ACE has made great progress with classroom building during the past few years. Because the need for buildings is so great, it is often necessary to start on the next project before the previous one is properly furnished.

The picture on the right shows the lack of desks in a new classroom we have built at Bukazi school.

So, we are appealing to you to donate desks for our classrooms. A double desk like these, made by our local carpenter costs just £23 on average. (The price varies a little for different schools because some are remoter than others, so transport costs are higher.)

How about giving someone a desk in one of our schools as a present?

You can click on the DONATE NOW button and make your gift.

Then send an e-mail by clicking here to tell us who you are and whose name you would like on the plaque.

This is what we want all our classrooms to look like.

This classroom full of desks is at Mukibugu Primary School.

Children can't study properly if they have to sit on the floor.

"On 24th September 2008, 20 desks were delivered to St. Joseph (Mwangi) from Entebbe using hired transport by the ACE representative in Uganda, David Epidu." This picture shows the desks being loaded.

"The desks where purchased at a total of Uganda shillings 1,500,000/= (one million and five hundred thousand shillings only) including transport to the school." This is approximately £500. They were funded with the gift from The Calleva Foundation.

These desks cost £25 each because wood is scarcer, and therefore more expensive, in northern Uganda than in the south.

"The journey took almost the whole day as it had rained and the roads where very bad. We had to struggle the whole day, but fortunately managed to reach the school without any problem.

"When we reached school we were welcomed by a large group of parents who had collected at school for a parents' meeting.

"They helped to unload the desks and carry them into the new classrooms."

We tried, for some time, to think of a cheap and easy way to mark desks with the donors' names. We wanted something that would last, but we were reluctant to divert any funds from the charity for this, as it doesn't directly benefit the schoolchildren.

Our trustee, Roger Drew, has now made these simple plaques and he completed the first batch in time for them to be taken to Uganda by Angela and Vic Peake when they visited the schools in February 2008. They have been screwed to the desks.

Roger has subsequently made more, so another batch will be sent to Uganda soon.

Here are some examples -