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OU Uppingham Society
Uppingham Society
The Uppingham Society is run by Basil Frost (M 45) and is a branch of the Uppingham Association. It is responsible for financial grants issued to OUs involved with charity work or raising money for good causes via sponsored activities. Below is a selection of causes which have been supported.
Society Recipients 2009 Nicola Hughes (Fd 03) Flora Huntley (L 06)
Miranda Reilly (Fd 03)
The Karen Hilltribes Trust
Crosslands ‘Smile’ Gambia GapGuru
James Varley (LH 01)
Amnesty Charity Kilimanjaro,Tanzania
Mark Soden (WD 97)
Access Sport
Chris Palmer (F 95)
Matthew Moxon (B 81) Neil Aitken (L 81)
Himalaya Trust
East Anglian Children’s Hospice
Cancer Research
Matthew Moxon (B 81) Having a physically and mentally disabled child, and receiving such incredible help from East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices, I thought that it may be time to help them a little. My decision to take part in the Norfolk Super Hero Challenge (a 1 mile sea swim, a 4 mile sea kayak followed by a 40 mile cycle and an 8 mile run across sand and marsh) was taken late one night and was witnessed by too many people to allow me to get out of it. Thankfully, due to the generosity of many people, we managed to raise £7,000.
Flora Huntley (L 06) “In December 2008, I set off to The Gambia, a tiny country in West Africa, to be a volunteer teacher linked to a Gambian organisation called ‘GAMFES’. I returned to the UK in May 2009 and looking back on my time in the Gambia, I am in awe of what an amazing opportunity I have had. Living amongst the community for five months meant that I was able to get to know people well through both the school and the church. I was teaching English and R.S in a large ‘comprehensive’ school. The illiteracy rate was very high, so teaching people to read was extremely rewarding (and necessary!) Teaching R.S was also great – in small classes we got to know the Christian students very well and hopefully helped them to understand their faith much more. I was privileged to come across the large numbers of West African refugees that pour into the Gambia as a peaceful haven. Their contentedness and generosity with time, food and stories was a real challenge to me. I am so grateful to the OU Society for sponsoring me in this project which has hopefully made an impact on Greater Banjul and has certainly made an impact on me.”
Nicola Hughes (Fd 03) “I have just returned from Thailand and I have had the most amazing time! I worked with the Karen Hilltribes for the first 5 months and then travelled for a couple of months after that. I am so pleased I decided to work for them because I had such a fantastic time and they were so welcoming and hospitable. We went out in October 2008 and had a couple of weeks getting to know the other volunteers. I stayed in a village called Mae La Luang with another volunteer called Alice. The teaching was such a good experience and by the end I really didn’t want to leave the kids. It was horrible saying goodbye to them all. Before Alice and I went there, they were learning from satellite televisions and the younger ones were taught by a lady that spoke very little English. So we felt we not only improved the way they spoke but also increased their general interest in learning English. We taught the Pratom lessons (years 1-3) together, and I also taught pratom 4 alone (they were 8 years old). I also enjoyed teaching Matium although at times it was more of a challenge. While we there, we had lots of interesting food including rat and snake for Christmas lunch! We also helped with the water system in a different village which was much pooer than Mae La Lueng. It was hard work but lots of fun. It took about 8 days to connect the pipes down from the source then about 3 days to build the holding tanks.
