Grew's News 3: Hope For Youth School, Uganda

Our last school visit was to the Hope For Youth school, in rural Uganda. This school is thriving, in part, due to donations from a variety of organizations and individuals, including CanAssist. Despite the fact that it was a school holiday the community turned up in full force. Many of the current and former students and teachers were there to greet us. It was a beautiful hot and sunny day. We had a tour of the school, serving some 300+ students from P1 to P7 (grade one to grade 7), and a tour of their extensive gardens, where we saw crops ranging from cassava, tomatoes, and maize to oranges, pumpkins and passionfruit. Food from these gardens helps to feed the students and the excess is sent to market to secure funds for school and community needs. I was impressed with the fact that this school started with only seven children and now it is a full service Primary School similar in size to my school, Truedell Public. They have latrines, a bore well, a water tank and now a teachers' quarters paid for in part, or in full, by CanAssist. The teachers' quarters are almost done and they will be a huge benefit to the school. It is very difficult to entice good teachers to rural areas. They are paid very little and often have to pay for accommodations some distance from the school. By providing good quality accommodation at the school large enough to house the teacher and his or her family, Hope for Youth will now be able to lure good teachers looking for a more permanent placement. This will be good for the teachers, good for the students and good for the community. Happy teachers = happy students. This is a consistent formula, no matter where you are in the world.
The children, led by teacher, Diana Nandujja, performed some amazing songs and dances, including an interpretive dance featuring the life of the village and the benefits of improvements such as latrines and wells, to the health and well-being of the community. After the entertainment and our presentation of books and resources paid for by funds from OTF, ETFO Limestone Local and others, we had a wonderful communal lunch under a nearby tree. The school community provided delicious local foods such as baked Irish potatoes, matoke, (stewed green bananas), sweet potatoes, beans, baked pumpkin, ground nut (peanut) sauce, and rice, while we contributed pizza and oranges. It was a melange of flavours and delicious to the last bite. What a satisfying end to our trip. All that remained was a long drive through Kampala, a stop at a hotel for a shower and a meal and then the long flights home.