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How you can help
Children praying as
they prepare to start the farewell concert for a volunteer.
- Volunteer at Kyabirwa Primary
School
Read on to learn about
volunteering at the Kyabirwa Primary School Volunteer Project near Bujagali
Falls, Jinja, Uganda. All profits from the
very small volunteer
fee will help to develop the school.
Volunteers can undertake a variety of work at the school from every form and
subject of teaching or
sports coaching to construction work, carpentry - constructing much needed storage and
shutter
stays and repairs, buildings maintenance, electrical wiring, painting, etc.
You can simply make a
donation to the Project which will be added to the fund until there is
sufficient to
pay for one of the items on the long list of things
the school needs.
Donations may be sent via
Western Union or directly to the school's project bank account.
For full details of how to
transfer money please look for the 'How to make a Donation
Document'
on the Volunteer Documents page of this website.
100% of donations will be spent on providing
equipment and developing the school. There aren't any
middle men.
Prior to
making the donation, donors will agree with staff how their donation will be
spent and be
provided with photographic
evidence of the completion of their project.
Some volunteers raise funds prior to coming. They then use
these to buy items for the school or even
to initiate a big project. In the case of a big project such as the
water tank, kindly donated by
Gemma Rickman , the initial arrangement work can be achieved prior to
the donor coming out to the
Project. The donor is then more likely to see the fruits of their efforts completed during their time
with us. Ask the Project Manager if this possibility might apply to something you would like to provide. Volunteers don't have to
fund raise and it isn't a criterion for acceptance or being valued when
you're here. We esteem all our
volunteers, equally. We recommend that before you fund raise for a particular project you would like to help us with, you
discuss it with Moses and Robinah just in case someone else is already raising money for this. It's
probable that no-one will be, or that even if they are it will still be good if you can help if the amount
needed is large. As we need so much, there are sure to be other things we badly need so you will be
able to fund raise for something worthwhile and hopefully see it in place during your time with us.
Examples of what your money could provide:
Accommodation for 4 teachers £4,500
(this has been started but needs to be completed)
and their families.
Block of 3 classrooms
£5000 -£6,000
Food store (rat and bat proof)
£2,000
Fencing for the school grounds £1,500
barbed wire, concrete posts
Extension of electrical
wiring £pro rata depending on extent of extension (work only to be
undertaken by qualified electricians)
Filing cabinets for office
£100 each
Cupboard for store/office/class £60 or
more depending on size - badly needed for most
classrooms
Chairs - teachers use in classooms £8 each - 15 are needed so that all teachers may be seated
Large padlocks for classroom doors £5 each
(essential for security)
Story
books £1/£2 each
Blu Tack for wall mounting pictures £1
(protect our walls - we often use glue as we can't
afford Blu Tack)
Teachers have also compiled lists of the current needs for
their subject areas. You can
find these lists on the Volunteer Documents page of our website.
It's a good
idea for volunteers to accompany staff when they make purchases with their
donations as it provides insight into the commercial life of Uganda and helps
volunteers to feel totally involved.
Recent volunteers have very kindly
bought some reading books, netball equipment, a 60,000 litre water tank and the
metal doors, shutters and cupboards to make a secure store room for school
resources. More, culturally appropriate, reading books are needed very
much.
Please, don't bring text books from other countries as the
Ugandan curriculum will be different. Please, also don't bring culturally
inappropriate or old reading books.
It's impossible to
send items by post as they weigh too much. Airlines are now resistant to giving
extra luggage allowance or making space
available on flights.
Therefore, there is a limit to how
much can be brought from abroad. In fact there are very good arguments for not
taking most items.
Many items are better bought in Uganda where their manufacture and purchase provides local
income
and employment. Kenya Airways has an excellent luggage allowance.
The
following items could be taken out by volunteers going to the school and given to the Head
Mistress for equitable distribution amongst the staff so that they can become computer literate
in prepa ration for the day when they have computers that can be used
with the children:-
1. Second hand laptops
with their chargers - working order
2. Second hand digital cameras with chargers - working
3. Second hand mobile phones with charger - working
4. Data sticks - second hand, working order
5. Trailing multi-point electrical sockets - these
must be
surge proof due to the
volatile nature of the supply in
Uganda and also to the electrical/thunder storms.
Uganda voltage is 220 volts - the same as the UK Computer lesson with
volunteer's Notebook
6. Solar charger for Project Manager's laptop to make managing the Project from home easier.
Items for the staff room
These
items would be wonderful for staff to have as a staff 'library' in the
staff room. Teachers only earn £55 a month from which they support
their vast unemployed extended families. So they can rarely afford to buy a newspaper let alone a magazine.
Consequently, they know very little about the world at large.
So, if you took secondhand magazines such as New Scientist, National
Geographic, broadsheet newspapers etc. teachers would read them avidly and
learn a lot which would then inform their teaching. Perhaps someone
might find free standing bookshelves in Jinja to put them on or
plastic baskets to sort them by subject or title.
Moses has an old DVD player which he can use when his generator is working. So, you could take DVDs for him to play. Please only take DVDs with content suitable for small children.
No sex, violence, drugs or anything else that might frighten or
corrupt. David Attenborough type documentaries are ideal. Staff and
neighbours would come to watch these too.
All the items listed on this page, are small enough that they can be packaged to
go as an extra luggage allowance for which you will need to apply to the
airline, or carried in volunteers' backpacks as part of carry on luggage. Some airlines
actually allow you two suitcases in addition to carry on luggage - for example:
Kenya Airways and KLM - 23kgs x 2 per person checked in luggage plus 10kgs carry on!
The IT items would make a big difference to the
teachers ability to make teaching resources, keep records, track progress etc.
Pupils would have access to them to learn computer skills including making
documents, data presentation etc. Although the school currently
doesn't have electricity until we can afford to pay for it, we would be able to
charge items using local facilities about a mile
away. We are hoping that the school may soon be connected so that the wiring installed by a volunteer in the office and one classroom, can be used.
If you
have any such items or can collect them before coming everyone
at the school would be very grateful.
 
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