North Devon Journal Editor Andy Cooper' report on visit to Amigos' Kira Farm in Uganda

North Devon charity Amigos has marked the tenth anniversary of its formation with a series of special events in Uganda , where it puts the thousands of pounds raised by supporters each year to good use.

Journal Editor Andy Cooper recently spent a week with the charity in the African country, seeing how the money is spent and witnessing first hand the way in which the charity is changing lives for the better.

Somewhere high on a hillside just outside Kampala there stands a little corner of North Devon .

A seemingly strange statement to make when comparing the landscape of a beautiful but unforgiving African country with home, but that's before one dwells on the difference the people of North Devon have made to the small but significant community living in and around Kira Farm.

Because only when you witness close up the way in which money raised here in our own backyard has altered the course of dozens of lives do you appreciate that a little part of Africa will remain forever linked with this part of the world.

I was privileged to spend a week in Uganda with a team of visitors who wanted to discover more about what Amigos does with the money raised by its many supporters here. And after a truly life-changing experience, I can state with confidence that if you have ever donated so much as a penny to this wonderful charity then you can rest assured it was money well spent.

Led by Amigos founder Phil Pugsley, an inspirational figure who seems to grow two feet taller as he proudly shows off the work the charity is doing on the ground, Amigos is now into its eleventh year of work in Africa, with the guiding principle always rooted in Phil's ubiquitous sign-off on his e-mail messages: “For the children.”

Uganda can be a brutal place amid the stunning beauty which adds all the more to the poignancy of the subsistence living I witnessed. Poverty is rife and it is estimated that half of the population of the country lives below the international poverty line of $1.25 a day.

That makes life especially difficult for many youngsters in a society where so many are left orphaned at such a young age. The country is one of the more enlightened in Africa when it comes to the message about AIDs prevention, but you can't turn back the effects of time and it is still a chilling statistic that some 4.1% of the people are HIV positive, even if that is down from a shocking 13% in the early 1990s.

For Phil, whose first visit to Africa was 12 years ago in neighbouring Tanzania , the plight of those youngsters was not something he was prepared to forget. He formed Amigos, together with his wife Ann, and set about rallying supporters in North Devon – and now beyond – to support the cause.

“I have a simple theory when it comes to children anywhere in the world,” revealed Phil. “And that is that every child deserves the right to have food in their belly, a roof over their head, clean water and good health, education, love and safety.”

And those are the guiding principles of Amigos, which during its existence has recognised the need to be innovative and flexible in the way it helps out in Africa . That meant a decision a few years ago to pull out of support for more ‘institutionalised' assistance to orphans and to turn instead to the more vocational, practical work now being achieved at Kira.

At first just a series of verdant fields with not much in the way of buildings, the farm can now boast offices, dormitories for the girls, a school room, a kitchen, a headmistress' office and several large chicken sheds where the chicks which many people will remember stumping up to pay for in one of the charity's early fund-raising initiatives are reared before being sold on to benefit the farm.

Our visit to Uganda was timed to coincide with the official opening of Kira. Our party also included Devon pop singer Joss Stone, in Africa for a whistle stop visit just before the launch of her new album and the guest of honour at the opening ceremony. Indeed, 22-year-old Joss set the seal on a day of celebration by unveiling a plaque marking her visit.

Earlier, she had spent time touring the farm's facilities, chatting with the girls and staff – and even finding the time to catch up with two youngsters from a local community who she personally sponsors, an area of Amigos' work that is growing in popularity.

And when one learns that for the cost of a pencil or a few pennies a day in school fees, a child can be educated, and then it is obvious why such sponsorship becomes a popular option. Education is THE key to Uganda's future, in my opinion, and so to support more children through school will show the greatest long term benefit to a country which has all the natural resources and more to become a powerhouse of the region – but does need a helping hand from more affluent nations to get the ball rolling.

And if that smacks of colonialism then it wasn't meant that way. The Ugandans are a fiercely proud and independent people. Their determination and fortitude in the face of overwhelming challenges takes the breath away. Many will probably never know anything other than abject poverty in their lives. Yet if Amigos and its small but significant differences could be multiplied across the country then so much positive change could be achieved.

Joss Stone was the Pied Piper of the visit, trailed everywhere by the girls from Kira and also children from the local communities, fascinated to learn more about the special visit from these ‘ Mzungu ' (the local, affectionate, purely descriptive term for ‘white man') who had landed in their midst.

“What you guys are doing is amazing,” Joss told them as she joined Phil to cut a cake to mark the opening. “Just keep on being who you are and doing all this good stuff because you are all just so inspirational.”

Sprawling over 22.5 acres at the end of a bumpy dirt track a few miles outside the capital city, Kira is a truly inspirational place. From the humble beginnings of a few fields, the barest evidence of a water supply and some farm land which boasted lush growing conditions but very little in the way of proper farm management, Phil and his team have fashioned an iconic facility.

The rationale behind Kira is to provide a place of sanctuary for AIDs orphans, whose fate back home in their villages often doesn't bear thinking about once they lose their parents. At the beginning of May Amigos gave 18 pioneer disadvantaged students the chance to stay at the farm and be educated, not only in traditional ‘school' skills, but also on topics like farming, cookery, business and personal development.

The intention is that the girls then eventually return to their villages, armed with their new skills – and hopefully a lot more confidence in themselves – to lead fuller, more rounded lives and to pass on their knowledge to those around them.

It was clear from our visit that the project has already been a phenomenal success. Smart, polite, bright and confident, the girls' demeanour no doubt hid the stories behind why they had found themselves at Kira, but that is to the credit of the local Amigos team and their caring, ordered philosophy. They truly are a second, new family to these girls - whose futures can be concentrated on with a more positive outlook.

From the moment our party arrived at the farm to be greeted by the girls smartly dressed in their school uniforms, singing a traditional African welcome song, it was clear that Kira is a place of happiness and love.

The girls were proud to show off their handiwork and the skills they had learned and the soundtrack to the day was definitely a lot of laughter!

As Phil pointed out, not only do the girls benefit directly from the ‘Kira effect' so does the neighbouring community: an additional water pipe has been set up just outside the gates of the farm, solely for the use of nearby villagers, thus reducing the time that these locals have to spend on the ubiquitous trek with containers to stock up on one of life's staples. A sobering thought for anyone the next time the bill from South West Water lands and we have the ritual grumble.

And Kira is becoming a beacon for others in the local community too. Given its successes with crops and farming techniques, plus how to manage a smallholding, locals from the nearby village are now regularly making the trek to the farm to pick up knowledge and take it back to their own land.

“We have farmers now coming to ask us how we can get so many beans off a plant and then when they learn how we do it through good farming techniques they are amazed and able to apply that to their own work,” explained Phil.

Phil is not standing still with plans either. Fresh from the success of the farms' first intake of orphans, the plan is now to have 32 residential students next year with a further eight day visitors from local communities.

“The need is so pressing that we want to expand what we do to take in more students as we feel we have the structure and the resources to do that,” he explained. “It is a ‘step up' from the numbers we have already but there is a confidence about the place that we can achieve this.

“And the more girls we can help the more help there will be back in their communities. It's been a novel experiment for us and we wanted to see how it worked but the signs are that it's been a real success and we want to develop it further.”

And that's the key to Amigos' work. There are no quick fixes or projects which are not sustainable. Ugandans themselves are at the forefront of making the difference: their local knowledge and expertise is vital to ensure the precious money raised for the charity is not wasted.

But the work never stops, the demand for help never changes and the need for progress doesn't alter and so Amigos will remain forever in need of support from people here if it is to continue to try and make a difference in one of the continent's poorest countries – and ensure that little corner of North Devon shines out like a beacon in the Ugandan countryside.

The Kira Farm complex on the outskirts of Kampala is the centrepiece of charity Amigos' work in Uganda – but it is by no means the only way in which it spends its money in the country.

If Kira Farm is the beacon of Amigos' efforts in Uganda , then in the far north of the country its work is still shining light into areas of darkness.

Away from the hustle and bustle of the capital city, Kampala lies a very different Uganda . The poverty is still stark and the need for fresh water, shelter and food still exists, but the difference here is that many of the people here at least have some land that could help to change their lives. It seems only, however, with the help of charities such as Amigos that real change can be achieved.

Phil Pugsley, founder of Amigos explained: “For a child in Kampala they literally can have nothing, but a child in the country, while poor, does at least have some land around them which they can grow crops on to support themselves.”

The key, however, is for those children to have the resources, both in terms of financial support and knowledge, to capitalise on their situation. With its targeted assistance for communities, through its grants and child sponsorship programme, Amigos aims to spend its money wisely.

As part of my visit to Uganda with Amigos, I travelled 130 miles north to the region near the town of Masindi , where the charity is helping in some of the most deprived areas of the country.

The beauty of the landscape, with its lush green fields and a stunning backdrop of the mountains on the Uganda/Congo border, contrasts sharply with the scenes of heart-breaking poverty I witnessed in some of the communities to the north.

Children with no shoes and sporting whatever clothes best fitted them emerged from mud huts to greet us as we drove into their communities. In one remote spot, a refugee camp for refugees had been in situ for 20 years, meaning it wasn't so much a holding camp as a permanent community, with a new generation of children being born there and knowing nothing else.

It is that ‘knowing nothing else' which seems the pivotal point about Uganda – and other similarly deprived parts of Africa – and that means education is so pivotal if the country is to capitalise on the enormous potential it has.

We visited schools while we were in the country and it was a pleasure and a privilege to see how keen the children were to learn. But education comes at a real cost in Uganda as it costs a child a few pennies a day to attend. A small price to pay in the UK , but with half the country in Uganda living below the UN's accepted poverty line, it isn't always easy to fund a child's place at school.

“Sometimes it's just for the lack of a pencil that a child cannot go to school,” revealed Phil. “It costs them a few pennies to attend but, of course, sometimes those pennies simply aren't there any more and that's why there can be dropouts and children no longer attend.”

Amigos is seeking to change this through its child sponsorship programme, a key element to its fund-raising programme. To give a primary child an education costs £14 each month, to fund a secondary child's education is £16 per month and the donor has the added benefit of being able to track their sponsored child's progress and hear details of how their money is being put to good use.

“It's becoming an increasingly popular way for people to support Amigos,” said Phil. “As well as the opportunity to sponsor children we also have our programme to sponsor the teachers at Kira Farm, whose work is so vital if we are to continue the development of the girls there.

“This is especially important as we look to develop Kira Farm yet further and expand the number of orphans we can take in.”

It's clear that the work Amigos has undertaken so far in Uganda has created a step change for those affected. But it could do so much more and, indeed, Phil has big plans to expand and improve the work. But it will need extra funds to pay for this.

There are so many ways open to the people of North Devon to support their very own ‘beacon of hope' charity that it would be hard to list them here, but looming are a Girls Christmas Night Out fashion event at the Barnstaple Hotel on November 26 and the sale of highly-regarded and popular Amigos Christmas cards, which are now available. There will also be a sale of African goods and gifts at the forthcoming Big Sheep Farmers' Markets.

Phil Pugsley carries with him a ‘shopping list' of seemingly everyday items that he is desperate to get his hands on to further Amigos' work.

He explained: “It's the case that many of the things we would think nothing of throwing out here in the West could still be put to good use by the Ugandans.

“I wanted to make an appeal to anyone locally who has any of the key items we are looking for and no longer has a need for them to get in touch and donate to us.”

Amigos is busy trying to find some special items to fill a container funded by local Rotary Clubs which will be sent out to Africa later this year.

Phil's list includes: a Janome 11000 sewing and embroidery machine, heavy duty Singer sewing machines, mobile phones, laptop computers, cake making and decorating equipment, cake stands, materials and equipment for soap making, catering utensils, high quality family tents, hairdressing, manicure and pedicure equipment, a small chicken egg incubator, power washers and a cement mixer.

If you think you can help then contact Phil on 07967-822464 to discuss this with him.

One of the key backers of Amigos' work has been the network of Rotary Clubs in the region, led by the efforts of the Ilfracombe Club. Ilfracombe Rotarian Nigel Vince explained: “So far we have raised £60,550 for Amigos and this has funded items like a minibus, bore hole and fittings, solar panel pump and beds, bedding and mosquito nets.

“From my recent visit to the country I'd say we are seeing a multiplication of investment return of 10 to 20 fold on the funds Rotary has given to Kira. So the whole project has been stunningly successful.”

You can find out more about the work of Amigos' and how to support the charity by regularly logging onto this website or by telephoning 01271-377664 on Thursdays when volunteers man the charity's phoneline.

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