Nyakabungo Primary School

Update from Trustee visit February 2010:

• Nyakabungo school is functionning well
• Godfrey’s brother, Precious, is now the Head teacher there
• The gum trees that threatened the school buildings have now been cut down
• I delivered letters from pupils of Barrowcliff School, Scarborough and received replies to deliver on my return
• I also presented them with some lego sets collected for me by a friend who works in a charity shop

Update from visit

It had been nearly four years since we last climbed the hill to the school at Nyakabungo.

The classrooms built out of mud were no longer there. They had been destroyed in the floods of 2007 that had devastated the region. Instead, a long, impressive structure stood at the brow of the hill. While the walls are bare and the doors still need to be painted, the building is solid and marks a vast improvement from what the children had before.

This has been built to last and to ensure that amidst all the uncertainty in the Nyakabungo students' lives, they can rely on receiving an education.

Talking to the children, it quickly became apparent how much school means to them.

For many of them it involves a long journey that can take them anything up to two hours each way. While many more of them were wearing shoes than last time we visited, there is still a considerable number who are forced to make the walk barefoot. Even those who do have something to wear tend to have shoes that are far too large as their parents don't want to continuously buy shoes for their children. Yet despite the discomfort and the tiring journey, the prospect of reaching schools appears to be all the motivation they need.

Shy, polite and respectful, they each whispered that coming to school makes them happy.

It represents an escape for them. for the girl whose mother runs a bar in their house, for the boy with no father who repairs the roof in the morning and collects water in the evenings, and for the little girl whose mother ran away after killing her father.

Each child seems to have a heart-wrenching story to tell that provides a revealing insight into the struggles they have had to overcome. They are mature beyond their years and stoical in their refusal to be overwhelmed by their private battles. The school at Nyakabungo is providing them with the chance to dream about a better life, and about creating their own story. They want to be doctors, nurses, and teachers.

Sponsors who are providing the money for their education are helping to make these dreams become reality. Step by step they are seeing improvements. As well as the new school building, they now have a proper sanitary block, which we opened while we were there.

The next goals are to build a dining hall with a kitchen and create a sports field. At the moment they run amongst the sycamore trees that tower over the school, but many of them would love the chance to play football.

Importantly, the teaching standards are high (see 2008 Results). Morale at the school seemed high.

We left Nyakabungo feeling encouraged that the school seems to be progressing so well and that the children there are thriving.

Our goal is to ensure that in the next four years we can open many more chapters in the unfolding story of Nyakabungo school.

New: Mar 09

Updated Nyakabungo strategy

Following visits from two trustees, John Lewis and John Rutherford, in July 2008, Nyakabungo School was highlighted as being amongst the most needy in the area.

The following strategic aims have been requested:

• Build boys' and girls' dormitories
• Build dining hall and kitchen
• Buy school truck
• Buy land above school to prevent damage to buildings from the trees there
• Create a healthcare facility
• Increase qualifications of teaching staff
• Stabilise cashflows so that salaries and other payments are made on time
• Widen curriculum scope and provide corresponding material resources
• Level land at the front of the school to create three levels of playground

New: Oct 08

Nyakabungo Primary

Have you ever looked at the pictures of starving children and felt powerless to help?

How can you be sure that your money reaches the destination and will it make any difference?

These are feelings and concerns that we have shared, but we believe that by starting small we can make a big difference.

While most charities focus on trying to transform a whole country, CURED wants to begin by changing one community for the better.

Our vision sees the town of Nyakabungo being turned into a self-sustaining community that can act as an inspiration to others.

Currently, the average townsman earns three pounds a week, lives in a mud hut and has no personal possessions. There is no health care and very few children will receive an education.

They go to school barefoot and sit three to a bench. The walls of their rooms have cracks so wide that the school has already been threatened with closure.

These are the fortunate ones. The rest have no hope and no future.

That can change.

With only a couple of pounds a week given to sponsor a child, the whole community can benefit.

For a start, your money will help to pay for the child's education, increasing their chances of a future career, which will benefit the local economy.

But also a portion of it will go towards supporting the child's family - the parents and children who are not able to go to school.

This approach aims to empower the families to play a role in their community at the same time as preparing their children for the future.

As more money is put into the community we believe that other areas in the region will also feel the impact.

We believe that a little can do a lot.

Please help us make the people of Nyakabungo believe that too.

2008 Exam Results

PLE results have just come in and once again all our schools have done very well. All but one child have passed in the first and second grades. We have no grade 4 or fails!

To put this achievement in context for you, a total of 3,400 candidates from more than 150 schools sat the exam in our district. 137 of these got a first grade of whom 13 are from the 3 CHIFCOD schools which had nearly 80 candidates. The remaining CHIFCOD children fall in the top 200 out of 3400.

Sponsored Run October '08

Jonathan Wynne-Jones is running the Bupa Great North Run on October 5th to raise money for CURED.

While a keen football and rugby player at school and university, he has never been much of a runner.

So 13 miles across hilly terrain in Newcastle will present a real challenge to him.

He would really appreciate any donations that you feel able to give to support the work of CURED in Uganda.

It would be a great encouragement to him for the run and more importantly would greatly help children at Nyakabungo who live in extreme poverty.

Just click this button to make a credit card donation:

We are currently trying to raise money for teachers at the local school, who have gone unpaid for months, and for buildings that were destroyed in recent floods.

New Oct 08

CURED Charity Launch

The Coalition for Ugandan Rural Enterprise Development (CURED) was launched on March 6 at a pub quiz in Balham. Around 80 people attended the charity's first event and nearly Ł3,000 was raised, making the night a real success. There was a great atmosphere at the pub, the Bedford, with a healthy rivalry during the quiz and strong support for the goals of the charity.

A number of people also agreed to sponsor some of the children at Nyakabungo school, which has given real encouragement to the community.

Hamlet Mbabazi, one of the charity's partners in Nyakabungo, said that they are thrilled by the prospect of having the support from England.

News of flood damage

The following note was received from Uganda in November 2007. We will provide more information on what has happened and the plans to help when the news is available.

Most unfortunately, the recent heavy rains in Uganda swept away the main building of the Nyakabungo School, which we did not manage to rebuild in permanent materials in time due to lack of funds.

Our organization inherited the temporary structures when the community could no longer run the school largely used by orphans and other vulnerable children. We now have started to build with bricks a seven classroom building using our community labour and some funds that the friends in the US have managed to raise totaling about $12,000.

We will need $35,000 to get the building in usable form! Please let our friends know so that you can all pray and also ask if any financial help can be raised.

The Uganda Christian Development Mission in the USA and CURED in the UK are working to raise funds towards rebuilding the fallen buildings at Nyakabungo parents’ school.