Ugandablog

Help Fr. Antonios Educate Ugandan Children May 11, 2010

Dear Friends,

I mentioned in my previous article my trip to Fr. Antonios’ village church (St. Antonios) and the monastery, school and clinic attached to it. It was one of the most inspiring parts of my  entire trip. Fr. Antonios is a man of vision, honesty and diligence and what he has been able to accomplish in a few years in the Ugandan countryside is truly amazing. Not only does he have what I was told was the most beautiful Orthodox church in all Uganda, he has also built on the property the only Orthodox monastery in the entire country, a primary and secondary boarding school of exceptional quality and care, and he is currently working on finishing a clinic which will give people in the surrounding area access to basic medical treatment and medicine. When I was visiting the complex of St. Antonios Fr. Antonios showed me around his lovely school facilities. He showed me an entire wall of empty shelves and said, “this will be our library if we can get books.” “What kind of books do you need?” I asked him. “Any books, fiction, text books, spiritual books (in English), for the children to read.” He replied. He also told me that he would dearly love to have an English speaking person come and teach English in his school for a term. Someone who doesn’t speak Luganda, the local language.

I am writing to make this need known to you and ask for your help. Since Ugandan’s go to school through the summer an adventurous and fortunate student could spend a summer there making a difference in the lives of Ugandan children. I raised the money for my trip and planned it on my own so it can be done and I will always be glad I made the effort. It would be worth the time and money spent to have the privilege of serving these wonderful children experiencing their life. I hope some brave soul would be interested in doing this. Even if most of us can’t go to Uganda for the summer we can collect books that would be appropriate for Ugandan children to read, keeping in mind that Ugandan culture is very traditional and books with risque or profane content would not be helpful or welcome. If you are interested in going to Uganda to teach English to Ugandan children or have books (especially high quality literature and Orthodox books) and would like to send them as a gift to those children in need or can help with the cost of mailing and customs please send me an email at brantleycox [at] gmail [dot] com. In any case please pray for Fr. Antonios and the work that he is leading, the children and parishioners he is ministering to, in his Ugandan village.