Amazing Grace

We also support a school out here.  Quite an inspiring story.  Its only 10 years old but it gets better results than the other schools in the area.

In Uganda you need papers to enrol in school.  If you are a refugee, you wont have papers.  See where I’m going?  So, a group of village elders and church leaders decided to form a private school, thus bypassing the government system and the “no papers” issue.  They opened on 21 Feb 2012, in the shade of a mango tree.

Today, 10 years later, there are 410 children, interestingly of both South Sudanese and Ugandan parents, on the roll.  It has Nursery (3 year groups) and Primary (7 year groups) sections and now boasts 4 classroom blocks and a library.  There are also several grass thatch buildings; store rooms, the kitchen, an overspill classroom and dormitories.  Needless to say there are latrines, and a barely modest ‘bathroom’ area for the boarders.

There was a staff training session that afternoon, so the children were effectively having unsupervised ‘free time’ so I just wandered amongst them, hanging out, finding out.  They were remarkably disciplined and well occupied, far from my school memories!  After some chat, one class asked me to come in and teach them!  Err OK (no cuff too tough, as one of my old Navy pals used to say).  We discussed career choices and how we should value all different occupations.  It was the best I could do.

Three of the buildings have solar power, we hope to hook the other two up by the end of the year.  There are no smart boards; the wall is polished concrete, painted black with chalk on hand.  But power means light, maybe even laptops and access to the internet, real opportunities for the children to learn more, and they have the appetite.

There is so much more I haven’t shared, but I can assure you it was a truly inspiring experience.

 Did I mention the name of the school?  Amazing Grace.