MEMBERS of the Blandford Evangelical Church have formed a charity to support a struggling school in eastern Uganda.

After months of hard work, the congregation have set up the Bugwere Development Trust to help support the newly built school.

Church members Sylvie and Phil Good have been the driving force behind the project after visiting Bugwere, Budaka, 200k from the Ugandan capital Kampala, back in 2009 and forming lasting friendships with a small church.

On a return visit in 2013, the couple discovered the church had began to build a school to educate five hundred children of the town, two hundred of which are borders.

Sylvie, director of the the trust, said: "The church built the school structure entirely by themselves. It is a vibrant place but lacks many of the basics that we might consider essential, such as windows, doors, books and water."

Upon returning to Dorset, the couple raised almost £2000 from church donations to pay for a 20,000 litre water tank to provide clean water.

The tank prevents the children walking over two miles a day to collect dirty swamp water, saving the school vital funds which were often spent on health care due to contaminated water.

The charity is now focused on continuing to fundraise to send books out to the school, which currently has none, and build more latrines, of which three are shared among all the pupils and staff.

Sylvie added: "The problem with this little bit of Uganda is that it has a long history of being overlooked. It is relatively peaceful and hasn’t experienced war or famine in recent years so is overlooked by aid agencies and the government even though it still needs a lot of help."

To continue their efforts, a fundraising evening of dinner and live music will be held at the Parish Rooms, Blandford, on Saturday, October 29.

The event will begin at 7.30pm and tickets, available from the church office, cost £10.

Fore more information, or to become involved, email or info@bugwere.com.