The Assistant Priest who joined the team serving Ross, Walford, and Brampton Abbotts, Rev Canon Marvin Bamforth is also a long term supporter of an education programme in Uganda. He is co-ordinator of the Kinkiizi Scholarship Programme and recently spent a month in Uganda checking that the money the charity raises is being used to help youngsters access education.

He has seen at first hand the benefits of training young people to earn their own living, as they in turn take on the responsibility of funding education for others. However, this year Reverend Bamforth is aware that there is a problem for some of the students whose families are finding it difficult to maintain the funding necessary to complete their training. He is hoping that there may be some residents in Ross, especially those who have an understanding of the situation in Uganda, who may come forward to support the charity.

In 2004 Marvin, and his wife, Sue, were invited to Kinkiizi Diocese – in the remote and rural south-west of Uganda, near the border with Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. They were asked to help raise funds and awareness for a project to help Ugandan orphans, and especially girls, to carry on their education after primary school. The aim of the charity is to help young people access education, and especially skill-based training, so that they can become self-supporting. The Bamforth’s accepted the challenge as they felt this would be a practical expression of their Christian beliefs.

Reverend Bamforth told the Ross Gazette that thanks to the generosity of more than 50 supporters from seven countries around the world they raise between £40-50,000 a year. They fund their own regular visits to Uganda to check on the running of the programme, to meet sponsored students, staff, parents, and guardians, and generally to make sure the donated funds are being used for their intended purpose. The charity sponsors students and pays 50% of their school fees. Every sponsored student has to work out how to pay the other 50%.

Rev Bamford has recently returned from his latest successful visit. He told the Ross Gazette that he found arriving home to the hype and over-the-top commercialisation of Christmas hard to cope with.

He said: “Those of us whose home is England do not realise how fortunate and blessed we really are. For example, I had to travel on roads that don’t merit the name; I had to make sure I drank only bought bottled water (with a still sealed cap); I visited a Health Centre for treatment of a skin infection and had to queue with local people who had all manner of illnesses; the electricity supply was at times intermittent and many people had died of starvation last spring when the rains failed. If I had to cope with these challenges I doubt I would survive – but local Ugandans keep going, are happy, and always have a smiling face with a gentle word of welcome – and said to me many times, ‘Thank you for coming to visit us and remembering us once again.’”

After nearly 14 years of co-ordinating this project, the Bamforths are now seeing more and more young people become employed and able to help their younger siblings. The Ugandan government has taken up this cause – ‘Skilling Uganda’ which is very humbling and inspiring.

In 2016 the education charity began supporting 15 young people (with a 50% grant) to train to be nurses and midwives at Bwindi Nursing School. Unfortunately many of these young people are orphans and nearly all of them are from homes and families which are struggling to pay the training fees. Rev Bamforth knows that these trainees will not finish their course without some help from the wider world. So he has set himself a new challenge to raise an extra £20,000 in 2018-19. If anyone would like to know more about the project or how to help with training nurses and midwives please contact Rev Canon Marvin and Mrs Sue Bamforth, The Rectory, Ross Road, Brampton Abbotts, Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire, via email: [email protected] or telephone 01989 562305.