Nsiika
Nsiika School Development
I was recommended by a friend, Olle Jonasson, who used to work as a priest in Uganda to contact Ivan Clean, a singer and songwriter in Mbarara. Through him I got to visit a school in Nsiika for which his father Evaristus Batureine, a reverend, is responsible. The school receives local children from the countryside around it. Nsiika is located 70 km north of Mbarara (200,000 inhabitants) and 80 km east of the Queen Elisabeth National Park in the west part of the country. Once there I met quite a few people who work in the school for free. One of them is Elijah Mpumwire. He has started an organisation, Holistic, whose goal it is to support the children and families served by the school, as well as the school itself. Here is the website of Holistic.
The school building is rather new, not yet quite finished. The rubble on the right is what is left of the old building, which got damaged in a landslide. The children are on their way home for the lunch break. However, some of them won't get any food, so it's a goal for the school to start to provide at least one meal a day.
Ivan Clean with his son, given a Swedish name, Olle, and Ivan's father Evaristus, called Evary. He is one of the founders of the Holistic organisation. He is also an old friend of Olle Jonasson, board member of Skolsupport.
The children sit on mats on the ground and write on low tables. There is a great need of boooks and writing materials.
The children were asked who wanted to become a doctor in the future.
This is a kindergarten group. They sit in the church building nextdoor.
The landscape is very green and fertile. Cooking bananas make up a large share of the food.
Ivan and me in the front seat. Elijah Mpumwire, the young founder of the NGO Holistic in the back.
Skolsupport helps with co-financing:
Purchase of 60 locally built wooden desks for $ 3200
Drinking water well drilling and water treatment for $ 5000
Electricity installation in school structures: $ 900 (enhancing safety and productivity)
Rainwater harvesting and 2 x 5000-liter water tanks: $ 1,000 (ensuring access to clean water)
Pit latrine construction: $ 1,380 (improving sanitation and hygiene)
Organization office and rescue home construction: $ 5054 (providing a safe haven for abandoned and neglected children)
Money goes a long way in Uganda. Here children have been given books from a small contribution I made last year.
The organisation Holistic works towards the goal:
Rehabilitating and facilitating the development of vulnerable children and youth at risk, towards sustainability, human dignity, self-reliance and hope.
Empowering children in risk prone areas with formal education
Providing shelter to homelss children
This is a video by and with Elijah explaining what he and the organisation Holistic hopes to achieve: Breakfast and lunch for the children who go to school and ultimately building an orphanage since many children are born whose young mothers can't support them, often with absent fathers.