Kevin and Elspeth visit Feb 2025

Trustees’ Visit February/March 2025 Kevin and Elspeth Riley visited Uganda accompanied by 6 friends from February 20-March 4 2025. It was a very successful trip: the projects were inspiring and taking friends will have an impact on fundraising and friend raising. Although ‘well travelled’ our friends found Uganda an amazing and emotionally overwhelming experience. Steve Ryan described his day at Kalengo as ‘a day he will never forget’ in his speech to the assembled guests.

Our first school visit was to the school in Kampala to meet (L to R) Betty, Patricia Valentine and Emmanuela, all former Mama Elisabeth students now at secondary school (Namugongo) and supported by trustees individually (except for Valentine).

We then stayed in Jinja overnight before arriving in Kumi.

We visited the rock paintings at Njeru

and then visited Kalengo, Okorom and Agolitom in that order. We were very pleased to receive from Florence at Agolitom a report on ‘The Bujagali Zone’ (previously distributed) and a letter of appreciation. It was very heartening to see this evidence of the three schools working together and being supported by the local government agencies as ‘the Bujagali Zone’. The schools are following the business plan developed in partnership with Patrick and the report highlights the dormitories and the nursery buildings as the next projects to be developed.

The Riso machine is situated at Okorom, having been fully operational it is not being used at the moment due to issues with the external electricity supply to the school. Martin and Grace were suprised to hear this and we emphasised to them the importance of getting the machine operational, especially given the emphasis in the report on using practice papers for the PLE. There is a new Headteacher at Okorom-Thomas-who had been in post 3 weeks. James and Florence remain in post at Kalengo and Agolitom. All 3 schools remain in good shape physically although we will need to support some maintenance there soon.

The main concern/issue which was emphasised to us by the Headteachers was the lack of teachers provided by the government (the ratio is supposed to 53/1). By this measure Agolitom requires 7 more teachers and we saw I class with a roll of 115 students.

We detected some tension between the schools/communities and the local government over this and the knock on effect of very large class sizes which in turn affects the quality of the teaching. This was highlighted in retrospect by our visit to Mama Elisabeth where there are many more teachers (2 to a class) and the impact was clear to see. The textbooks we provide are clearly a very valuable resource when the teacher is dealing with such large numbers. Attendance in the afternoon is also an issue because the schools do not provide a midday meal. Children go home and do not return or those who stay and do not eat find it difficult to concentrate.

There is little we can do to affect this situation but it does highlight the difference between the state and private schools. In the former the Chair of Parents Association has an important role in encouraging parents to send their children to school and to ensure that they have ‘scholastic materials’-exercise books etc. There are clear differences between the 3 schools in the support provided by the parents.

Overall however we were encouraged by the clear sense of purpose in the 3 schools and the progress the children are making. There are some systemic issues which we have little influence over but Martin and Grace have excellent working relationships with the schools and the local government.

We then moved on to Gulu where we visited the existing Mama Elisabeth site and then opened the classroom block and offices at the new Olony campus.

At the existing site we were entertained by the students at assembly and visited classrooms. There is a palpable air of purpose and energy at Mama Elisabeth which is very uplifting.

The teachers are very impressive. There are 2 teachers in every class Nursery to P6 and 4 teachers in P7, offering subject specialism. The fees are Ush 50,000 every quarter plus 20k of beans and 50k of posho. Mama Elisabeth is the cheapest private school in Gulu. Teachers are paid Ush 300,00 per month (government teachers receive Ush 400,00 per month). So we saw very clearly the trade off for teachers in the schools we support: less money but better working conditions at Mama Elisabeth compared to more money but far larger classes at the Kumi schools.

The new campus at Olony has enormous potential and the water supply has made a truly humbling impact on the local community.

The new building is of a very high quality (including 2 flush toilets and tiled bathrooms)and the plans for the development of the campus are impressive.

The local community were very welcoming.

There are a number of Sudanese refugee children at the school who performed a traditional dance for us.

Patrick and Grace had also produced a school magazine which sets out the ‘12 years journey’ of Mama Elisabeth- we have copies for the Trustees. It’s a very uplifting read.

P6 and P7 have already relocated to the new campus and Patrick has made an additional request for the installation of solar power and to bring the purchase of beds for the girls dormitory forward.

We had a wonderful time in Uganda and were pleased to see the schools working well and the systems we have in place delivering real improvements for the local people. It was humbling and uplifting in equal measure.