WHAT WE DO

Current Projects

Mbirizi, Uganda

In late 2019, Kizito and Sylvia Dreamos began the Brisbane Hill Sunday School in a rural village on the outskirts of Mbirizi, Uganda. Starting with just thirteen children from their local church, they aimed to provide educational opportunities despite the church’s limited space, leading to outdoor lessons under the trees.

Recognising the significant improvements in their children’s education, a few parents joined forces to establish a school committee, officially founding the Brisbane Hill Community Sunday School.

While generous donations of timber from two trees and sand from parents were available, additional funds were required to cover other expenses and hire a carpenter. In June, Kizito sought assistance from HPI to acquire resources such as tables, chairs, and a whiteboard. In August, they requested funds for a two-room wooden building to further expand their capacity. Kizito’s reach out emphasised the increasing demand from village children, straining the limited space, and the risk of them ending up on the streets if turned away. Therefore, the program strives to keep them engaged, offering spiritual guidance, and teaching various subjects like English, Mathematics, Science, Bible, and Social Studies.

Following discussion on August 30th, the HPI committee decided to provide support. On September 5th, Kizito received UGX 3,073,000 or AUD $1,289.00, enabling the construction of the new classrooms. There was even extra paint available after furnishing tables and chairs, which was used to paint one wall.

Thanks to Kizito and Sylvia Dreamos’ dream of providing quality education for children in their community, the Brisbane Hill Sunday School now welcomes 49 children every Sunday for full-day sessions.

Uganda

Since 2016, HPI has been working amongst the small rural community of Kashekuro in south-west Uganda. HPI has rebuilt the local Nyarutooma Primary School through extensive restoration work, has upgraded the local community hall and has recently completed extensions to and upgrade of the Kashekuro Community Medical Clinic.

The primary school upgrade of all 9 classrooms is now complete with new roofs, new doors and windows, cement rendered and painted walls inside and outside, concreted previously dirt floors, new blackboards and other improvements, using local builders and tradesmen. Teams of volunteers travelled to Uganda in 2017 and 2018 to help complete the work which included a new library, staff administration rooms and 3 new toilet blocks for male and female students and staff.

The community hall upgrade, also with new toilets, is complete and is now being used for adult education including literacy, numeracy, budgeting skills, music and dance.

The medical clinic has been fully upgraded to Ugandan Health Accreditation standard with extended 10 bed ward and partitioning, upgraded doctor’s room and pharmacy, a new laboratory and microscope, other medical equipment including an ultrasound machine, new toilets and patient bathrooms, and secure windows and doors.

The Nyarutooma school had 230 students in 2016; now, in 2020 since the upgrade, it has 340 students including 67 boarders from extremely poor families whose homes are too far from the school for daily commuting on foot and there is no public transport system. So, in 2020 HPI embarked upon building a large dormitory building with new beds and mattresses, proper bathrooms and toilets to adequately accommodate up to 96 children. This project has recently been completed and now we are moving onto building a new Kitchen to feed the school students.

Fundraising has commenced for this project and construction is nearly complete. If you’d like to support this project by fundraising, donating or joining the team please contact Julie & Terry via email.

Project Contact: Terry & Julie julie.gaughan@hpi.org.au

Next Trip: June 2023

Philippines

In 2012, Jason and Leanne Buchholz first visited the Shepherds Arms Children’s Home in Bohol, Philippines. They instantly fell in love with the children and since then, many trips have been undertaken with the help of HPI members. During these trips, a new boarding house has been built, a new kitchen, bathroom and laundry, outdoor wash station, a fence around the perimeter has been erected and a new swing set too.

A few years later, Rizsa Albarracin, an Australian-based Managing Trustee of the Shepherds Arms Children’s Home became a member of HPI’s Management Committee.

Since then, HPI and Shepherd’s Arms work closely together toward making the Children’s Home self-sustainable. Below are the some of the outstanding projects completed, which are still currently running:

Solar panels
Aquaponics (vegetable gardens and fishpond)
Poultry and piggery farm
Water tank

In 2019, a medical clinic was built to provide free basic health services to the children’s home and to the surrounding disadvantaged communities.

This is an ongoing project as there is always work to be done. Child sponsorship is available for this project, please click here for details and to place your interest. Regular Medical Missions and other project-based missions are also undertaken at the Children’s Home and the surrounding villages, if you are interested in volunteering with any of these please contact us.

Contact: Rizsa – rizsa.albarracin@hpi.org.au or 0424 722 449

COVID-19 Update: After two years of schooling at home, the children has returned to normal classes. The first medical mission after lockdowns was completed successfully in January 2023.

India

Managed by the Wiig family, the Haven of Hope Children’s Shelter cares for 200 children in their shelter and 250 in the school. They are semi self-sustainable with a farm full of crops and livestock. The thing missing was a stocked library.

In 2020, we had a generous donation of books from the Rotary Club of Caloundra, QLD. Then HPI Committee Member, Risza Albarracin raised the funds to ship them to India. Special thanks to the Rotary Club of Gladston and Rachel Brown from New Hope Church, Brisbane for their donations towards shipping.

The books were received on Christmas Eve and the library in in the process of being built and stocked.

Next Trip: None at this time

Timor Leste

Eight HPI volunteers travelled in September 2014 to Timor Leste to begin the building and refurbishing of three new classrooms. Given what often happens with timelines in poorer countries the site was not yet available, so our team spent most of the project on refurbishing an existing hall that is currently being used as a classroom/storeroom. A team returned in 2016 and Fr. Manuel and Laga Parish took delivery of two ‘outside the square’ offices and classrooms in July. The site for the buildings was prepared by the parishioners of Samalari, and the buildings were four converted containers that had been sent from the Mornington Peninsula Deanery over the past two years, and had no further value.

The conversion of the containers included adding doors, windows, ventilation, security and painting, and was done at Laga by eight volunteers from St Macartan’s Parish and Humanitarian Projects International, doing hot and heavy work over two weeks; but the team loved the involvement with the local people and the experience.

The project was much appreciated, as there is a burgeoning school-age population, and few assets to teach and administer in. Since then three more classrooms have been funded by HPI and built by local tradesmen, bringing income to the local area as well.

Project contact: John Wright at johnwrightmornington@outlook.com

Next Trip: TBA

COVID-19 Update: The village has been largely unaffected by the pandemic, mainly because it is quite isolated.

South Africa

In 2014 we successfully constructed a new Day Care Centre in Tzaneen; 2015 saw the completion of four new homes for orphan families in Rapitsi and then the completion of kitchen upgrades to two original homes. These orphan families are the children left behind by the death or abandonment by their parents, and they are now cared for by the oldest child with the assistance of the OLSH Sisters based in Tzaneen.

Contact: Terry or Julie at Julie.gaughan@hpi.org.au

Next Trip: None at this time

Western Australia

In 2012, HPI established a partnership with the Broome Diocese in Western Australia, and provide a small team of volunteers to help assist, where required, in the Drug and Alcohol Intervention programs run at Mirrilingki. The D&A Intervention Program is currently held 3 times a year and runs for 2 weeks. (Approximately April, June & September). The usual daily tasks of this trip include planning and preparing meals, cleaning, and ordering food supplies. All accommodation and food is provided for the duration of the program, volunteers just need to purchase their own airfare. Mirrilingki is also used all year for different groups who come and stay for conference, retreats, and various other visits. It is run entirely by volunteers, so they are always looking for volunteers who are willing to stay for 3-6 months to help keep Mirrilingki maintained and to look after the groups that visits. For these long-term volunteers, Broome Diocese will pay for airfares, as well as providing accommodation and meals.

Project contact: info@hpi.org.au