Kiwanula School Update
In the past 6 months we have amassed a group of local building experts, community members and area leaders in order to begin the construction of the school in Kiwanula. In Luwero, Sister Ernestine Akulu, the founder of Bishop Asili Hospital and a respected community leader with the highest integrity and a shrewd eye for business, is guiding us in this process. She has helped us meet some of the most respected and reliable contractors in the region. (View full slide show at bottom of post)
We have already met and reviewedplans with Contractor Fred, one of the best contractors inUganda, and an amazing example of “living positively.” He is HIV positive, but is very committed to working hard, supporting his church, and to showing the rest of the community that you can survive and do well while “living positively.”
( Contractor Fred)
One of the first things we did was to meet with the community to make sure that they are on-board with“co-investing” in building a school. The community will invest unskilled laborand help us make the bricks which will save quite a bit in terms of construction. The community has chosen and selected the committee that will oversee the building of the school from the community side. We insisted that there be 12 committee members and that the team is gender “equal.” Women are clearly the ones who will push this project forward. Women are very eager to share their experience and point of view about the importance of education.(Community members gather to discuss the building of the school.)
We have also visited a number of schools to see what model work best. This is St. Jude’s Primary School, the bestmodel we have seen and one that we will emulate for our model. Sister Ernestine has met with school leaders and received building advice and blueprints from the headteacher of the school.
Their school includes a school lunch program, which is essential to ensuring attendance, brain development, and attentiveness in the classroom. They raise cows, goats, ducks, bees and an assortment of vegetables that can be sold for income generation for school development or can be used to provide nourishment to the children. The children also come to the garden to get a hands-on learning experience. Proper gardening and agriculture techniques are important for any Ugandan’s future.
(A cow from St. Jude agriculturalprogram)
Currently we are dealing with the purchase of the land where the school will be built. (See pictures above.) There is a set of cultural protocol that must be observed when buying and selling land. Laws have been strengthened to protect land owner rights as illegal land has caused extreme tension in the country.
The land that we are purchasing on which to build the school was owned originally by a Rwandan man. When that man died he had a will allocating pieces of his land to his five children. Ugandan law states that one piece of land that is divided can be sold in pieces, but all owners of the original land must agree to sell off a piece. All five children have agreed to allow the piece of the land to be sold, but one of them lives and works in Rwanda.
Unfortunately the issue with the land has delayed the process slightly, but it's important that we remain patient and flexible in regards to cultural practices. Things will move quickly once the land title has been signed.
You can view a full slide show below.
<div style="width:288px;font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;"><div><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf" width="288" height="192" flashvars="host=picasaweb.google.com&captions=1&noautoplay=1&RGB=0x000000&feed=http%3A%2F%2Fpicasaweb.google.com%2Fdata%2Ffeed%2Fapi%2Fuser%2Fvivianglyck%2Falbumid%2F5227087477650786849%3Fkind%3Dphoto%26alt%3Drss" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></embed></div><span style="float:left;"><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/vivianglyck/KiwanulaSchoolUpdate" style="color:#3964c2">View Album</a></span><div style="text-align:right;"><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/getEmbed" style="color:#3964c2">Get your own</a></div></div>
