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NHSD Foundation: newsletter 1, May 2016
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Dear reader,

Congratulations! You are one of the receivers of this first newsletter of the New Hope School for the Deaf Foundation. Via this newsletter, we want to inform donors and interested parties about the most recent developments at the New Hope School.

Let us first introduce ourselves: we are Ine Aerts, Viviënne Huppertz, Douwe de Vries, Marieke Huizenga and Imme Widdershoven. We know each other via the bachelor program International Development Studies at Wageningen University. In February 2014, Ine was looking for a group of people to help her with the fundraising for her deaf school in Uganda. The others enthusiastically responded to her call, and together we have been dedicating our time to this foundation since.

For who is not yet familiar with the New Hope School for the Deaf: this deaf school in Uganda offers primary education to (at this moment 41) deaf children and youth in an environment in which access to education for these children is limited due to stigmatization and high costs for their families. The school is special because of its integrated approach to the goal to offer deaf children the opportunity to fully participate in Ugandan society. The broad mission of the school to not only educate deaf children, but also their families and the local community, adds to this goal. New Hope School for the Deaf Foundation makes this possible by supporting the school financially and by creating awareness in a broader network of people and organisations. You can find more information on our website: http://www.stichtingnhsd.org/ (unfortunately still in Dutch).

Currently we are already halfway the first trimester at the school. The children are doing well at school, but are of course looking forward to their holidays! Below we give an overview of what has happened during the past weeks at the school.

Visitation Day

The past Visitation Day (VD) was organised on Saturday March 19. During a VD, the children's parents and other family members visit them at the school. The visitors then receive a refresher course in sign language. This VD, 26 parents plus a number of brothers and sisters, came to visit. Many of them brought something nice to eat for their child, and the children danced and performed a play. The day ended with a general meeting during which the parents could voice their opinion and ideas on the developments at the school. In addition, they could share their experiences with their deaf child at home. It was a very successful day!

Students are dancing during the Visitation Day in July 2015

HIV-tests

In 2015, half of the children was tested for HIV. Because a child's parents have to formally give permission before this child can be tested, it took some time to collect the parents' signatures for the second half of the children. Luckily, they have now all been collected, which means the children can be tested at the end of this trimester. So far, only one child has been tested positively on HIV. She is now being treated with HIV drugs and is on a special diet.

Decision making

Every week, the teachers and other employees at the school come together for a meeting. This meeting concerns issues like the quality of education, the wellbeing of the children, and how the monthly budget is spent. It is an important characteristic of the school that this democratic structure is kept in the process of making both important and less important decisions.

Watch a short video about the New Hope School for the Deaf here!
New Hope School for the Deaf does not receive government support and is mainly dependent on donations. We could use your help! Every donation will benefit the school and its pupils. You can transfer money to NL74 RABO 0301 2992 50 attn Stichting New Hope School for the Deaf.

Sweet potatoes

Like in earlier years, the school rented a plot of land close to the school building, where they grow sweet potatoes. Due to their high nutritional value, these potatoes offer a welcome substitute for the daily portion of 'posho', maize flour mush. Often, this is eaten with beans and dried fish. By being partly self-sustainable in this way, the school can save on its expenses, and the children receive more healthy food!

New water tanks

Since February, the school has two new water tanks. There are now four tanks, which fill up quickly when it is raining. This means that the children do not have to go for water on rainy days, so they have more time to play! The water is cleaned and used as drinking water, to cook and clean with, and for bathing. In the future, we would like to have a larger water system with a big tank, so the children will not have to go to the water pump at all during rain season.

In the classroom

Deworming

Many Ugandan children are often plagued by worms. As a result, the children get hungry faster and cannot concentrate on their school work. Like every trimester, the children received a deworming medicin which the children love to take: it tastes just like candy.

Finally, we would like to use this newsletter to thank a few people who have helped us during the past months. First Sylvana Hooijenga and Andrea Bouw, who designed our new logo, website, and promotion material. Then Cas Widdershoven for programming our website. We are very happy with the results! Also a big thanks to Franziska Fröhlich, who supports us by translating our texts into German. And finally, of course George Penders, who unfortunately had to leave our board after two years of hard work for our foundation. Thank you very much for your dedication and good ideas the past years!

To our reader: thank you for reading this newsletter! Remarks and ideas concerning the school, the foundation or this newsletter are always very welcome. Please do not hesitate to send us a message via info@stichtingnhsd.org! You can also follow us on facebook to stay informed on the activities of our foundation.

Copyright © 2016 Stichting New Hope School for the Deaf, All rights reserved.

You can make a donation to NL74 RABO 0301 2992 attn Stichting New Hope School for the Deaf.

If you have questions, tips or suggestions, please don't hesitate to contact us! Our email address is:
info@stichtingnhsd.org

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Stichting New Hope School for the Deaf · Hoogstraat 12A · Wageningen, CT 6701BT · Netherlands

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