New School Uniforms!

Written August 19,2013:

Hi Sponsors! It's been a busy few weeks for our family, as our daughter Sarah was married on Saturday, and as the proud mother, I cannot resist including one tiny picture of the newlyweds! They are about to embark on a two-year volunteer stint in a rural community in Nicaragua. If you have children in school, you have probably just finished the task of getting them ready for the school year, outfitted with new school clothes and supplies. That's what SOVCO is up to this month, too. There is a long list of children whose uniforms have become quite worn, and our money this month will go to replace those uniforms. One thing you may not have thought of when supporting a child, is that your money is also going to support small local businesses like the tailors who make the uniforms for the children. And that is an important thing to do. With used clothing from developed countries flooding into Africa, tailors have found their businesses declining. But school uniforms help keep small-scale tailoring businesses alive. Most of the children have just one uniform, which gets washed once or twice a week, on Sunday. Most of the children do their washing themselves, and dry their uniform on the thatch roof of their house, like you see below. Here Aron and Gloria model the kind of state a uniform can get into after a year of that kind of treatment: And here is a fashion show of uniforms from the different schools our SOVCO kids attend: Gerald, Hamis, Reagan, Mercy, Babra and Patrick in the Koch Ongako uniform Aron and Eunice in the Kweyo uniform Paska, Scovia, Patricia, Babra, Eunice and Winnifred in the cheery yellow Bethel Gulu Christian School uniform Joseph is our only student in the beautiful purple uniform of St. Bakhita Primary School. Nancy in the uniform of St. Mary Immaculata Isabella, from Christ Church Primary School Arach Eunice in the uniform of Koch Koo Primary School Caroline in the uniform of Laminlawino Primary School Juma attends Bwobomanam Primary School Winny in the uniform of Goma Central Primary School Flavia attends Layibi Green Primary School Levi attends Lacor Primary school, in the lower level. Christopher also attends Lacor, but in a higher level. Most schools have a different but similar uniform for the different levels of school. Here you see the differnt girls uniforms for Kirombe Primary School: Trecy in nursery, Janet in primary, and Franka in high primary: So, if you think getting your kids ready for school is a lot of work, imagine getting 57 kids ready! And as always, thanks so much for your financial support in making this happen for the SOVCO kids.