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Lee McConaghie is also doing the business for UgandAid:
To support Lee in the Greater Manchester Marathon, please visit UgandAid's charity home page on JustGiving and then simply click on Lee's personal fundraising page.
Update 29th April - Brilliant!
Congratulations to the runners for completing the course in what was atrocious weather - cold and wet. Respect!!
All the guys finished inside their personal targets
Phil 3hrs 43mins; Lee 4hrs 02mins; Gary 4hrs 12mins
Total raised by them to-date is over £3600, plus gift aid.
It is still possible to sponsor them - see details above.
Introduction to UgandAid
Uganda's recent history has involved turbulent civil war, violent dictatorship and more recently HIV/AIDS, which has left over a million children orphaned.
Poverty is widespread, most people live at a subsistence level and children commonly die from malaria, measles and dehydration. Primary education is almost universally accessible, but schooling after 11 years old is beyond the means of many families.
There is little hope of employment for most poor and orphaned youngsters in Uganda, and they desperately need an opportunity to learn skills to provide for themselves as they approach adulthood.
UgandAid has two primary objectives:
To offer hope to vulnerable youngsters, the poorest of the poor, in Uganda by sponsoring vocational training (primarily at Nile Vocational Institute) or providing other life skills training leading to personal growth, confidence, employment and self-sufficiency. A life-changing opportunity for hundreds of students and their extended families.
To support NVI in the development of existing and new courses (with appropriate building infrastructure and equipment) at its Njeru campus, and work with others to improve the health and education of young people and the disadvantaged in Uganda.
How UgandAid began:
From the outset we were impressed by all aspects of the work of Nile Vocational Institute and it's excellent success rate. It seemed obvious - rather than "reinvent the wheel" we should work with this well-established Institute which had all the experience and infrastructure in place, yet had spare capacity for more students.
In 2002 we set up a sponsorship scheme to place students at NVI, where we could be confident of the quality of education and care students would receive even if we were 4000 miles away and unable to be involved on a daily basis ourselves. UgandAid has steadily grown, and now a total of 391 students have been placed at NVI through UgandAid.
We would appreciate and encourage fundraising for UgandAid through both the VirginMoneyGiving and the JustGiving websites. Please note, however, that UgandAid does receive proportionately more of all donations via VirginMoneyGiving.