Navigator Boosts Support For Ugandan Village -Delivers More Hope To School Children In The Country

Navigator – one of the leading suppliers to building and plumbers merchants up and down the country – has formed a relationship with a Ugandan school and village, in a very rural part of the country – in the village of Kibisi around 70 miles from the capital Kampala. The decision to support this school came about in 2020 when the owners of Navigator were invited to join a charity trip to Uganda to see the situation out there for themselves.

The small organisation that the Navigator owners went to Uganda with was called Sweden Uganda Aid or SWEDUGA – and the group quickly formed a support group and decided to get involved. The initial support agreed upon on the trip was to donate the cost of drilling a well down 80 metres underground and installing a solar panel to provide the electricity required to pump the water up to ground level and in particular to the kitchen in the school. The provision of a good meal to every child in the school was one of the key aims – for many of them the only meal they would see in a day.

Luckily the water supply from the new well is producing far more water than the school needs so many of the families in the village have been allowed to benefit from the water from the well, reducing the number and amount of trips the children have to make to the nearest water sources outside the village. Some of the individuals on the trip donated enough to build some rudimentary but efficient school buildings so the children had classrooms to go to, to receive their education. At this stage the team from Navigator decided to support the school financially. There was a small cost to the families for sending their children to the school but despite the small amount needed many families could not afford to pay anything towards their children’s education.

Navigator decided to pay the teachers salaries and the salaries of other members of staff as well. Without this generous gesture there would be no teachers, no school and 200 or more children’s dream of an education would vanish. Navigator has kept closely in touch with the village and the school and recently supplied proper football kits and boots, allowing them to participate in school tournaments in the area for the first time. Until now, the lack of appropriate footwear had prevented the children from joining competitive games – a barrier that has now been removed.

The new kits have brought not only practical benefits but a sense of pride and inclusion that is so important.  Navigator’s new Chairman Andrew Smith says the whole group at Navigator is behind the support being given: “Everyone working for Navigator is behind the work we do to support the school and the village in Uganda and we share regular updates with our staff so they know from month to month what is happening and how our donations are keeping the school ticking over and the levels of education high in the village school. The football kits are a very visible sign of that support and are part of helping the children to thrive not just academically but socially and emotionally.”

For more information on the wide range of products available from Navigator head for any good merchant or to www.navigatormsl.com, email sales@navigatormsl.com or call 01234 781234.