So after
spending all that time in the field in Uganda. I had lots of time planning,
thinking and understand more and more what (A) non-profit(s) in general are and
what they are not…. why the failure rate is so high…why do some over promise
and fail to deliver.
I was
searching and checking myself and rethinking and thinking about the mission and
vision of TRUEINTIATIVE
As our title states: we are an educational non-profit initiative operating in rural Uganda.
Therefore I spent most of my time learning about education in rural Uganda.
I spent my
time volunteering and researching the needs of education in rural Uganda. I was
more interested in the community education and community education. .
I spent
most of my time in (About three months) Ssinda, Kivuluba Village of Mukono
District in Uganda. I basically spent most of my time in Mukono District than
anywhere else…
Population
on village level is less than five thousands but more than three thousand… this
is where I am a local boy…this is where I lived before I took off to America in
December of 1997…as for the case of education the village of Ssinda, Kivulba
has about six different schools ranging from nursery schools to late high
school…the majority of the schools are private and one primary community
school.
I spent
most of my time teaching and doing other things at Kabimbiri R/C (Roman
Catholic) Primary school. It a community public school and it is also where I
went to Primary five through seven. (1995 – 1997) The headmistress of the school was very
welcoming knowing that I was running an experiment she was able to offer me as
much access as possible to what I was doing. She also offered great advice…
I took a
lot of notes, draw up all sorts of project, and went back to my notes again…
most rural schools in Uganda that I visited are like this one; the structures:
are very old, the windows and doors are no more or not functional, the roofs,
well let’s just say that when it rains it pours in some of the classes
especially the class that holds grade four students in this school: in this
particular class there is not even a cement floor, student spend their whole
days walking through dust some are barefoot.
The
classrooms have no technology of any sort; there are no computers, no smart
boards and well no electricity; just a blackboard and chalk, most blackboards
are faded…they are about nine rooms that function as such in this school
including and office and a teacher’s workroom…. the school has latrines where
the pupils go when nature calls…overall it is a gross places, no running water,
most did not wash hands after using sometime I noticed. The headmistress is
working on rebuilding the area…she has a project going!
 |
| 0ne evening after our reading break |
The school
has no kitchen; lunch was usually in open spaces around campus anywhere. The headmistress
begun a kitchen construction project to which TRUEINITIATIVE has pledged to
donate ten bags of cement; we have so far donated five bags and in May/2014 we will
fulfill our pledge.
So this is
the basic explanation of how a community school looks like in Rural Uganda…
Private
school had better structures; better staffing, the student population was not
local, they are in the education business to make a profit, they are day and
boarding, and some receive help from the Ugandan government and other donors.
So in
conclusion the need of our services and presence is clearly needed and therefore there is a need for functional Community Based NGO Organizations in Uganda and anywhere else in the world were a need to do good exists.
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