St George's News

Kabawaala Infant School was built by the local community in 2012 because their youngest children were unable to walk the 5-6km to the nearest government-funded primary school. 2 mud buildings were built with roofs made of polythene and sacks. The nursery class were taught under the shade of a tree.

Suubi Community Projects were approached for help in 2016 and agreed to do so in memory of Lauren Patterson. Lauren is remembered fondly from her time as a teaching assistant at St George’s School, Luxembourg.  Many Suubi supporters from Luxembourg have children at St George’s school. Suubi supporters in Luxembourg have fundraised over the last 4 years towards school fees and supplies, school meals, medical bills, the renovation of a hospital and wells for clean water across the Mukono district of Uganda. Some children from St George’s school have asked for donations in lieu of Birthday gifts.

The local community are peasants typically living on less than 40 dollars per month. Women take much of the responsibility for raising children as most men are sadly addicted to drinking a locally-brewed alcohol. An average woman has six children to care for.

There are 362 children registered at the school, but around 30 percent are absent each day due to sickness, hunger or sometimes because the child must help at home. Some are absent as their parents can’t afford to pay school fees or provide school supplies. There are 5 school year groups and children are aged approximately 5-10 years (some children have missed considerable amounts of schooling and are in a class normally for much younger children).  The school has 6 teachers who are paid 45 dollars per month. However, the school has been having problems finding funds to pay the teachers because many of the school parents are struggling to pay school fees.

A day in the life of a typical child at Lauren’s school:

6:00am – get up and walk to school often without breakfast. Most children don’t have shoes.  The average distance is 2km but the majority in the younger classes walk less than 1km.

7:00am – lessons start (morning break 10.30-11.30)

1:00pm – lunch break - normal school lunch is corn porridge but only around 45 percent of children can afford this. Many children can be seen sitting on verandas, hungry and sad. Some children play and scavenge for food in nearby fields – mainly jackfruit which is a common wild fruit.

2:00pm – lessons restart

4:30pm – a general assembly for sports or cleaning work

5:00pm – walk home where some children will be given a snack before chores such as collecting water, working in the fields or domestic chores.

7:00pm – family supper cooked outside of the house.

Houses typically have a small reception room, a bedroom for parents and a bedroom for all the children. Sometimes rooms are separated by curtains instead of walls. Very few children have beds.

The school families are very grateful to the organisation “Don Appetit” in Luxembourg which has provided some wonderful and popular school lunches to sustain the children. The special lunches are a nutritious meal of cornmeal and beans.  The new kitchen was generously funded by Awesome Cause Foundation.

A new classroom block was constructed with funds from Awesome Cause Foundation and St George’s families in 2016 and this is being used by the youngest children. A further classroom block is needed to replace the mud structures shown above - and Awesome Cause Foundation have generously pledged to double all donations towards it!

 “Friends of St George’s school” in Luxembourg are organising a disco on 24th February 2018 to fundraise for the construction of this new classroom block.