line, there is still a lot to do and of course as with anything it needs money. The Foundation still needs to finish and furnish the school and build and staff a medical centre.
Helen has taken this project from a single funded mission to a registered charity. There are already a small number of generous people who donate money on a monthly basis, but it is not enough to meet the ongoing costs of running a school. The HMOF desperately needs more people or businesses to donate each month. If you are such a person or work for or own a company that has a charity donation scheme, please consider the amazing people of this tiny village and the goals of this small but significant charity.
For more information, please see the contact details below;
FaceBook: Helen Margaret Owen
The school as Helen found it in 2014
A proud pupil showing off her excellent English
