Club Chaplain visits Uganda

CLUB Chaplain Rev. Robert McMullan recently travelled to Uganda as part of Charlene’s Project and handed out some Coleraine goodies in the process…

Last month club chaplain Robert McMullan travelled to Uganda with his wife Christine and a number of friends. They went with Charlene’s Project, a small charity based in Dollingstown and run by life long friends Dickie and Janice Barr.

It was started by their daughter Charlene who died when she was just 20 and who wanted to ‘create better futures’ for the children she had met in Uganda who couldn’t go to school. Many children are unable to go to school in Uganda without financial sponsorship, in particular young girls. The project’s goal is to encourage them to stay at school, complete their education and become independent and a financial provider to their family, rather than be married at a very young age.

While Robert was involved in teaching conferences with local pastors, other members of the team were leading health education classes, meeting with local leaders to provide health care support to pregnant women in a country where the mortality rate is very high and meeting with the sponsor children that the project supports.

Charlene’s Project is very grateful to the Coleraine FC Club Shop for a very generous donation of kit and goodies which were passed on to the sponsor children. It took a little explanation to them of who Coleraine FC were but after Robert showed them a photo of him wearing his club jacket they began to understand – a little!

So in north west Uganda there are young Bannsiders wearing their new jackets etc with pride.