Burning wood from native forests to feed the nation’s school children is a major contributor to deforestation in Uganda. Installing solar water heaters in the Humanist schools is already beginning to make a significant difference locally. The heaters bring immediate benefits in terms of cost savings, reducing smoke inhalation by cooks and overcoming the logistical and cost nightmare of sourcing adequate supplies of firewood for cooking.
Following a successful pilot at Isaac Newton High School in February, we made an appeal for money to help the other Humanist schools. The response of UHST supporters was impressive. 6 individuals and couples donated the funds required for the equipment, building works and transport required for each of the remaining schools. So, since August, UHST supporters have facilitated the installation of solar water heaters at:
Katumba Parents’ Humanist Primary School
Kanungu Humanist School
Rukoki Humanist Primary School and Municipal High School, Kasese
Isaac Newton Primary School will be the 7th installation to follow shortly in their wake.
Katumba Parents Humanist Nursery and Primary School’s system, installed in August, has already saved the school 3 million Uganda shillings. They anticipate an annual saving of £1,800, which is twice the installation cost. This saving will occur for years into the future. Beyond the financial benefits, school cooks now have reliable access to hot water making food preparation easier, faster and less demanding. Meals arrive on time, and breakfast porridge is served without further cooking. Katumba’s reduced firewood use helps to maintain tree cover and holds the soil in place thus helping to combat landslides in this mountainous location. Financial savings will be made to improve children’s education, nutrition and welfare and to support the school’s drive for self-reliance and sustainability.
Impressive gains have been made at other schools too. Municipal Humanist High School in Kasese, with 130 students, used to buy two trucks of firewood per term. This term they purchased just one truck load, and are ending the term with firewood to spare.
At the much bigger Isaac Newton High School, with 850 students, the solar heater was installed in February. Firewood use fell from 14 to 9 lorry loads in the first term – a saving to the school of £300. Cost savings over 3 terms will repay the capital cost of the heater within a year.
We expect that when surrounding schools see the benefits to Humanist schools, they will begin to follow suit. If they do, the resulting demonstration effect will bring wider district and regional benefits in maintaining forest cover and biodiversity.
Cheap solar water heaters are imported from China and have only recently become available. They promise to make a huge positive contribution to preserving remaining tree cover right across Uganda. UHST supporters have put the Humanist schools in the vanguard of reducing the environmental impact of catering for Uganda’s children, while making our schools more sustainable financially.
A generous donor in France was looking for an original gift for his friends’ marriage. He approached UHST and we asked for ideas from the schools. From the ideas submitted a particularly imaginative project from Robert Bwambale, Director of the Kasese Humanist Schools has been chosen.
Promoting Humanism, Science, Reason, Compassion and Critical Thinking
Humanist schools aim to empower learners to become responsible citizens who can think independently, make informed decisions and contribute positively to society. Kasese Humanist School Club proposes two complementary activities to strengthen the practical expression of these values within the school environment.
Activity 1: Establishing a Talking Compound featuring attractive signposts, wall charts and educational displays carrying secular, humanist and scientific messages. This will make the school compound an educational space where learners encounter positive messages daily while providing opportunities for discussion, creativity, leadership and active participation.
Proposed activities include:
Designing and installing colourful signposts at strategic points around the school compound.
Painting selected walls with educational messages promoting science, reason, compassion and human dignity.
Displaying charts encouraging critical thinking, gender equality, environmental responsibility, peaceful coexistence and respect for human rights.
Establishing a Humanist Values Corner where students can read, reflect and share ideas. Involving students in designing messages, creating artwork and maintaining the displays.
The displays will promote secular ethics and humanist principles while respecting freedom of thought, conscience and belief.
Activity 2: Organizing a Humanist Values Day. An on-campus event where students and teachers will discuss, demonstrate and celebrate the values that guide the school community.
Opening remarks: Introduction to the purpose of the event and the importance of humanism in education.
Humanist values talk: A presentation on compassion, reason, equality, human dignity and responsibility.
Student debates: Topics such as “Can people be good without religion?” and “Why should schools encourage critical thinking?”
Poetry, drama and music: Student performances promoting humanity, peace, equality and scientific thinking.
Poster and chart exhibition: Display of student-created messages about secular ethics, science and human rights.
Science and reason session: Demonstrations and discussions showing how evidence and critical thinking help solve everyday problems.
Humanist pledge: Students voluntarily commit to honesty, kindness, fairness, respect and responsible action.
Recognition and closing remarks: Appreciation of participating students and a call to practise humanist values every day. The event will be inclusive, educational and participatory, encouraging respectful dialogue among people with different backgrounds and beliefs.
IMPLEMENTATION AND SUSTAINABILITY
Kasese Humanist School Club will coordinate the project under the guidance of school administration and supportive teachers.
Students will participate in planning, message development, artwork and event organization.
The school will maintain the signposts and displays, while club members will regularly review the messages and organize discussions and awareness activities.
Humanist values will be integrated into club meetings, assemblies, debates and other school activities. This approach will ensure that the project continues to benefit learners beyond the initial implementation period.
UHST hopes to use this model to stimulate proposals for similar projects in other Humanist schools
The price of a chocolate bars in rich consuming countries has been rising by over 15% a year. Major chocolate makers blame high cocoa prices for the rise in prices and yet they continue to generate billions in profits and maintain high profit margins, while peasant farmers in Africa, who produce the cocoa, struggle to scrape a living and to educate their children. The failure of chocolate manufacturers to help farmers who supply the precious cocoa is scandalous.
Healthy cocoa pods
Impact of storm damage on cocoa and plantains
Juma Siriwayo, Director of Katumba Parents’ Humanist Primary School, describes how climate-change induced storms are affecting their community and school.
Cocoa is the primary source of income for most families whose children attend Katumba School. Unfortunately, the first week of October brought unusually heavy rainfall, accompanied by destructive hailstorms and strong winds that severely damaged cocoa gardens across our community.
The storms struck cocoa flowers and mature cocoa pods, leaving many trees completely bare. This has dealt a devastating blow to farmers who were counting on the harvest to earn money for their families, pay school fees, purchase food and meet other essential needs. The situation has been compounded by mudslides and soil erosion, which have damaged gardens used for producing subsistence food crops, such as plantains.
The consequences for Katumba school are immediate and deeply concerning. With cocoa harvests destroyed and food gardens damaged, many parents have lost the income they depend on to support their children’s education. As we begin this school term, paying school fees will be difficult for many families, not because they are unwilling to pay, but because the natural disaster has deprived them of the means to do so.
For a school like Katumba, which serves many vulnerable children, including orphans and children from struggling households, this creates a serious challenge. We still must pay teachers, provide essential learning materials and meet operational costs even when parents cannot raise the required fees. At the same time, we fear that some children may miss classes or have their education interrupted simply because their families have lost their livelihoods.
The impact of the disaster has been heartbreaking. More than 46 households have been affected, including five families whose homes were washed away by mudslides. Sixteen households need replacement cocoa seedlings because their gardens have been severely damaged, meaning they must wait approximately three years before expecting new yields. (Juma Siriwayo, Katumba Primary School Director)
While affluent consumers in the rich world pay higher prices for their chocolate bars, most remain unaware that the true costs are borne by poor peasant farmers in Uganda, Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire. While middlemen and manufacturers cream off the profits, little is left for the poor farmers whose knowledge, skill and hard work ensures that high-quality cocoa is grown to make the fine chocolate that consumers crave. Farming families are left to survive on low and variable incomes. Man-made climate change exacerbates the situation. Torrential rains, causing floods and landslides, occur with increasing frequency and ferocity. We need responsible chocolate eaters everywhere to use their buying power to pressurise chocolate manufacturers to improve the situation for hard-hit cocoa farmers. Steps must be taken to stabilise the volatile incomes of cocoa farmers and to give them a fair share of total proceeds from the sale of chocolate. Cocoa producing countries should be allowed to add value to their product before export, without rich countries imposing swinging tariffs that keep the growers poor. It is unacceptable that cocoa families are forced to absorb shocks in the supply chain by withdrawing their children from school because they can no longer afford fees, while the profits of chocolate manufacturers get ever higher.
Posted: October 30, 2026 by Steve Hurd
Solar water systems save forests around Humanist schools
Burning wood from native forests to feed the nation’s school children is a major contributor to deforestation in Uganda. Installing solar water heaters in the Humanist schools is already beginning to make a significant difference locally. The heaters bring immediate benefits in terms of cost savings, reducing smoke inhalation by cooks and overcoming the logistical and cost nightmare of sourcing adequate supplies of firewood for cooking.
Following a successful pilot at Isaac Newton High School in February, we made an appeal for money to help the other Humanist schools. The response of UHST supporters was impressive. 6 individuals and couples donated the funds required for the equipment, building works and transport required for each of the remaining schools. So, since August, UHST supporters have facilitated the installation of solar water heaters at:
Isaac Newton Primary School will be the 7th installation to follow shortly in their wake.
Katumba Parents Humanist Nursery and Primary School’s system, installed in August, has already saved the school 3 million Uganda shillings. They anticipate an annual saving of £1,800, which is twice the installation cost. This saving will occur for years into the future. Beyond the financial benefits, school cooks now have reliable access to hot water making food preparation easier, faster and less demanding. Meals arrive on time, and breakfast porridge is served without further cooking. Katumba’s reduced firewood use helps to maintain tree cover and holds the soil in place thus helping to combat landslides in this mountainous location. Financial savings will be made to improve children’s education, nutrition and welfare and to support the school’s drive for self-reliance and sustainability.
Impressive gains have been made at other schools too. Municipal Humanist High School in Kasese, with 130 students, used to buy two trucks of firewood per term. This term they purchased just one truck load, and are ending the term with firewood to spare.
At the much bigger Isaac Newton High School, with 850 students, the solar heater was installed in February. Firewood use fell from 14 to 9 lorry loads in the first term – a saving to the school of £300. Cost savings over 3 terms will repay the capital cost of the heater within a year.
We expect that when surrounding schools see the benefits to Humanist schools, they will begin to follow suit. If they do, the resulting demonstration effect will bring wider district and regional benefits in maintaining forest cover and biodiversity.
Cheap solar water heaters are imported from China and have only recently become available. They promise to make a huge positive contribution to preserving remaining tree cover right across Uganda. UHST supporters have put the Humanist schools in the vanguard of reducing the environmental impact of catering for Uganda’s children, while making our schools more sustainable financially.
Posted: October 28, 2026 by Steve Hurd
Wedding gift funds imaginative school project
A generous donor in France was looking for an original gift for his friends’ marriage. He approached UHST and we asked for ideas from the schools. From the ideas submitted a particularly imaginative project from Robert Bwambale, Director of the Kasese Humanist Schools has been chosen.
Promoting Humanism, Science, Reason, Compassion and Critical Thinking
Humanist schools aim to empower learners to become responsible citizens who can think independently, make informed decisions and contribute positively to society. Kasese Humanist School Club proposes two complementary activities to strengthen the practical expression of these values within the school environment.
Activity 1: Establishing a Talking Compound featuring attractive signposts, wall charts and educational displays carrying secular, humanist and scientific messages. This will make the school compound an educational space where learners encounter positive messages daily while providing opportunities for discussion, creativity, leadership and active participation.
Proposed activities include:
The displays will promote secular ethics and humanist principles while respecting freedom of thought, conscience and belief.
Activity 2: Organizing a Humanist Values Day. An on-campus event where students and teachers will discuss, demonstrate and celebrate the values that guide the school community.
IMPLEMENTATION AND SUSTAINABILITY
Kasese Humanist School Club will coordinate the project under the guidance of school administration and supportive teachers.
Students will participate in planning, message development, artwork and event organization.
The school will maintain the signposts and displays, while club members will regularly review the messages and organize discussions and awareness activities.
Humanist values will be integrated into club meetings, assemblies, debates and other school activities. This approach will ensure that the project continues to benefit learners beyond the initial implementation period.
UHST hopes to use this model to stimulate proposals for similar projects in other Humanist schools
Read the full Kasese proposal..
Posted: October 26, 2026 by Steve Hurd
The true cost of a Chocolate Bar is felt at Katumba
The price of a chocolate bars in rich consuming countries has been rising by over 15% a year. Major chocolate makers blame high cocoa prices for the rise in prices and yet they continue to generate billions in profits and maintain high profit margins, while peasant farmers in Africa, who produce the cocoa, struggle to scrape a living and to educate their children. The failure of chocolate manufacturers to help farmers who supply the precious cocoa is scandalous.
Juma Siriwayo, Director of Katumba Parents’ Humanist Primary School, describes how climate-change induced storms are affecting their community and school.
Cocoa is the primary source of income for most families whose children attend Katumba School. Unfortunately, the first week of October brought unusually heavy rainfall, accompanied by destructive hailstorms and strong winds that severely damaged cocoa gardens across our community.
The storms struck cocoa flowers and mature cocoa pods, leaving many trees completely bare. This has dealt a devastating blow to farmers who were counting on the harvest to earn money for their families, pay school fees, purchase food and meet other essential needs. The situation has been compounded by mudslides and soil erosion, which have damaged gardens used for producing subsistence food crops, such as plantains.
The consequences for Katumba school are immediate and deeply concerning. With cocoa harvests destroyed and food gardens damaged, many parents have lost the income they depend on to support their children’s education. As we begin this school term, paying school fees will be difficult for many families, not because they are unwilling to pay, but because the natural disaster has deprived them of the means to do so.
For a school like Katumba, which serves many vulnerable children, including orphans and children from struggling households, this creates a serious challenge. We still must pay teachers, provide essential learning materials and meet operational costs even when parents cannot raise the required fees. At the same time, we fear that some children may miss classes or have their education interrupted simply because their families have lost their livelihoods.
The impact of the disaster has been heartbreaking. More than 46 households have been affected, including five families whose homes were washed away by mudslides. Sixteen households need replacement cocoa seedlings because their gardens have been severely damaged, meaning they must wait approximately three years before expecting new yields. (Juma Siriwayo, Katumba Primary School Director)
While affluent consumers in the rich world pay higher prices for their chocolate bars, most remain unaware that the true costs are borne by poor peasant farmers in Uganda, Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire. While middlemen and manufacturers cream off the profits, little is left for the poor farmers whose knowledge, skill and hard work ensures that high-quality cocoa is grown to make the fine chocolate that consumers crave. Farming families are left to survive on low and variable incomes. Man-made climate change exacerbates the situation. Torrential rains, causing floods and landslides, occur with increasing frequency and ferocity. We need responsible chocolate eaters everywhere to use their buying power to pressurise chocolate manufacturers to improve the situation for hard-hit cocoa farmers. Steps must be taken to stabilise the volatile incomes of cocoa farmers and to give them a fair share of total proceeds from the sale of chocolate. Cocoa producing countries should be allowed to add value to their product before export, without rich countries imposing swinging tariffs that keep the growers poor. It is unacceptable that cocoa families are forced to absorb shocks in the supply chain by withdrawing their children from school because they can no longer afford fees, while the profits of chocolate manufacturers get ever higher.