By Spy Uganda
It was a good moment yesterday, 16th December 2022, for Naguru Reception Centre administrators and children as they received assortment of donations from Ismaili CIVIC Community and Indian Women Association-Uganda.
Naguru Reception Centre was established in 1959 to provide residential care for abandoned, missing, abused orphaned with no relatives, children with mentally ill or disabled parents or those whose parents were in prison.
Among the goodies donated to the Centre includes, 1-18yrs clothes, toys, shoes, pads, indoor games, sports wear among very many other things.
Mr.Azhar Jaffer Chairman Ismaili CIVIC Community in Uganda said every after few months they do different charity programs including tree planting, donation drives among others aiming at uplifting lives of the disadvantaged Ugandans.
”Next week we shall be going to Arua, Lira to do more more charities and still we have more upcoming projects here in Kampala,” said Mr.Azhar.
Ms. Jasmin Halani, the In-Charge of Ismail CIVIC, Uganda, said the charity is part of their Ismaili Civic programmes they do in areas they live in. She said they believe in receiving and giving, mostly to the vulnerable communities.
Ismaili Civic is a global Initiative launched on 25th September 2021 by the Shia Ismaili community in efforts to better serve humanity and improve the quality of life of people. The initiative brings together Ismailis from around the world, all working towards efforts of civic engagement and good citizenship.
Ms. Halani said Donation Drive charity was not the first carried out this year but they had more voluntary work in areas like Entebbe where they planted trees in mayor’s garden under their fight against climate change effects that have impacted the entire world for the last many years.
She said the next phase of tree planting will be started soon and more education on tree planting and environment conversation will be offered in all areas where the projects will be carried out from.
”In addition we don’t only plant trees, but we look after trees too. We take another task of educating people in those communities the importance of tree planting and why they need to preserve the environment,” said Ms.Jasmin before adding, ”These climate change crisis you see today is a result of mismanagement of the environment we live in, so we need to respect our mother nature.”
On Donation Drive, Ms. Halani commended their partners including the Indian Women Association-Uganda, and the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) who have been massively supportive in this drive by Ismaili Civic.
”I can’t thank enough the Indian Women Association who have stood with us to carry out this activity,” said Ms. Jasmin Halani, ”We would also like to thank Acorns International school for collecting donations.”
She said the Donations Drive are annually and are always carried out between September and December as its Christmas time and they look forward to help other communities in Uganda to show their good will.
Chairperson Indian Women Association, Mrs. Falguni Patel said they partnered with Ismaili Civic this year to contribute to the well being of the needy Ugandans since their aim is assisting more vulnerable communities in Uganda.
She added, “We really appreciate for this partnership with Ismaili Civic. They are very well organized and would like to work with them in future.”
She said the Association pays school fees for Ugandan children amounting to Ugx80 million annually. The vulnerable students sponsored by this Association are from primary to secondary as well as university in different schools. The Association has since kicked off multi-million projects in Mukono at Salama Blind School.
”We are starting another project in Mukono where we are going to build two school blocks at Salama Blind School. The Project is starting on 17th December 2022 and will be concluding in January,” she said.
According to Falguni, the project will cost the Association Ugx 70 million.
She further noted that in the last month they had medical camps in western Uganda districts; Sheema and Mbarara which costed Ugx 25 million for 4 days; from 9th November to 12th November.
Under these medical camps the Association covered 2000 general check ups, 500 cervical cancer check ups, 500 prostate checkups, 500 breast cancer checkup and 100 ultrasound for pregnant women.
”We did this medical camp in partnership with the area member of parliament, Honorable Kateshumbwa Dickson. We are now planning to have a medical camp in upcountry districts and small town as there is lack of medical facilities in areas such as Mbale, Bugiri, Tororo, Kaliro,” said Mrs. Falguni.
Enjoy some pictorial evidence below: 
