Report from BHW Uganda Partnership Facilitator Following Visit 

Key people: Timothy and Janepher Kakooza 

I was treated to a lovely time at the school on the day of my visit. I also had a chance to inspect the well which was finally completed and commissioned in April this year. At the end of the visit Timothy took me down to the actual village. This appeared to be very impoverished as will be apparent from the photos. 

Recent Events

Chosen Generation School

The school is doing really well and is in good heart. I had an opportunity to talk to most of the teachers. Fatima (whom we met in 2013) has finished her two years training to be a teacher and has returned to the school. She loves teaching and is the Maths and English teacher for the Nursery 3 and Primary 1 classes (ages being around 6 and 7). There are 138 children in the school now which goes up to Primary 4 (i.e. about 12 years old). As the children go through the school system they are opening a new class each year so next year there will be a Primary 5 and the year after Primary 6 etc. 

Timothy initially didn’t want to extend the school to secondary but he is now thinking that he will. You will appreciate the need for it when I describe the village. The school is resourced but extremely cramped. Each of its three classrooms are split into two classes and Primary 3 is in an outside dilapidated structure which is literally falling down. 

He has the possibility of purchasing approximately 1 hectare of land on the side of the property heading to the lake. It would make a good addition to the school but he needs the funds from a donor for that. There are another two classrooms in the process of being built but no funds for that at present. The plan is for a medical clinic and eventual secondary school. Both of these seem really important in this area.

The school has a plan to feed all the children once a day.  At present the junior children get some porridge in the morning break and the older children get lunch. Timothy does not consider the porridge as a meal but he does not have the cash flow to provide more food. 

School fees are minimal - UGX 15,000 (US$5) per term. Most parents pay but about 40 cannot. The village where the children come from is extremely poor and deprived, lacking hope, so it is gratifying that at least the majority of them are paying. The local chief is supportive of the school and trying to encourage the community to ‘lift itself’. 

There is a chaplain who comes to the school three times a week for part of the day. His role is to provide spiritual input and teaching and also to support the children. He does provide assistance where there are family needs involving the children. 

There is a big area at the rear of the school which is overgrown and underutilized. I suggested to Timothy that fruit trees might possibly be grown on it. It would handle about 100 trees and might provide an income source. 

Local Community

Prior to this visit I had always thought that Mbale village was the immediate vicinity of the school. This visit Timothy took me to the actual village and I don’t think I have ever seen anything like it in my life. I have certainly never walked through anything like it. I have included some photos as I have only just realized the constituency which Timothy is dealing with and how completely down trodden and addiction ridden it is. All of the adjectives which I could think of fit the village - dilapidated, forlorn, hopeless, poverty-stricken, addiction ridden, desolate. The ironic thing is that it sits on the shores of a beautiful lake. Such a contrast!

There were a lot of young men about and virtually all of them that I met were drunk in the middle of the day. The people in the village are originally from Mbale city or thereabouts and come for the fishing. They fish at nights, or early morning, and drink the rest of the day. Some of the women seemed to be in that position too but they need to be caring for the children. People were relatively friendly to possibly the first Mzungu they had seen in their village but much of the friendliness was alcohol fueled.

Houses are not weathertight at all, and are literally shacks. There are no toilet facilities and no latrines. Everyone goes ‘in the bush.’ There is rubbish everywhere and the clothing standard is really poor. Before the well was installed they used to get all their drinking water from the lake, where they also bathe and do washing. These are the parents who send their kids to Chosen Generation School although it is obvious in the village that a large number of children do not attend. So there is work to be done here too. It really helped me to see why Timothy established the school and changed my perspective on the area too. 

The Well

With grateful thanks to our donor partner in the United States, the well on the school property was installed earlier this year and commissioned in April. The whole village attended the commissioning. The water has been tested in Kampala and is of a good drinking standard. It is the only well serving Mbale village, the school and surrounding small holdings so it is really popular. The number of people who rely on it is well in excess of 300. Timothy explained that it was their ‘miracle well’. I agree. When I was there a protective wall was being built around it to protect it from theft or damage.

Personal Stories

Fatima

Fatima is a Nursery school and Primary 1 teacher, teaching English and Maths. We have previously told her story in our 2013 report. Since that report Fatima has gone and spent two years doing teacher training at a Training Institute near Mukono. She has now finished that and returned to the school about a month ago to resume teaching. 

She was brought up by Timothy and Janepher (who, even though their own children are grown up, still have 13 other children in their household) and considers them her parents as she lost her own when she was really young. She was Muslim and is now Christian. She told me that she loves teaching. All of the teachers in the school are living in rented accommodation in a trading centre about 2 kms nearer to Katosi. 

Partnership's Influence within the Community

⦁ Going to the village today made me aware of how much work there is to be done in this community.  The impact of poverty and alcohol use on the social fabric in the village seemed extremely obvious.

⦁ The local chief is very supportive of the school, and in particular is encouraging parents to live by the principles taught.

⦁ The children are showing signs of being better cared for. Their hair is done, fingernails better looked after and they come having bathed. 

⦁ Clothing is better (although still extremely poor)

⦁ They think that levels of domestic violence and alcohol abuse are diminishing. 

⦁ Although Timothy does not go to the village a lot clearly the people there respect him. 

⦁ Because the children are receiving some food from school, malnourishment among the village children is reducing. 

⦁ While there were many children still not able to attend school the fact that the school is providing education and spiritual values is giving them an opportunity to create a different future. 

Ideas for the Future

⦁ Timothy would like to improve the feeding in the school as outlined above.
⦁ They are in the process of building some new classrooms toward the rear of the site. This will ease the cramped conditions but we tend to expect that they will also fill these in fairly short order. There are still many children in the village who don’t go to school. This has stalled as he doesn’t have enough funds to finish it at this stage.
⦁ Timothy wants the school to go to secondary and also develop a medical clinic in the area.
⦁ And he wants to plant a church. As there is not one in the village now this is also an important part of what is needed.

Prayer and Praise Points

1) For continued positive development of the school. It is an amazing asset in this community.
2) For parents to be more involved with their children and start to see the benefits of education more.
3) For initiatives to improve livelihoods and held people to step out of the grinding poverty that they face.
4) For a change in the poverty mindset that traps the community so much in hopelessness and addictions.
5) For an ongoing positive relationship and influence with the village chief.
6) For continued growth in the resources of the school to enable the children to learn well despite the challenges of five or more children at a desk which was only made for two or at most three. 

Comments

Spending time out in Mbale village put the whole focus of the school in a completely different light for me. The poverty seemed more akin to urban poverty than rural poverty. There were no gardens or growing and only subsistence income from fishing, much of which was spent on alcohol. This school and, hopefully, a church in the area which Timothy is planning are key to transformation. Without having both functioning well it would be hard to see that there is any hope for these people. But this area is going to be a long haul.