This year Sandy and Elizabeth  with Jean and Keith  on their second trip to the country, spent two very happy weeks in Fort Portal

The undoubted highlight for us this year was the news that one of the girls the Trust has been supporting for the last two years, Brenda Kirungi, has emerged as the best ‘A’ level student in the whole of Uganda. Without our support she would have left school two years ago but now she will go to study Law at Makerere University in Kampala, one of the best in Africa, with full government sponsorship. Kyebambe School is walking on air and I must say so are we. What we do is not going to change Uganda but we can make a difference to individuals and although Brenda is a special example of this we have seen it in other girls we have taken on. Phiona Kemigabo, whom we have personally sponsored, was so poor that she was picking pieces of soap off the floor in the showers because she could not afford to buy any. She still lives with her grandmother in a mud hut but she too is now going to University and has developed into mature, well developed young lady who is politically aware and working hard to make a decent life for herself. Others from Kyebambe are also at University on various courses ranging from agriculture to teaching and give hope for the future of the country.

Before we left Kampala we bought around 100 books for Kyebambe at the main book shop in town. That is an epic in itself which I won’t bore you with but suffice to say it took us more than an hour to order them another half hour to pay for them and at least an hour to collect them the following day with 5 or 6 staff standing around watching as we tried not to get angry while each book was checked and counted at least twice. However once at Kyebambe we were able to hand over the books, mainly science but some English, along with quite a lot of equipment given to us by Banchory Academy and 4 laptops-two from Senergy and two from friends . Of course we received the usual warm welcome . They had made the most enormous cake for us which we ‘generously’ left for the staff to have at morning break. Kyebambe continues to improve with thirteen girls scoring 20 points or more in the ‘A’ level exams which is the kind of benchmark which schools aim for. Several more came close. As a result of continued improvement the roll is rising and this year there will be over a thousand students. The trust has paid to bring water to the biology lab which now has brand new taps and running water to each bench, although the general water supply to the school is not good and they have had to take the girls in the school truck once or twice to collect water. Consequently they are looking at some kind of water capture scheme as indeed are Buheesi and Glorious Preparatory School. The next project, however, will be to bring gas to the benches in the lab and we have left funds in the school account to at least pay for part of this.

Kyebambe has not just been successful this year in the academic field. They came second in a national debating contest losing to one of the best schools in Uganda. While we were at the school they had a debate on International Women’s day which was highly entertaining and one could see why they were so successful. In the sporting field two girls were selected to play cricket for the national team which went to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania where they won the competition The Trust paid for some sports equipment last term and they were so enthusiastic that we have funded the purchase of a dozen pairs of football boots.

Some of you will remember that the Trust had a fund raising sale of clothes last year. There was a large quantity left over and so we took it out to Uganda with us. Jean and Elizabeth had great fun with our sponsored girls helping them to choose, with there being enough for each girl to get two outfits.

In September last year the Trust was able to bring Richard Balinda, the Deputy Head to this country. He spent some time in Banchory Academy observing lessons and talking to senior management and departments particularly Maths and Science. On his return to Kyebambe he has managed to institute a number of changes (no mean feat) in the school. He has initiated a system of guidance and improved careers guidance. Regular departmental meetings are now part of process to improve teaching and learning. Two members of the senior staff now have responsibility covering upper and lower school and there is closer monitoring of staff. The latter measure is an important one as teachers in Uganda are notorious for not being where they should be i.e. in the classroom. I have no doubt that there have been great benefits in giving Richard the opportunity to see for himself how things are done elsewhere.

Our second school, Buheesi Secondary is also prospering with exam results again showing distinct improvement especially in English, We would like to think in part at least because of the books we bought last year. The science labs built two years ago are also making a significant difference. The government has also recognised the improvement building two new classrooms with the promise of four more. But overcrowding is still a problem as the roll has risen to over 600. The first year intake of 240 was so big that before the construction of temporary accommodation there was no room in the classroom for the teacher to stand at the front. For the first time Buheesi now has a class in S5 studying for ‘A’ level though strictly speaking it is a four year school. But these ten S5 students are very poor and they cannot afford to travel to the nearest ‘A’ level school which is in Fort Portal 12 miles away. Buheesi has a very supportive parent group who are paying a levy towards building staff accommodation which will help to retain staff in what is a fairly remote rural setting and this will also be of benefit to the students who will have a settled staff. Community leaders have also identified 47 orphans in the school for whom the Uganda Schools Trust has agreed to pay for a school lunch as otherwise they would have nothing to eat from perhaps early in the morning until late in the evening. Water is also a problem here and the Trust is looking at ways of supporting the installation of water catchment, perhaps with the assistance of Water Aid.

Glorious Preparatory School is also expanding. From 50 pupils 2 years ago there are now 250. Ben Muhindo and his team have added three more temporary classrooms to accommodate all the children who want to come to the school. Here too the Trust has provided funds to help the school fulfil its aims. We have funded the bringing of piped water to the site but here the need for some kind of water capture is perhaps even more important. Kasese is hot and dry and outwith the rainy season water can be quite scarce.

Like last year we were given a right royal welcome by the children when we arrived and were mobbed when we got out of the car. Glorious is fulfilling a need in the area providing an education for the very poorest children. As I have explained before they are the children of families displaced from the mountains by rebel activity on to very poor land on the outskirts of town which is virtually barren so that unlike other areas in Uganda they cannot even grow cassava.

We were given money by St Machar’s Cathedral in Aberdeen to buy mosquito nets and we bought up most of the nets in Fort Portal. Kasese is lower lying and hotter than Fort Portal and the malaria problem is greater there. At the school the head identified the thirty most needy (How she differentiated I don’t know) and then we went round the village visiting the families. Housing we were told is slowly improving; there are few mud huts now and most are built of brick. There are still many children in the village who do not yet come to the school, many of them in rags and the youngest of them naked. The 'Glorious ' Trust is working hard with parents to promote self help in the community and they go into the village to encourage parents to send their children to school and also to promote AIDs education.But the people are very supportive of the school and Ben is working closely with them to provide help and advice, meeting every so often to talk about AIDS and general welfare issues.
We bought some footballs and skipping ropes before going to Glorious. It was interesting to see how the children played the same sort of games as children at home. Trust money has also provided a good supply of books and has paid for ‘talking walls’- diagrams, pictures and words painted on the exterior walls of the school, the idea being that they learn while they play.

Once more we have returned from Uganda humbled by the welcome we receive, inspired by the dedication of so many good people and gratified that the little we are able to do does help in some small way to make lives better for some children.

Finally I must thank again everyone who has contributed in any way to supporting Uganda Schools Trust and hope that like us you feel that it has been worthwhile
 


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