Gryffe High School, Houston

Gryffe High School in Houston, which raised a fantastic £3,500 this year for SCIAF, recently welcomed Sister Rosemary Nyirumbe, Director of St Monica’s - one of SCIAF’s partner organisations in Uganda. S1 pupil Sophie Cairns reports here on the visit.

Sister Rosemary, who runs a school for former female soldiers in northern Uganda, came to our school to talk at a special SCIAF assembly. She had come over to Scotland for a few weeks, and had decided to visit Gryffe because of our fundraising for SCIAF.

The assembly began with Tommy, a volunteer from SCIAF, telling the pupils a bit of background information about the work of SCIAF around the world. Sister Rosemary then stepped forward, she was an African woman with a cheery face, “I’m so happy I get to meet you,” she said.

Sister Rosemary works at St Monica’s – a centre for former female soldiers. She told the pupils how rebels (Lords Resistance Army) from a civil war in Uganda kidnap young children and force them to become child soldiers. When the children escape they go home to find that their families are dead, or that they are rejected because they have become killers.

St Monica’s takes these girls who have been child soldiers and who have been rejected by their families and teaches them sewing, cooking, weaving and dressmaking skills.

Each year, more than 200 students graduate from the centre. After graduating, the girls can support themselves and become employed, or set up their own businesses. The centre has also set up a clinic so that they can provide treatment for diseases such as Malaria and HIV AIDS.

Sister Rosemary finished the assembly by telling us,

“SCIAF has helped me, no, you have helped me to help these people survive. So, on behalf of all the people at the centre – Afoyo Matek, which means ‘Thank you’”

Photo by Neil Scully (S1)