County rallies for African aid

Oct 22 2009 by Debbie Hall, West Lothian Courier

BATHGATE Rotary Club, along with some local schools, were delighted to present a cheque for £2690 to the Leonard Cheshire Disability charity recently.

Throughout last year, Bathgate Rotary has worked with the schools to organise sponsored walks and other activities in raising money for the ‘Schools for All in Africa’ project, which is managed by the Leonard Cheshire Disability charity.

This charity supports 20 children's schools in Uganda, directly involved in getting disabled children

to be accepted by the schools, and being actively involved with all the pupils and the community.

The money presented has been used to specifically help the school Lupada get the amenities

and provisions needed to support disabled children.

It will also help the development of child-to-child clubs to get disabled children and able-bodied children together, as well as training of teachers and community leaders to form inclusive education committees.

More than 1000 children have disabilities at Lupada, so the money given has been of tremendous help in the ongoing drive to help these disabled children get accepted into the community and be treated like normal abled children.

Without the tremendous help and effort put in by some of the local schools in Bathgate and Armadale, this achievement would be just a dream to some of the disabled African children in the village of Lupada.

Pictured right is Rotary president Agnes Ritchie presenting the cheque to Jo Pike from Leonard Cheshire.

In the background from the left are Audrey Ford and Elizabeth White from Balbardie Primary, Lorna Lawson and Rachel Arkless from Bathgate Academy, and Elma Birrell and John Swift from Armadale Academy.