Report from BHW Uganda Partnership Facilitators

Key person: Timothy Kakooza

On this trip we did not have the opportunity of visiting the school as we were in Katosi on a weekend when the school was not in. However we obtained a lot of encouraging information from Timothy about how the school is progressing, and the impact and influence of the school (and now also the church) on the local community. 

Recent Events

School

This has been a good year for the school. There are approximately 132 children in the school with seven teachers. Six of the teachers stay in a small house built for three people which has been constructed near the site. This has helped as previously they needed to walk a long distance to get to and from the school. One still has to walk about an hour each way. Accommodation is provided for the teachers as part of their ‘package’. Fatima, one of the many children brought up by Timothy and Janepher who we have previously reported on, is still teaching there. There is an ongoing issue managing salary expectations as the teachers are paid less than at other schools and retention of good teachers will be an ongoing issue into the future. We did discuss table loans with a possibility of a boost to the loan programme as a way of incentivising the teachers (see the comments on this in the Katosi report - UGA01a).

There has been a latrine block built at the school and the two new classrooms on the rear of the site are now functional so that two teachers no longer have to share the same classroom space, separated only by a piece of material. 

Church

The pastoral/social worker who has been funded through BHW has also started a church in the school building and the community is starting to come. The children are coming and some parents. We heard that there were around 30 adults now attending.

Timothy reported that they are seeing more parents starting to actively support their children and also an uptake on kitchen gardening, which shows a greater willingness of people to take responsibility. There continues to be huge poverty and social issues in the Mbale fishing village about 500 metres down the road from the school but it is pleasing to see that there are changes and improvements. 

Well

The well is continuing to be a great benefit to the school and community. They are in the process of building a protective structure around the wall. This is needed to stop the possibility of theft or destruction and to limit the use of the well to times when people are at the school. The well has reduced the incidence of water borne disease in the community, is clearly used a lot and is of great benefit.

Partnership's Influence within the Community

As outlined above there is a lot of potential for improving the lot of Mbale village. However it is gratifying to hear of the changes being experienced as a result of the church and school’s presence. Even though we were not able to visit this year, it was apparent from our last visit in 2017 that this school is having a wonderful impact. 

The school role does not appear to have grown since we last reported. We have previously reported on the social issues in the village, grinding poverty, the challenges associated with reduced fishing resource in the lake and alcohol abuse.

Ideas for the Future

We discussed the possibility of latrines for the village again with Timothy. He thinks this is a good idea and he will discuss this further with the leaders of the village, particularly in regard to the village providing the land and labour as their contribution towards community ownership. We would recommend it for consideration if a reasonable proposal could come from them regarding the funding required for materials and if the village members agree to providing the land and labour.  

Timothy is also going to put the latrine idea to the leadership of the two very poor fishing villages about a kilometre from Katosi where the problems are the same. If there is uptake on the idea there, then we would support the same possibility. 

Current Issues and Challenges

Maintaining teachers’ expectations is a major issue. We think that the teachers in both schools will engage with table lending ‘circles’. There is already one at Katosi and it has been functioning well. This has to be a possibility at Mbale School too, at least among the long term staff. We would support the idea of a small boost to any table loan programme among the teachers as we think this will aid teacher retention which is clearly going to be increasingly difficult particularly in poor rural areas.

Solar lighting for the school and teachers’ accommodation. 

The ongoing poverty issues in the local community.

Comments

We didn’t get to go out there this year but we had one of the best interactions with Timothy and Janepher we have had for a few years and are confident in the information provided. We think this is a stable partnership with awesome people who are making a great difference in the two local communities they serve. 

There has been no request for a budget increase and we think it should stay the same but remain responsive to project based requests (e.g. latrines, school supplies or similar). These can be looked at on a case by case basis.