The IHEU reports that a humanist group in Uganda that does terrific important work needs help in the wake of a robbery.

The Humanist Association for Leadership, Equality and Accountability (HALEA) runs education and support services for children in some of the poorest parts of Kampala.

They go into schools running workshops centered around human rights and the rights of the child in particular, as well as democracy, confidence-building, and other issues. They run debates on ethical and humanist topics that otherwise may never be discussed. HALEA even publish a regular magazine written and produced by school students; it’s a rare and valuable opportunity for children to see themselves in print and to be heard! Through leadership training at their offices HALEA support some of the brightest and most able students to learn new skills, and through their IHEU-supported public debate series they air topics and arguments among adult participants which otherwise are often heard only from a one-sided perspective.

And we know how desperately Uganda needs that.

But this week HALEA have suffered a major setback. On Tuesday Kato Mukasa the director of HALEA told us:

“We woke up today to the sad news that our offices had been broken into and lots of property and cash taken. The first people to reach the office found [the building security guard] unconscious lying at the upper/ behind part of the building. Our offices were wide open.”

The thieves have taken all 6 computers, 2 laptops, power cables, their projector and camera, three guitars, a desktop printer, and even the office phone was taken. Some cash due to be paid for rent was also stolen. (The security guard is now conscious again, by the way!)

“HALEA staff and members are devastated with this development, we have lost the important tools that enable us to operate and surely this is a great set back in the history of the organization. This has happened at a time when we had so many vital activities going on and many pending.”

The main school holiday in Uganda is over the Christmas period, not the summer months of the northern hemisphere, which means that HALEA’s work is at its peak and the need is urgent.

There’s a donate button on the IHEU page.