One Brick at a Time: CDHT launches International Skills Exchange
Chester & District Housing Trust (CDHT) has launched a special skills exchange project with Uganda. This project is being developed in partnership with Liverpool Hope University and the Mountains of the Moon University in Fort Portal, Western Uganda, as well as the Volunteer Missionary Movement, a UK and Irish based charity.
A Ugandan priest called Father Sebastian attended the launch at the Ugandan Embassy in London, where the star of West End musical Mamma Mia! Katie Brayben sang Abba’s hit “I Have a Dream”. Father Sebastian’s bricks will be used to complete the construction of a Primary School, when CDHT employees go to Uganda in June 2010.
The initial phase requires the partnership to raise funds for an endowment scheme whereby individuals, or companies, can make a direct gift to Liverpool Hope University.
The scheme is to be developed in three phases. In the first instance this involves sending students and CDHT employees to Fort Portal to complete the construction of a Primary School classroom. Fort Portal is a rural economy and small settlement in Western Uganda; a fourth generation descendant of the founder of Fort Portal, Joseph Portal, attended the London launch. Throughout the project, CDHT and Liverpool Hope University are acutely aware that whatever skills and resources are provided in Uganda, the rewards will be significant.
Speaking at the London launch, Her Excellency Joan Rwabyomere, High Commissioner for Uganda, said:
“We welcome your noble cause of launching the exchange skills project, on behalf of Liverpool and the Mountains of the Moon University in Uganda. For us as a nation we have every reason to support this noble cause. It is a top priority for our government and this launch is significant. Only when we have big ideas, do we achieve. With the dream of transforming our social services we can achieve real outcomes. This partnership is very important; when we work together we will succeed.”
Dr Martin Carey, Chief Executive of Urban Hope; a social enterprise subsidiary of Liverpool Hope University specialising in regeneration projects and John Denny, Chief Executive of CDHT have been to Uganda and visited the Mountains of the Moon University. They met visiting social enterprise projects in South Africa.
John is chairing for the fifth year the National Housing Federation Repairs & Maintenance Conference in Leicester on May 13 where Father Sebastian is also speaking.
John Denny said:
“We want the Chester workforce to team up with Uganda. We want to get as much out of this as possible and want to work with inspirational people in Uganda. We were invited to a School in Fort Portal by the Headmistress; there is a building there which was started 15 years ago. This sustainable project is about building on the back of something that is already established. Sebastian is an inspirational speaker who has built a Church by hand, one brick at a time.
“As well as providing much-needed skilled labour for this part of Western Uganda, the Fort Portal project is a chance for my colleagues to work in an enlightening environment, working way outside their normal experiences alongside local Ugandan apprentices to procure local materials to complete projects that have been identified by the schools themselves; local needs are driving this project.
“The potential benefits for colleagues and students alike are immense – and Fort Portal will be left with better school facilities that could encourage more graduates to stay and teach and in turn children to continue their own education to graduate level.”
Father Sebastian, speaking at the London launch, said:
“When I was ordained in 1998, I was appointed to the Fort Portal area of western Uganda, where the Church had been virtually destroyed by a strong earthquake. It was then that I decided to start making the bricks. People have been buying bricks from Kampala, which is almost 300 km from Fort Portal. You can imagine how much it costs to transport them. But now they have started buying from our small scale project.
“The partnership with Liverpool Hope University and Chester & District Housing Trust is very important. When we work together we will succeed. The partnership has great potential for the region. John Denny and Martin Carey understand what I am doing and many people have come to admire the project. When the school is finished, local people will realise that they can do this kind of thing themselves with the assistance of others. I am very excited that Mr Denny and Dr Carey want to work with us, to support us and support our morale, so that when they are not in Fort Portal we will be able to continue building.”
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The London launch of the Ugandan skills exchange project: pictured outside Uganda House, Trafalgar Square are (left to right) Mamma Mia! singer Katie Brayben, Mick Burke, Brick Priest Father Sebastian, Dr Martin Carey, Chief Executive of Urban Hope, John Denny, Chief Executive of Chester & District Housing Trust, Ugandan High Commissioner Mrs Joan K.N. Rwabyomere with Flossie Gomile, Malawi’s Deputy High Commissioner
Notes to Editors
For more information and photos please visit:
http://www.marketingprojects.co.uk/clientpo/chester-district-housing-trust
Chester & District Housing Trust (CDHT) was created in November 2000 to acquire the housing stock of Chester District Council and now owns and manages over 6,200 properties in and around Chester, employing 275 staff. The Trust’s homes fall in to six neighbourhoods – Blacon North; Blacon South; Chester City Area; The Rurals; Lache and Handbridge; Upton, Hoole, Newton and Plas Newton.
CDHT provides a range of services to tenants and residents in Chester and surrounding areas. These include ChesterCare, a community alarm service for CDHT tenants, other association tenants and private customers and also the specially designated Community Intervention Budget. This improves facilities and allows changes which are felt buy tenants to be vital to their community. CDHT also manages the housing waiting list and homelessness agency service on behalf of Chester City Council.
Current projects for CDHT include the £12million regeneration of the Treborth Road area of Chester to include 200 new homes for rent, sale and shared ownership, as well as a village green and wildlife habitats.
For more details please visit www.cdht.net
For more details on Urban Hope visit: http://www.hope.ac.uk/urban-hope/urban-hope.html
Press Contact: Phil Brotherhood E: phil@marketingprojects.co.uk
Head of PR M: 07884 493370
T: 01244 330000 W: www.marketingprojects.co.uk
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