How everything started...

3 motivated students from Austria and Germany starteda support project for an orphanage (“Oasisof Life”) in February 2010 with the aim of generating sustainable,mid-term help: planning, raising funds, teaching and eventually implementingsmall-scale agricultural projects (such as  chicken farming, gardening or raising cows). Theybegan in the summer of 2010 by constructing a chicken farm in Kampala. During their stay in Uganda,the students learned that difficult situations can improve even with a small budget.

The ECo-C News Team willreport on progress from this Oasis of Life every month; further information onthe project is available on its website, http://breedingopportunities.org/. If you would like to support the project, thereis a „donations“ link there. On behalf of the Oasis of Life Team, we would liketo extend a great many thanks for any help offered!

ECo-C Europe is conveying you the following article on behalf of the Oasis Team.

Oly Otya! - And here come the latest news from Uganda - presented by the Oasis Team.

BIIIIIG chicken
We proudly present our fat and healthy chickens (more than 400 in number after 6months) that somehow seem to have decided to remain beautiful instead of beingproductive. But, one hopes, that these chicken will start laying EGGS verysoon! Actually, they could start right now! Our entire “chicken care team” dida great job in raising these beautiful chicks despite some difficulties.

Gardening
The planted seeds are growing and growing and will soon provide healthyvegetables for the kids. Yum!

Cow raising
Some generous visitors (a couple from the UK, among others) donated morechickens and even two cows/calves to Oasis of life, for which we are reallythankful! They also managed to provide them with fodder and we were able tofind a handy shelter not far from us. There is still enough room for two morecows!

School GardenProject
We started a promising collaboration with “Slow Food Uganda” to create a schoolgardening project together with Mutundwe primary school, the UPE school whichmany of the children of Oasis are attending. This project will hopefully befinanced by a small group of slow food supporters from Austria's Waldviertel. For further detailsregarding their wonderful projects see also: http://multimedia.slowfood.com/

Volunteers &Visitors
We will shortly get fresh support from three Austrian volunteers who are goingto work on-site with Oasis of Life! Their tasks will be, among others, toimprove and strengthen our organizational structure and train our personnel in administrativeand computer skills. A computer is to be donated to us, meaning that
as of next summer, our administrative practices and communication will be evenmore effective! They will furthermore, also work intensely (psychologically andphysiologically) with the children themselves. Andrea, another Austrian visitorand researcher, visited Oasis of Life twice. She started to look foropportunities to integrate Oasis within existing local support networks, managing to buy some new mosquito nets and mattresses for the children.

Challenges
The February 2011 presidential elections in Ugandain caused various conflicts in Uganda,and especially in Kampala.As a result, the already high prices tripled, leaving Oasis of Life withoutfood for several weeks. As we were waiting for further donations, the childrensuffered terribly from hunger. In addition, new children (and even a baby)joined Oasis of Life in an unforeseen and surprising manner. Finding foodsources remains a constant challenge which is far from being resolved. Wetherefore need further donations to provide us with sufficient food (and morevariety too) – at least, until earnings from the chicken and their eggs becomessubstantial enough to sustain Oasis of Life.

Finally, our call for helpwith school fees and material for handicraft enabled us to pay the fees for thefall semester, as well as earn some much needed income from crafting items. However,this semester is now over and Oasis of Life is struggling  to make the payments for the spring andsummer. Even though UPE (universal primary education) should be entirely freein Uganda,in fact it is not. The schools demand money for uniforms, books, pens, and somemore contribution for the maintenance of the school buildings from thecommunity. As we have many children in our charge, this means that ourcontribution is very high, which is why we appeal to you for help.

Thanks a lot for your support!
The Oasis Team