Vision

It is our desire to use our talents and resources to assist the teachers at primary schools in eastern Uganda in providing their students the best education possible.

We also plan to use our association to provide a connection between primary schools in Uganda and in our community in order to enrich the educational experiences of students at both.

Time in Uganda

What's New

The latest One Word post can be found by scrolling down to the post entitled Ujumbe Redefined.

Labels are used to identify the subject matter in the various posts. The blog can be sorted by label by picking from the list in the Labels box in the right margin, just below Contacts.

New letters access!!
All of the letters from the students at Aturukuku and Patewo Primary Schools can now be viewed... check them out in the box below! When you click on the image, the album will open in a new window. From there, you can scroll through the collection and read what the African students wrote to their US counterparts.

Letters from Primary School Students in Uganda

Background

During our first trip to Uganda in 2006, we visited Aturukuku Primary School in the town of Tororo in the far eastern part of the country. The school had 13 teachers and about 350 students in grades P1 through P7.

We learned that all of the teachers walked to and from work, requiring a good deal of their time and energy. The school had no running water and no electricity. There was no library at the school and no means for the teachers to make copies of materials for their own use or for the students. These issues were distractions from the primary job of the teachers ~ lesson preparation and leading the students in their studies.

How could we not try and find some way to help, to share something of what we had with these children who called us Muzungu (white man) and welcomed us under that marvelous tree in front of the school...


...with singing and dancing. And a poem...

So we did what we could, with much help from church families, friends, coworkers and local schools. It seemed to be so little, but it meant much to the school in Tororo. Reports of the projects at Aturukuku are in posts in this blog.

Then, during our visit in 2008, we met with the teachers at Patewo Primary School in the rural area west of Tororo Town. There are 7 teachers for an enrollment in grades P1 through P7 of almost 700 students! Our plan is to meet with the school staff in 2010 about the barriers they face in providing the kind of education they would like the students to have and how we might be able to remove at least some of them.

Projects Completed

Posts with details are available for the highlighted projects. Lists below are in "Blog post" order - the item connected to the newest completed project is first. Scroll through the posts to find the descriptions...

At Aturukuku Primary School in Tororo
Books to begin library
Document processing equipment for the office
Letter exchange between U.S. and Ugandan students
Uniforms for students
Water and electricity
Bicycles for the teachers

Ujumbe Redefined

...Last year you were the first not only to give but also to have the desire to do so. Now finish the work, so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it, according to your means. For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what one does not have.
2 Corinthians 8:10-12

Ujumbe. One Word, meaning Mission. Our mission in Uganda is multi-faceted, including work with three churches, two primary schools and a missionary team in Mbale. We touched bases with most of these during our recent visit to eastern Uganda, but I think the One Word Ujumbe is illustrated quite well in our association with Patewo Primary School.

Patewo is located in Paya, a rural area several miles west of Tororo, our "home base" so to speak. Our mission this year was to acquire textbooks for four subjects and all seven grades at the school and to get a bicycle for each of the teachers.

While the trip in general and the arrangements for these items in particular, were not without their moments of drama, in the end the books and bikes were delivered and are now being used for the benefit of the students and teachers as they strive to improve academic performance.

The students study English, math, science and social science. There are 10 teachers for 719 students in grades P.1 through P.7 with enrollment weighted towards the lower grades. There are only four classrooms and a small office/storage room combination in the two tin-roofed, cement buildings. In addition to these facilities, the Anglican church across the road provides space for one class and the other two meet under "temporary" roofs supported by rough poles erected at one end of each of the buildings.

One of the Two "Temporary" Classrooms

P.4 Class Meeting in the Still-Under-Construction Church

We discussed the possibility of helping the school during our 2010 visit. The Patewo staff put together a list of books and other teaching materials that they could use. We learned that students who had access to appropriate textbooks scored better on the Primary Leaving Exams that seventh graders must pass in order to go on to secondary school. So, we decided to focus on acquiring textbooks – about one book for every three students, this considered to be representative of a well-equipped school.

On Tuesday morning, we drove up to Patewo to be greeted by about 500 people from the school and the neighboring community. I am familiar with the warm greeting offered by our hosts, but never cease to be humbled by the enthusiasm and graciousness. And this day was no different, with singing and dancing and speeches.

Just a Part of the Large Group that Came to Greet Us

Speeches are a necessary part of any ceremony in Uganda, but the ones delivered today were special. The teachers, parents and students all offered promises to use the books to improve academically. We had stressed that this project was a partnership and that getting the books, while it might seem like a big thing, was the easy part. Using them in a serious effort to do better academically was the really important part. And the hard part. We were overwhelmed by the seriousness with which the promises to do their parts were made.

The books were purchased from MK Publishers in Kampala and delivered to the school to be unloaded by the students, counted and put onto the specially made bookcase in the small storage room.

Students Unloading the Books

Alex (left; Headmaster) and Samuel with Books on the New Bookshelf

After all of this, the pickup truck we had hired made it up with the 11 bicycles. There was one for each teacher plus one for a "staff member," a lady from the community who every day cooked porridge over an open fire for the students' lunch. She did not expect to be getting a bike and was so grateful that it brought tears to my eyes.

Bikes for the Teachers

We came back to Patewo on Wednesday as there were some issues with the book order - we needed a few more of a couple of the books and had received far too many teachers' guides. During the visit, we checked in on the classes to find the books already in use.

Books in Use

One Word

Ujumbe

We called our project a mission, but it is the teachers, parents and students of Patewo Primary School who have put so much into the school and their children who truly embody the spirit of Ujumbe. Thank you for allowing us to be part of your mission.
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