ACE is a small charity based in Newmill, Cornwall, UK. We believe that education is the key to conservation and poverty eradication. We are committed to supporting rural primary education in developing countries and we are currently assisting nine primary schools in rural Uganda.

We also have a Sponsorship Scheme to fund a few of the brightest children in secondary education.

ACE has been a Registered Charity since January 2005 and its Charity Commission registration number is 1107569.

The organisation is run by a small group of trustees. No one in England draws any expenses from ACE so a very high proportion of the money collected is used for the benefit of the schools. The only expenses are a small salary for our Ugandan representative, David Epidu. He commissions and supervises all our building work at the school sites. Also there are inevitable bank charges when sums of money are transferred to Uganda.

ACE was started by schoolteacher Angela Peake in 2001. On a visit to the area she was appalled by the schools and poverty she saw and decided to try to raise money and to collect materials to assist.

She is seen here being presented with a mat made by one of the parents at Bukazi school.

At the time work on the building in the background was halted because of a lack of water to mix the cement.

Meet the ACE trustees.

Back Row (L to R): Roger Drew, Bette Drew and Joy Kell

Front Row (L to R): Vic Peake, Angela Peake and Phil Budden

Angela Peake is the ACE chairman and Bette Drew is the treasurer. Roger Drew is secretary and Joy Kell is minutes secretary. Phil Budden built and maintains this website.

Janet Pye became a trustee in August 2010.

Janet is ACE Sponsorship secretary and was a member of the party who visited the ACE schools in Uganda in February 2010.

Our main focus is communities bordering the National Parks in Uganda, where many people live a hand-to-mouth existence, yet conservation and sustainability are extremely important.

Primary education is free in Uganda but parents have to supply pencils, exercise books and uniforms. Many children have no parents because of the AIDS epidemic, so provision of everything for these children falls to relatives or elderly grandparents.

Classes often number more than 200, with one teacher and no teaching materials. Classrooms, and other buildings, can be delapidated with earth floors and holes in the roof.

There are over 5,000 pupils at the schools which ACE supports.