St. Paul School

Last weekend, Namatovu and I got a break from running around Kampala and left for the village of Nkokonjeru, where St. Paul School is located.

Front view of St. Paul's new school building 

Rear view of St. Paul's new school building. Detached kitchen structure on the left, EnviroLoo bathroom building on the right

On Saturday, we woke up to a large crowd already forming around the school as word had gotten out we were holding scholarship interviews that day. In Uganda, both public and private schools charge school fees to cover any expenses incurred by the school since private schools receive no government funding and the financial support given to public schools by the government is insufficient and unreliable. The Mwebaza Foundation started a scholarship program at St. Paul last year, to assist families that are really struggling to afford school fees, even though school fees at St. Paul are significantly lower than any other school in the area, with many students already attending school at a discounted rate. 

We spent the next seven hours interviewing scholarship applicants, listening to heartbreaking stories and learning of the many difficult situations these families are in. The day was full of stories of grandparents raising their orphaned grandchildren, or single mothers whose husbands abandoned them, all with no consistent income. However, our last interview of the day, soft feet shuffled in to the classroom where we were sitting. A young girl holding hands with an even younger boy. Could it be her son? No, she is too young! They sat and introduced themselves, Catherine and Ivan, brother and sister. A family of six who had been orphaned and is now living on their own with some occasional help from an auntie in another district, who sends funds from her craft shop when she can. The oldest is a 24 year old sister, but it was Catherine, 15, who came with Ivan, 5, for the interview. She is no longer in school and is working in a salon to earn money. Her schooling stopped when she had to begin working when her parents died, but she is helping pay for her younger siblings to attend school. I can’t imagine being left with all my siblings as my responsibility at 24, let alone 15. This made me even more grateful that we are doing this program, especially since there is no type of government system in place to assist children in this situation. I was content in knowing that we able to help the people truly in need, with at least free access to education.

Even though these guardians have no financial wherewithal to offer the school, they were all happily willing to assist St. Paul with different tasks in return for a scholarship. I discussed this with the staff and we agreed that we should utilize these parents for maintenance program work like occasional gardening project or cutting the grass of the school compound. We even discussed with the parents a schedule where each parent is expected to sign up twice a month for cooking duty at the school so the school doesn't have to spend money to pay a cook, and can focus on buying things like school materials and paying teacher salaries!

On Sunday, we hosted a Parents' Day Celebration, where the community came to celebrate the progress of the school. This year the celebration included an award ceremony where students who excelled in particular subjects or showed maturity beyond their years, were given gifts. I cannot tell you how excited they were to receive the practical gifts of bedding, shoes, and backpacks! Children cheered and parents' danced and ululated with joy! I took this opportunity to explain to the community all the other projects we have started at the school like the piggery, the new goat-rearing program, the clean water project, and the compostable toilets, and how we hope these new programs can help the school become more sufficient and encourage others in the community to send their children to school. 

One of the goats given to St. Paul School from the holiday gift giving program.

New backpack!

New shoes!

We also had new furniture delivered to the school, since they have been without sufficient school desks since the completion of the new school building! 

I also came with some new children's books to add to their library, they will clearly get a lot of use!