I wrote to Director Geoffrey Kyeyune on December 16th telling him that we had just sent your donations totalling USD1333.31. I also updated the web news that day with the same information. This was the most recent communication you have received from us, so let's begin from there. In the days after the 16th Geoffrey sent these messages:

On 15 December 2024 we were at St Mark's Cathedral, Luweero, witnessing the ordination ceremony of Principal Suzan Liz Nabirye, who is now referred to as Reverend Deacon. Thanks to our donors for the support towards her clergy outfit. l write to acknowledge the receipt of US Dollar 1333 which is equivalent to 4,200,000 Ugandan Shillings. Please thank all our donors for their continued support. Suzan also sent this message of thanks. I extend my heartfelt gratitude to all my family and friends in Australia who have supported me on this incredible journey. Your prayers, love, and encouragement have been my strength and inspiration. Today, I am deeply honored and humbled to have been ordained as Rev. Deacon Suzan Liz Nabirye. I commit myself to serving with faith, humility and dedication to the glory of God. May the Lord bless each one of you abundantly for walking this journey with me. God bless you all.

March Update

Dear Doug,
I have been working hard since the year started. The last donation was used to finish the RYDA VIP toilet which has been done. Remaining is plastering and fixing the urinal on the boy's side.

Dear Doug,
l have been busy with exam preparation for May 2025. There are many changes at RYDA Institute. It's now called the 'RYDA Vocational and Secondary School' to incorporate the new curriculum. Hoping you can bear with me.

• The government has recently introduced a nationwide curriculum with a strong, secondary vocational training core.
• Vocational training is what RYDA has been doing for years for orphaned and vulnerable children (OVCs) 12-18 years.
• In that sense they began this curriculum ahead of the game, but there are many new directives to institute.
• As school opened for the year, the communities ...surrounding us became interested in our new curriculum approach... and began to ask if they could send their children to RYDA for their secondary education.

In order to reduce the influx we introduced fees to be able to pay for some of the costs. The OVC don't pay. The families of the community children pay.

Doug, You have to know that the RYDA has its goals and principles (for OVC education). These remain our unchanged focus. The number of vulnerable children is still many as the number of single mothers is increasing day by day. But to support the country's education we need to incorporate some (community children) to facilitate the process in the education system.

At the moment RYDA has 146 students - 80 girls and 66 boys. Out of this 32 are paying for food, uniforms and water and come with the training materials. Continuing students, totalling to 52, are completing their exams this year.

Two Choirs

RYDA Choir sings East Africa Anthem Click the image to view the YouTube video. Be Amazed. The video was produced by a former RYDA street child who now runs his own media company, RK ONLINE MEDIA. Donations Continue Two significant donations have been received by St. Margaret's (our banker church) recently; one from a St. Margaret's member and one from a St. John's member. Both donations were in multiple hundreds. These donors are especially thanked because their wonderful contributions raise the bank total nearer to the threshold of $1000 dollars that we use as a guide to making a worthwhile donation. Other smaller donations from many people have pushed us even closer to that threshold.

Singularity Choir sings Iolanthe Artwork: David Zinn No video here, but there are two opportunities to enjoy a live performance of this comic opera in concert. Support RYDA OVC children by setting aside one of these dates to treat yourself to a great afternoon out for a small donation. June 15th ... St. Margaret's Uniting Church, Mooroolbark ... 2:00pm June 22nd ... St. John's Uniting Church, Cowes ... 2:00pm

If you have been considering making a donation, now is a good time. Yours might just be the amount which causes the total to cross the line and gets a transfer going as soon as possible.

Industrious Learners: Part A

June 2025

When the funds arrived, Director Geoffrey was in bad health due to diabetes complications, so it wasn't until May 14 that he wrote to "applaud our donors for their continued support" which arrived as just over $US1500 and converted to 5,095,000 Ugandan shillings.

Sadly, the delay was also affected by the death of a RYDA student in early May. We haven't been told the circumstances, but your team can't remember this ever happening before. It must have been distressing for all the students and staff. The boy was buried at his ancestral home in Mpigi.

The $2568.75 was made up of:

• $500 from a consistent generous St. Margaret's donor.
• $200 from a regular St. John's donor.
• $765 from Ron Seccull's can and bottle collecting in Yarrawonga.
• $452 from the RYDA collection box available at the church door every Sunday.

Ron Seccull's Contribution

Ron's bottle and can collecting work began in December 2020 when he was 78 years old. But he has done more than that to support RYDA. For years before and since this venture began, he, and wife Faye, have been giving Christmas Gift Certificates to their grandchildren. And all along Ron has been retelling the RYDA success story to an uncountable number of people.

Ron and Faye recently moved back to the city to live in a retirement village. Ron isn't sure if he will able to start up a bottle run in this new situation. But if Ron never packs another bottle or can in his life, by our calculations and including his most recent donation, in the past four and a half years Ron has raised $12,435
... 10 cents at a time.

Ron, your entrepreneurship, enthusiasm, hard work, dedication and faith are a blessing to RYDA and an inspiration to others. God be with you wherever life leads you from here.

Two Iolanthe Concerts

Fairy Iolanthe married a mortal, a capital crime in fairyland. The Fairy Queen commuted her sentence to exile, provided she left her husband forever. She obeyed, but left a child, Strephon, who grows up as a shepherd. Twenty-five years later, half human, half fairy Strephon has fallen in love with shepherdess Phyliss whose guardian is the Lord Chancellor.

Say no more. The stage is set for a witty script, magical, merry melodies and astounding costumes. Two Singularity concerts to choose from. See you there.

News from Principal Suzan

Suzan has sent through these mini-videos of ...successful stories of children from four departments. The children are speaking in the their own language ...Luganda because of their educational background. This is a great opportunity to have a live look inside RYDA classrooms, see the smiles on the faces and get a feel for the teaching and learning spaces. Click an image to view its video.

• For best viewing click the 'full screen' option when the video begins.
• Perhaps there is already a translation app for Luganda. If so, it might 'listen to the video' and translate in real time.

CATERING DEPARTMENT	FASHION & DESIGN DEPARTMENT
HAIRDRESSING DEPARTMENT	MOTOR VEHICLE & MECHANICS DEPARTMENT

Suzan also tells us that she thanks ...God Almighty for enabling me to complete all my face to face sessions of the Masters in Divinity... and that she is now finalizing research and hopefully will graduate in October.

Industrious Learners: Part B

July 2025

As you can see below, Singularity choir once again freely gave their time, talent and enthusiasm to support RYDA's work. Inspired by the fairy magic at the centre of the Iolanthe story, their selfless efforts brought delight to audiences in Mooroolbark and Cowes.

• Spellbinding individual and group performances.
• Enchanting costumes.
• Mesmerising accompaniment and conducting.

$1135 was raised at Mooroolbark and $695 at Cowes resulting in a total of $1830 which will be transferred to Rubaga Youth Development Association as soon as possible. If you've been thinking about giving to RYDA, now is the right time to transfer to St. Margaret's account and be part of the next donation. St. Margaret's Uniting Church Mooroolbark manages all the funds of our support work for RYDA. See How to Support RYDA for banking details. Christmas Concert Coming Up Put a big ring around Sunday November 30th in your diary. Singularity will be presenting a Christmas Carol afternoon with an Aussie theme from 2pm. Funds raised will once again go to RYDA. Details will follow in future news issues.

Director in Hospital

Principal Suzan sent this message and photos:

Mr. Kyeyune is sick and admitted in Mengo Hospital suffering from high sugar levels and swollen feet. He is now improving steadily although his feet are are still swollen.

He was admitted last Wednesday. Some RYDA students visited him at the end of the week.

A huge thank you to Singularity for the generous gift of their time and talent, to all the helpers at Mooroolbark and Cowes who made each afternoon such a success and to each and every person who donated, or purchased a ticket, to bring about such a wonderful total. Your generosity supports RYDA to continue to provide vocational and life skill training to orphaned and disadvantaged 12-18 year-olds.

September 2025

$2455.65 was transferred to Rubaga Youth Development Association (RYDA) on August 14th. This amount has been gathered since the last donation on April 29th through two Singularity concerts, which contributed $1830, and personal donations of various amounts, mostly from members of St. Margaret's, Mooroolbark and St. John's, Cowes. Thank you to everyone who has given in this way to support RYDA's work providing vocational and life skill training for orphaned and vulnerable 12-18 year old girls and boys.

Response From RYDA

Dear Doug,

l write to acknowledge the receipt of transfer of funds to the ryda account totalling to 4,880,000 Ugandan shillings after the bank fees. Mostly the funds have already been spent of exam materials and food essentials. We very grateful to our donor and supporters for their continued support to ryda activities. Special thanks singularity choir for their continued support over the years and many other donors. Also thanks for keeping sharing the ryda activities updated to supporters since 1996. We are very grateful for the endless love to ryda.

To St Margaret's uniting and Cowes, your continuous support is highly appreciated. May the Almighty God reward you, especially church members who spare some time to mobilize resources to ryda activities. Thanks you very much.

I have been sick for 2 years now without you all it would not have been possible. l am recovering steadily and am at home nursing the foot wounds. (See June news for details of Geoffrey's operation). l hope in two weeks I would've recovered. I look forward to the day l will meet the young people again. I have to pay a visit to see them. Synergies have to be built in the young people. All my life I've been with them. Many in community have been visiting me to share their concern.

Geoffrey Steven Kyeyune,
Executive Director

Save The Date

Don't miss Singularity's Christmas Concert with an Australian theme

• St. Margaret's Uniting Church, Mooroolbark
• November 30th, 2pm

November 2025

In our last issue Geoffrey mentioned that our August donation (AUD 2455.65) had mostly been spent on 'exam materials and food essentials'. In this issue you have the opportunity to ponder the scale of the food need at RYDA. Currently there are 203 OVCs at RYDA and a much smaller number of fee-paying students from the local area (see March News). OVC is the United Nations abbreviation for 'orphaned and vulnerable children' and young people are considered children by the UN if they are 18 or under. A proportion of the food costs comes from the local students, who are served lunch along with everyone else. Some of our donation was used for food essentials, but how far can it go? The OVCs, all of whom live on campus 24/7, receive three meals each day. You can join them for lunch right now by clicking the image to play a short video

That's a lot of chicken and rice ...and it's only one meal.

Singularity Christmas Concert

You were promised details of this year's Christmas fund-raising concert for Rubaga Youth Development Association and here they are. A unique concert this year. Yes there are Australian Christmas Carols; and they will be blended with readings, choir singing, traditional community carols and the Hallelujah Chorus. Cuppa and biscuits to follow. A joyful, musical, spirit-lifting afternoon to begin the Advent season. All are welcome. Click the image to reveal an A4 poster you can print and display where you live, work or play.

Christmas Gift Certificates

• Do you struggle to find the right gift?
• Is it getting difficult to tell people what to give you for Christmas or birthday?
• Do you have all you need?
• Are you wanting to down size anyway?
• Are you a bit uncomfortable with the 'surprise' gifts you know cost too much?
• Do you receive gifts you won't use?
• ...

We have given for you...

I have given for you...

• Click the image you need, then print,
• Or save the file and take it to your local print shop.
• Print and include this RYDA Information Sheet with your certificate.

December 2025

What a magnificent musical afternoon! Journeying through the story of Jesus' birth uplifted by an Australian Christmas celebration blended with bible verses and traditional carols. This tiny video snippet highlights Singularity's gift to the fifty or so who gathered in St. Margaret's Uniting Church to support the work of Rubaga Youth Development Association.

Click the image to start the video.

The total raised was   $845

Thank you to all who helped organise this event and all who came from across the community to be part of it. Special thanks to Musical Director, Accompanist and super singers of Singularity Choir who gift their time and talent through both hours of rehearsal and this performance.

Director's Response

RYDA Director Geoffrey Kyeyune was sent the video the next day. He not only appreciated the music but recognised the building he first visited in 1996 and was reminded of speaking to St. Margaret's congregation for the first time.

Dear Singularity Choir,
I had a glance at St. Margaret's church and you have made me great again. You reminded me of the Great church to make the first speech to make them aware of the situation of vulnerable children. A basket of tennis balls and other stuff was donated. What a noble cause. I want to congratulate you for continued support you have done for us over the years. May the Lord bless you abundantly.

The wonderful financial result from Singularity's concert, plus a couple of generous personal donations, other donations from people of good heart and the weekly gifts in St. Margaret's RYDA collection box come to a total of   $3,212·75   which will be transferred to Rubaga Youth Development Association this week. Thank you to everyone who has contributed to this remarkable total and all who continue to pray for the on-going success of RYDA's work with orphaned and disadvantaged teenagers.

RYDA News

A total of 52 boys and 48 girls sat for Uganda Business and Technical Examinations Board (UBTEB) exams in the first week of December, with the last exam, Swahili Language, on the Friday. Geoffrey tells us there were "no problems". The students are now planning how Christmas is going to be organised.

Education takes a break through the last weeks of December and into January, in the same way we do in Australia. Most RYDA students are able to return to extended family or be placed with families of charitable heart. Some have nowhere to go, so remain at the RYDA compound in the care of a team of devoted staff.

Christmas Message to RYDA Donors, Supporters, Partners, and Well-Wishers

Warm greetings to you and your loved ones as we celebrate the joyful season of Christmas.

On behalf of the entire RYDA family, I extend our heartfelt gratitude to you for your unwavering support, partnership, and goodwill throughout the year. Your generosity, prayers, encouragement, and commitment have been instrumental in enabling RYDA to continue empowering young people and transforming communities with hope, dignity, and purpose.

Christmas reminds us of God’s greatest gift to humanity—Jesus Christ—who came as a symbol of love, hope, and renewal. In the same spirit, your support has been a light of hope to many young lives, opening doors to opportunity and inspiring positive change where it is most needed.

As we reflect on the year past, we are deeply thankful for the milestones achieved together and for the lives touched because you chose to walk this journey with us. We look forward with renewed faith and determination to the year ahead, trusting that together we will continue to make a lasting impact.

May this Christmas season fill your hearts with peace, joy, and love. May the New Year bring you good health, abundant blessings, and continued success in all that you do.

Thank you for being part of the RYDA mission. With sincere appreciation and Christmas blessings,

Geoffrey Steven Kyeyune Kiyita
Executive Director, RYDA

Christmas Gift Certificates

• Do you struggle to find the right gift?
• Is it getting difficult to tell people what to give you for Christmas or birthday?
• Do you have all you need?
• Are you wanting to down size anyway?
• Are you a bit uncomfortable with the 'surprise' gifts you know cost too much?
• Do you receive gifts you won't use?
• ...

We have given for you...

I have given for you...

• Click the image you need, then print,
• Or save the file and take it to your local print shop.
• Print and include this RYDA Information Sheet with your certificate.

Previous News