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| Welcome to Kyabirwa Primary School!
Let us tell you about our school and our wonderful Volunteer Project!Our website is packed with information so that you'll have all the info you need to enable you to make an informed decision about coming to volunteer with us.
Kyabirwa Primary School is a government school, close to Bujagali Falls, near Jinja in Uganda. The school's budget is tiny when compared to schools in the developed world. Ugandan schools receive less than $2 per child per year and Ugandan prices are not as low as you might think. Many things cost the same as in the UK, including petrol which is nearly twice what Americans pay. So this per capita funding doesn't go very far!
The school is about 4 miles from Jinja. Until a few years ago, Kyabirwa School was just a collection of shacks. Then it was decided to build a dam on the Nile, not far from the school. This means that soon the famous Bujagali Falls will be flooded and there will be nothing there to attract tourists. Rafting and kayaking have brought in income as gap year students, tourists and volunteers have come here see the falls and to raft. A small infrastructure of basic tourist services has grown up. When the Falls are gone, there will be nothing to attract people to the area. There will be an economic void.
As compensation to the local community, the school shacks were replaced by ‘solid’ buildings. Classroom construction is of a very poor quality. The concrete floors are so soft that termites come up through them. Bats drop from the ceiling spaces. The windows aren’t glazed so the red dust of our land blows in, constantly covering everything.
The Head Teacher of Kyabirwa Primary School and Volunteer Director is Robinah Musakira. One of our 15 teachers, Moses Owino, is the Volunteer Project Manager.
There are between 1,000 and 1,500 children at the school, with classes ranging from 50 to 200 pupils. Numbers vary throughout the year depending on families' finances and whether children are needed for farming.
Our school is poor even for a Ugandan school, although due to the apparently solid looking buildings it doesn’t look too bad. It’s a rural school where the parents live by subsistence farming and don't have a significant income. The average income in Uganda is £300 p.a. – half that of most of sub Saharan Africa. The income of subsistence farmers is far lower, often as little as £7 a month.
Many of our children are orphans or partial orphans. Average life expectancy is 48 years. HIV/AIDS means that Uganda has a huge proportion of orphans. There are about 1.5 million AIDS orphans. 6% of the population have AIDS. Orphans or children unable to live with their parents are bottom of the heap in the extended family household. They usually go to poor schools such as ours, are the last to benefit in the home and have to do more family chores than the parent's natural children so they are tired and less able to concentrate.
Parents have to provide uniforms, textbooks, pens and exercise books, resulting in their being unable to send all the children to school at the same time, if ever. So, it tends to be this child this year and that child next.
Consequently, there are adults of 18 still trying to finish primary school. Of those who manage to find the money to start secondary school, some are still trying to complete it at the age of 28. Most who start secondary school have dropped out by the end of Year 2. They need to complete at least Year 4 of their secondary education to be accepted for an apprenticeship.
Uganda Schools have very few teaching and learning resources. This is true of our school. Our resources don’t even fill a small room. The school only has about 150 donated reading or storybooks. Textbooks are expensive so we can't provide many. There aren’t enough to go round so children spend most of their time copying from the board.
Teachers non contact time is for marking and planning. Can you imagine marking 50 -150 books per lesson? 
Our teachers aren't even given basic supplies such as pens, blue tack and board dusters.
We are proud of our teachers at Kyabirwa Primary School. They are dedicated to the children and rarely demonstrate any of the negative emotions one might expect when working in these circumstances. Their relationships with the children are jovial and caring. Their only expressed regret is that they can’t give the children individual or group time. Beatings are common in many schools but at our school corporal punishment is rarely used. We use positive reinforcement and small awards to encourage effort and good behaviour. Our children are good and fun.
Most children don’t get breakfast or lunch so their concentration is poor, especially in the afternoons. Porridge for every child, every day, is now being provided by kind UK donors. It improves nutrition and their ability to concentrate. Lunch for the teachers and the childen's porridge is prepared in the new kitchen - both also provided through volunteer help. There are insufficient funds to provide a proper meal, such as posho and beans but it is a great start and has already made a difference.
There isn’t a school hall so assembly is on the field where children can’t sit because the grass is wet.
The school office is small, furniture old and sparse - some is broken. We don't even have a typewriter.
Teaching and Learning resources are pitifully few.
These are the priorities for the development of our school:
• Teaching and learning resources. Please see lists compiled by teachers on the Volunteer Documents
page. Please don't bring text books from your home country as they are unlikely to be suitable for our curriculum or match up with existing resources. Text books may be ordered and purchased from the Uganda Bookshop in Jinja. Just consult the Head Teacher and Project manager who will help you.
• Science equipment and raw materials for experiments - also detailed in Volunteer Documents • Cupboards and shelving for the new staff room and for almost every classroom are very much needed
for resource storage. These start at about £50 and can be made and purchased locally.
• Physiology models• More Laptops - working, second hand are fine - with good batteries • Second hand Digital Cameras for photos as teaching resources• Typewriters, office equipment to improve planning and teaching
materials, teacher in service training resources, record keeping, and
reporting. Office chairs.• More teacher's accommodation so that teachers can live at the
school and have more time to spend helping children after school
and supervising extra-curricular activities and evening classes.
• Electricity - wiring recently installed in the office and one class
room, but we can't afford to actually connect and use it yet which
we need to do so that we can charge the few ancient laptops we
have. In addition we want to use the buildings in the evenings but
would need lighting from about 6pm, to be able to hold classes.• A small building to use as a library. This would be used to house the book collection as it builds up and as a study centre for children for research purposes as well as for recreational reading and
homework.• A small building to use as a store room so that the current store
room can revert to use as a classroom when needed. • More classrooms
• Musical equipment • Netball posts and baskets and any other sports equipment such as baseball bats and balls, volley ball net
and ball.• P.E. Kit - all sizes • Play equipment - Skipping ropes, bats and racquets, small balls• The school grounds need fencing - barbed wire with concrete posts set in concreteDonors don't need to supply all of something. A donor could supply just one of the 5 office chairs we need or some science equipment or 10 text books.
We are deeply grateful for the help we receive, but most of all we are just immeasurably glad that they have cared enough to travel so far to come to be with us. It has changed our outlook completely by raising our spirits from the depths. Thank you all a million times!
Read on to the Volunteer Project page to learn how we are continuing to use our volunteer project to help our children and ourselves - and how YOU too might help by coming to volunteer at our school. | |
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