Despite the fact that September has given us sun and summer heat we can see the early signs of autumn. We live in a country with seasons in a cycle we see come and go. Last year we had a guest from Uganda in spring before the leaves had come on the trees. He wondered why all the trees were dead. The amazement is a good example of how we all understand the world around us based on the knowledge and experiences we have within us.

With this in mind, it was nice to welcome our nurse, Justine and social worker, Robert, to Bergen in the middle of August. It was ten intense and exciting days! Their program aimed to be professionally interesting for them, get them familiar with our work here in Norway, and that we had an opportunity to discuss further work on Nyenga. Thanks to everyone who helped make their stay so filled with impressions from a wide range – health care, social work, school and normal family life. Their reflection was that we must love our country since we speak so warmly about it and take good care of it. “It is so clean and organized.”

At Nyenga life is back to normal after school holidays were over in late August. Everyday miracles happen all the time: One of the pigs got seven piglets and we expect more in the near future; a gecko shorted our electrical system our (grrrr); when the solar panel collects sun as it should and we have power which pumps the water to the tank at Nygenga Children’s home. It is wonderful when everything works as it should! Joseph will take the final primary school exams in November, and dreams of taking high school at a boarding school like Big-Bena does. Sara, 17 years old, who does not have the abilities to do so well academically, makes her own big, personal progress. She is entrusted with duties in connection with the distribution of food at school, a task she does with pride! Speaking of everyday wonders: the children are healthy, happy – and occasionally delightful rascals! In their spare time, they are still keen in the production of bracelets for their own Live in Peace Company. In their summer holidays in January they will have earned enough to go to the zoo in Entebbe. It’s a big happening! For this and so much more the government has given us recognition in the form of NGO certificate (operating approval) for 5 years.

It’s good to see the progress and success of our work. This year, we particularly emphasized basic literacy and numeracy training at school. We see it is effective in that several have cracked the code and have learned how to read. It has inspired us to further systematic work on skills development amongst our teachers. The Nygenda foundation has some interesting ideas which we will tell you more about when they have become more specific. As part of the realization of the UN Millenium Development Goals, the proportion of children in the world who attend school has increased sharply. Now the discussion is around the contents of the new schools. The question is whether the children are learning what they need in order to in their lives or if the level of education is so low that they would have more value to follow their parents in their work. This UN discussion reminds us that we need to have a high awareness of what we are doing.

Good conversations and feedback from guests on Nyenga helps us further, not to talk about work being done before, during and after your stay. The Nygenga Foundation is grateful to all of you who are get inspired to contribute in different ways! In the recent months, some of our guests painted the dining room, worked as a reading teachers at the school, recruited new supporters and much more. Eager Inger trained the teachers with help from Bikko Langlo at term start. The sum of many contributions is a lot of activity. Architect Rannveig is in these days finalizing the drawings to the 3rd stage of the school. Her parents, Anne Lise and Jostein Landrø, joined from the end of the month volunteers. As a retired teacher, Anne Lise will help the school (other teachers who are tempted?) And Jostein shall divide his versatile experience to amongst others monitor the school construction.

Work on the 2015 Nyenga calendar has started. If you know companies that would like to contribute by purchasing logo space we would appreciate if you could put us in contact. The Christmas market this year will be held at Kaffibrenneriet on Møhlenpris 13-14. December. We will be present with our Christmas tree sale from Thursday 12 at the same location. We hope to see many of you! Further information will be available on our website www.www.nyenga.org and facebook page Nyenga childrens home. If you “like” the page, you will receive information.

Greetings from the board,
Anne-Mette Tjønn Hansen
Anne Grete Kjørrefjord
Kathryn Bousman
Fredrik Harloff
Per Kristian Erdal