A MORAY FIRM has moved to assist a project run by a Forres woman that seeks to support education in Africa.
Help for a Ugandan school has come from local garden centre Mackenzie and Cruickshank, who gifted dozens of unused staff uniforms to the Uganda ‘Aid Person to Person’ project run by Marlyn Somers.
Marlyn set up Uganda Aid Person to Person with the aim of building a school in Bunono in the Kabale area, in the south west of Uganda. In January, the project celebrated its 10th birthday and she was delighted to celebrate by travelling over to the school with the donation.
She said: “Heather and Peter from Mackenzie and Cruickshank have supported the project over the years and they contacted me to see if there was anything I could do with the old uniforms.
“I knew instantly that the teachers at the school would be delighted to have them as uniforms. We got the school logo made up, got them sewn on and took them over. The pupils have their own uniforms, but the teachers had nothing. They were delighted – over the moon as they have never had anything like this before.”
Marlyn decided to set up the charity after visiting the area 10 years ago when she came across the school and wanted to help. She explained: “It was just a series of mud huts and I decided I wanted to do something to give them something more substantial.
“Over the years, we have held various fundraising events and eventually we had enough to build a proper school and accommodation. We have a lot of orphans so having the accommodation was important. We are so grateful for all local support many generous donations, some small and some large throughout the years, and this latest help from Peter and Heather has been fantastic.”
Peter Wilson said that over the years his firm had been delighted to support Uganda Air Person to Person, adding: “We have donated aprons, suitcases to transport the donations and we also gave some money to plaster one of the classrooms.
“I think the work that Marlyn does is fantastic – our daughter went out there to work in the school and it’s important for us to remain involved.”