Celebrations are underway after the 38th Bournemouth Scouts & Avon Explorers group announced they had reached their initial £100,000 target – a fantastic achievement that will help turn their dreams into reality as they travel to Uganda to build a vocational training centre.

With their trip less than five weeks away – the group leaves England for Uganda on 26 July – this news is a much-needed boost for the scouts, who have been tirelessly fundraising for the last two years. Numerous fetes, sponsored activities, and fundraising initiatives have all proved worth the time and huge effort put in by all the scouts and their leaders.

The scouts will be helping to construct the building at Lubanyi in the rural Butagaya sub-district, and the land that will house the building has been cleared and the latrine pits dug. Workers will soon be trained in how to use the ICM-funded brick-building machine – which has now arrived in Kampala – to create the blocks that will build the walls of the latrine, before the actual building work on the training centre begins.

ICM’s Chairman, Dr Alistair Somerville Ford, shows the scouts his support for the project (Photo credit: Daily Echo, Bournemouth)

Once built, the brick-building machine will be made available to other construction projects in the local community, and the vocational training centre itself will give orphans and vulnerable children the opportunity to learn new skills, empowering them to build a better future.

Mike Harley, Nile 2010 Expedition Leader, said: “It has been very hard work and the team is due some praise for this achievement, but most of all, we want to thank all of our supporters. YOU! Without you, we could not have achieved this.

“We still have some way to go. We still need to raise £18,000 to complete this first phase. Our efforts will continue at full pace until the day we leave, so perhaps we will see many of you at fetes and events between now and then.”

If you would like to donate or support the Nile 2010 project, please visit: http://www.nile2010.co.uk/supportus.html for more information. Just £1 will enable you to ‘buy a brick’ and support such a valuable project.