1995 – The Family Grows

Maria started with 7 girls living with her; it wasn’t long before she was asked to take more children. In 1995 when Rhona Marshall went out to see what Maria was involved in, she found Maria had moved to larger premises so she could accommodate her growing family of 38 children. At the end of 1995 Maria was given three huge warehouses, a real answer to prayer as her family continued to grow. It was then that Maria came back to England to ask for help. In February 1996 the school was opened and is registered for 700 children. Later that year Maria moved all the children into the partly built orphanage.

1996

In 1996 the charity Christian Relief Uganda (CRU) was launched. Money raised by CRU goes towards the care of the orphanage and school and provides clothes, food and education that is available to them for a better future.

In September 1996 Maria suffered a stroke and was flown back to England, very ill and thoroughly exhausted. Miraculously Maria made a fantastic recovery and felt God was calling her to finish the work she had started. In March 1997 Maria returned to Uganda, to continue to carry on the work in Kamuli, much to everyone’s delight.

1997

In 1997 Wilmslow Wells raised money to build a tank to supply clean water and 1998 saw the opening of a very special classroom for the deaf. Harriet one of Maria’s deaf pupils helped in this class, and now works in the Deaf School. This would not have been possible if Maria had not encouraged Harriet and sent her to school. In addition to the deaf school classrooms, it has been possible through further fundraising to also build a Hostel for the Deaf which now accommodates up to 30 children and their warden.

The work continues….

Over the years of her pioneering work, her great vision and insight into the different learning styles, her acknowledgement that the children need traditional skills so that they are able to return to their communities, her compassion to see the children’s gifts, talents and spiritual growth develop have been shown. Maria is now seeing the results as these young people are developing into adults with skill and qualifications they could never have dreamt of achieving. Many have become Christians and are active in Christian ministry.

… and flourishes

The family continues to grow with over 300 orphans and destitute children supported by CRU through Maria’s Care, KPPS and our Village Projects. Many people have visited Uganda to help Maria; drawing on the skills and gifts God has given them.

Recognition

In 1997 Maria’s work was recognised by Rotary International when Macclesfield Castle presented Maria with the Paul Harris award, and more recently in 2003 with Maria’s receipt of an MBE for her work in Uganda.

2000 to date

When Maria made the decision at the age of 74 to pass on the responsibility to others, the Charity were wonderfully blessed to find through Spurgeon’s Care Ian and Pat Dixon, who took over the running of Maria’s Care for a period of three years through a joint initiative between Spurgeon’s and CRU.

This period saw continued growth in the activities of CRU as Ian and Pat further developed the services provided from Maria’s Care and the Deaf School and greatly expanded the work in the villages, following the receipt of our first vehicle in Kamuli, a powerful 4x4 Pick-up. Maria’s Care now employs over 30 local Ugandans.

However, these 3 years soon sped by, but thankfully due to the excellent work done initially by Maria and continued by Ian and Pat, the Charity felt able to appoint a local Ugandan to run the facility and projects on our behalf. In the summer of 2003 Robert Baganzi took over as Director of Maria’s Care. Mr Robert as he is known to us all, joined Maria’s Care not long after it had been set-up, to help Maria with the accounting and book keeping amongst many other tasks. It was not too long before he was promoted to the post of accountant and has since played an integral role in the development of CRU’s activities in Uganda for many years.