The Hope Project is one of the charities supported by Central England Quakers using The Priory Rooms’ profits, they provide peace building skills consultancy with projects all over the world. Launched in 1994 they worked with West Midlands Quaker Peace Project in local schools. They now concentrate on improving education in the remote rural communities of Uganda, including funding towards school building, teachers and work in conflict resolution.
John Lampen of The Hope Project has written the heartwarming blog about Rebecca’s story for The Priory Rooms customers, to show how their meeting and conference room bookings help the charity.

Rebecca Biira was tilling her family land in the Rwenzori Mountains of Uganda when she detonated an insurgents’ landmine. It was 2002, and she was a bright thirteen-year-old, attending secondary school. The insurgency was coming to an end, but the district had landmine casualties for many years afterwards, and most of them were children. Rebecca was particularly unlucky as she lost both her legs.

When I met her I was with Ben Remfrey, a mines expert, whose parents sent her a Sunrise wheelchair and paid her school fees through secondary school. I often saw her on my annual visits; one small way I helped was by designing a stool for her to use as she couldn’t squat in a pit latrine, and paying to have it made.

I met her again last June. She proudly showed me her certificate as a qualified medical records clerk, now working in a local clinic. She also showed how she was still using her original wheelchair, though the tyres had almost worn away. I thought it might be possible to ask Sunrise Medical for new tyres, as the firm is only a few miles from my home. To my surprise the Sales Manager Ryan Hirst responded with the news that they had decided to give Rebecca a new chair. I thanked them but, knowing the work of the Kasese Landmines Survivors Association, I said that the old chair would not be thrown away but given to another amputee. So was there any chance of new tyres too? It seemed the wheel size had changed, so Sunrise Medical added two replacement wheels to their gift instead.

I now had the challenge of getting the new chair to Rebecca. Geoff Hill, a local appliance dealer well known for his philanthropy, provided a suitable box; and Linda Cartwright, a trustee of the firm’s charity, offered to cover the freight charges.

So I contacted DHL Express to ask the cost. Suzanne Westlake and Chris Wood from their team offered to seal the package, ship it to Uganda, take it through customs and deliver it to a depot in Mbarara, about a hundred miles from Kasese. When I asked about the price, they said they would do it for nothing; so I didn’t need to go back to the Geoff Hill Trust, but they decided to make a grant to my main work in Kasese instead. A dear friend sent me a cheque which she probably couldn’t afford, and I sent £50 of this to Rebecca so she could pay a pick-up driver to collect the wheelchair for her.

Another friend who is a wheelchair-user himself also gave me some money which has covered my petrol costs in collecting and despatching it. So I took the chair to DHL Express on December 17th. Three days later it was waiting for Rebecca to collect. She asks me to send her thanks to everyone who helped.

We are told that business is difficult at present, with little money to spare for acts of generosity; and that the run-up to Christmas is the crucial time for concentrating on trading. The story of Rebecca’s chair proves to me that there is a different kind of Christmas spirit too, and that people are glad to seize the opportunity to be kind, helpful and compassionate.

This story is not about the Hope Project’s main current work in Uganda, but it shows what can happen as a result of our visits. My travel costs are covered with the help of Central England Quakers, using funds provided by the Priory Rooms’ activities.

John Lampen, The Hope Project
http://www.johnlampen.webspace.virginmedia.com/The_Hope_Project/welcome.html