Covid and the Russian attacks on Ukraine have brought a good deal of misery to Uganda and these have provided a huge adverse negative shock to the finances of the Humanist and all other schools. However, there is light in the midst of the darkness. Here are some positive stories from Robert Magara, the Director of Kanungu Humanist Primary School. They give an insight into the way that a Humanist School can reach out to work closely with its community.
During the Covid lockdown, our school developed a small out-reach program to ensure our most vulnerable families received basic food supplies to help them through. This included delivering much needed mattresses to a vulnerable, elderly people.
A few weeks ago, heavy rains and storms caused massive flooding in our community, which is surrounded by high hills and deep valleys. This causes dangerous mud-slides and rivers to burst their banks, which leads to families being cut off for many weeks. One afternoon heavy flooding caused our little community bridge over the river to be washed away!
Our school was able to provide materials to rebuild the bridge and asked people from the local communities to come together and help. They agreed! Massive timbers were bought down from the forest and the bridge has been repaired. Because of this work, the Member of Parliament for our district has taken an interest in what we are doing and we are talking to him regarding building a permanent bridge here for the community and perhaps a proper road.
A little girl named Ritah was born with only one arm. Because of this, her mother abandoned her and she was raised by her grandmother. She was bought to our school nursery at age 3 years but the grandmother was unable to afford the school fees so we found a Sponsor in the UK who now, not only provides school fees for Ritah but also school uniform, shoes and other basic necessities.
We have also now been in contact with a charity in Canada who have agreed to help Ritah with a prosthetic arm. They have a team in a hospital in Uganda and we are in discussion with them to arrange transporting Ritah and her Grandmother there for discussion and measurements.
We have just employed a school secretary named Kate. She is a real asset for the school. Qualified in administration, Kate is responsible for school admin and over-seeing staff. The most important part of Kate’s skill-set is that she is local to the school and knows most of the parents in the community. She not only acts as a liaison between the school and parents but is a wonderful advocate for the children.
She is also involved with starting the Women’s Initiative and promoting the women’s health agenda in the community. This will also cover women’s rights, domestic abuse, contraception and pre/post-natal care. She has already had meetings with local women to discuss their shared problems and to discuss ways forward for everyone to work together in the principles of Humanism, which is to help each other, not just ourselves. Kate also travels extensively to visit the homes of our children to assess their situation outside of school and see what can be done to help. Kate is enthusiastic, full of good ideas and is always smiling!
We are very grateful to everyone helping our school community to develop.
Robert Magara, Director, Kanungu Humanist Primary School – Uganda
The picture was taken on 26 June when UHST Trustees arrived in Entebbe at the start of our tour of the Humanist Schools in Uganda. Our party comprised, from the left: Glenda Miller, Krystal White, Steve Hurd, Hilary Hurd, Chris Smith and Derek Miller. UK members had all visited Uganda before and 3 of us had lived in the country. We were pleased to be able to welcome along Krystal, from the Ethical Society of St Louis, who joined us for her first visit.
Our visit of 24 days took in the Humanist schools that our charity supports financially, Isaac Newton (Primary and High Schools), Mustard Seed (Primary and Secondary School), Kanungu Primary and Katumba Parents Primary. We spent 2 or 3 days at each of these schools observing, taking part in activities with the staff and students, and meeting members of the school Boards. Here are links to the full reports:
All four schools are doing well but in the face of extraordinary challenges. The rural economy was devastated by a prolonged Covid lockdown. Low incomes and exhausted savings have caused large arrears in school fee payments. There are huge inflationary cost rises, especially of school food, due to the war in Ukraine. We are determined to do our best to help them get through this and are launching a new appeal for additional funds. UHST’s regular supporters have always done their best to help where they can but, given the scale of the current problems, we feel that we will need to cast our net more widely and encourage Humanists from around the world to help in our bid to support the schools through these extraordinary times.
We were heartened to find that our pioneer schools are becoming beacons for Humanism in Uganda and other young Ugandans, including former students of the first Humanist schools, are taking the initiative to start new schools founded on positive Humanist philosophy. We made short visits to the following new Humanist schools: Eagle’s View Primary (started by a former Mustard Seed student), Star Classic Primary and New Hope Primary (both inspired by Irumba Juma Siriwayo from Katumba Humanist School). The tightness of our schedule prevented us from visiting Classical Humanist High School (started by a former Isaac Newton student). What is clear is that Humanist education is stepping up and moving to a new phase in Uganda. UHST has its hands full ensuring that the existing schools that we support achieve really high standards of education and welfare, and we are anxious not to spread our resources too thinly. We will, however, help representatives of new schools to attend conferences organised by the Uganda Humanist Schools Association, so they can help to develop and share good practice.
For expansion to continue we need Humanist groups around the world to emulate many church groups and adopt and provide ongoing support to one of the new Humanist schools coming along. It should provide a new purpose to many groups, though a little due diligence is advised. It is worth checking that the school you choose to support is serious about Humanism and not just tapping into a willing funding source. Find out who owns the school (is it registered with the Ministry of Education, does it appear in the Uganda Registrar of Companies as a not-for-profit company and does it have a bank account that is ring-fenced for the school and produce annually audited accounts. Schools that are members of the Uganda Humanist Schools Association should meet these requirements.
At the end of our visit to the schools we have been supporting we were hugely heartened. They are doing their level best to promote education based on reason, compassion and tolerance and that does not discriminate on the basis of belief. We saw a genuine desire to achieve high standards of education and welfare, where the needs of every child is important. Our support for the schools has made a huge difference. The schools are bringing hope to some of the poorest communities in Uganda.
Happy children get their first experience of school
I extend greetings from Kanungu Humanist Primary School (KHPS) pupils, teachers and parents. We thank Uganda Humanist Schools Trust (UHST) supporters for completing the building of our new school and sustaining the school during its first term.
We enrolled 118 boys and girls, many of whose families had been affected by the world’s worst religious cult massacre in 2020. We are grateful to our newly recruited teachers who are working with us to develop the Humanist ethos of the school.
The term ended on 15th April, 2022, when we released pupils for the vacation. Pupils completed end-of-term examinations and took reports home to their proud parents.
Parents appreciated the difference that UHST support for the school is making to the education of their children. It ensures that we have enough learning materials and equipment for pupils and teachers. Through an account at Aristoc Bookshop, we have been able to buy textbooks for use in class and for home study.
We had food throughout the term. This was possible with continuous support from UHST and local fee collections. We managed to provide daily breakfast and lunch for the children and their teachers; as well as on Saturdays during weekend remedial teaching to make up for the impact of the Covid lockdown.
We were able to pay all teaching staff their salaries up to the end of April. We are proud of the continuous salary support payments from the UHST trustees, which made this possible.
We were able to get 30 more twin desks and bench seats. The furniture problem is reducing, and my aim is to have enough by the end of this year.
We had a very successful visit from the BBC Panorama team who made a documentary for BBC World Service ARICA EYE – https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0byxwg0. The film focused on religious cults and humanism in Uganda and featured the Kanungu massacre and our school and Humanism as a beacon of hope for the future.
So, despite some challenges, we had a successful term.
Posted: October 31, 2022 by Steve Hurd
Positive stories from Kanungu Humanist Primary School
Covid and the Russian attacks on Ukraine have brought a good deal of misery to Uganda and these have provided a huge adverse negative shock to the finances of the Humanist and all other schools. However, there is light in the midst of the darkness. Here are some positive stories from Robert Magara, the Director of Kanungu Humanist Primary School. They give an insight into the way that a Humanist School can reach out to work closely with its community.
During the Covid lockdown, our school developed a small out-reach program to ensure our most vulnerable families received basic food supplies to help them through. This included delivering much needed mattresses to a vulnerable, elderly people.
A few weeks ago, heavy rains and storms caused massive flooding in our community, which is surrounded by high hills and deep valleys. This causes dangerous mud-slides and rivers to burst their banks, which leads to families being cut off for many weeks. One afternoon heavy flooding caused our little community bridge over the river to be washed away!
Our school was able to provide materials to rebuild the bridge and asked people from the local communities to come together and help. They agreed! Massive timbers were bought down from the forest and the bridge has been repaired. Because of this work, the Member of Parliament for our district has taken an interest in what we are doing and we are talking to him regarding building a permanent bridge here for the community and perhaps a proper road.
A little girl named Ritah was born with only one arm. Because of this, her mother abandoned her and she was raised by her grandmother. She was bought to our school nursery at age 3 years but the grandmother was unable to afford the school fees so we found a Sponsor in the UK who now, not only provides school fees for Ritah but also school uniform, shoes and other basic necessities.
We have also now been in contact with a charity in Canada who have agreed to help Ritah with a prosthetic arm. They have a team in a hospital in Uganda and we are in discussion with them to arrange transporting Ritah and her Grandmother there for discussion and measurements.
We have just employed a school secretary named Kate. She is a real asset for the school. Qualified in administration, Kate is responsible for school admin and over-seeing staff. The most important part of Kate’s skill-set is that she is local to the school and knows most of the parents in the community. She not only acts as a liaison between the school and parents but is a wonderful advocate for the children.
She is also involved with starting the Women’s Initiative and promoting the women’s health agenda in the community. This will also cover women’s rights, domestic abuse, contraception and pre/post-natal care. She has already had meetings with local women to discuss their shared problems and to discuss ways forward for everyone to work together in the principles of Humanism, which is to help each other, not just ourselves. Kate also travels extensively to visit the homes of our children to assess their situation outside of school and see what can be done to help. Kate is enthusiastic, full of good ideas and is always smiling!
We are very grateful to everyone helping our school community to develop.
Robert Magara, Director, Kanungu Humanist Primary School – Uganda
Posted: August 5, 2022 by Steve Hurd
Visit to the Humanist Schools
The picture was taken on 26 June when UHST Trustees arrived in Entebbe at the start of our tour of the Humanist Schools in Uganda. Our party comprised, from the left: Glenda Miller, Krystal White, Steve Hurd, Hilary Hurd, Chris Smith and Derek Miller. UK members had all visited Uganda before and 3 of us had lived in the country. We were pleased to be able to welcome along Krystal, from the Ethical Society of St Louis, who joined us for her first visit.
Our visit of 24 days took in the Humanist schools that our charity supports financially, Isaac Newton (Primary and High Schools), Mustard Seed (Primary and Secondary School), Kanungu Primary and Katumba Parents Primary. We spent 2 or 3 days at each of these schools observing, taking part in activities with the staff and students, and meeting members of the school Boards. Here are links to the full reports:
Isaac Newton Humanist Schools (Primary and High School)
Mustard Seed Humanist Schools (Primary and Secondary School)
Katumba Parents Humanist Primary School
Kanungu Humanist Primary School
All four schools are doing well but in the face of extraordinary challenges. The rural economy was devastated by a prolonged Covid lockdown. Low incomes and exhausted savings have caused large arrears in school fee payments. There are huge inflationary cost rises, especially of school food, due to the war in Ukraine. We are determined to do our best to help them get through this and are launching a new appeal for additional funds. UHST’s regular supporters have always done their best to help where they can but, given the scale of the current problems, we feel that we will need to cast our net more widely and encourage Humanists from around the world to help in our bid to support the schools through these extraordinary times.
We were heartened to find that our pioneer schools are becoming beacons for Humanism in Uganda and other young Ugandans, including former students of the first Humanist schools, are taking the initiative to start new schools founded on positive Humanist philosophy. We made short visits to the following new Humanist schools: Eagle’s View Primary (started by a former Mustard Seed student), Star Classic Primary and New Hope Primary (both inspired by Irumba Juma Siriwayo from Katumba Humanist School). The tightness of our schedule prevented us from visiting Classical Humanist High School (started by a former Isaac Newton student). What is clear is that Humanist education is stepping up and moving to a new phase in Uganda. UHST has its hands full ensuring that the existing schools that we support achieve really high standards of education and welfare, and we are anxious not to spread our resources too thinly. We will, however, help representatives of new schools to attend conferences organised by the Uganda Humanist Schools Association, so they can help to develop and share good practice.
For expansion to continue we need Humanist groups around the world to emulate many church groups and adopt and provide ongoing support to one of the new Humanist schools coming along. It should provide a new purpose to many groups, though a little due diligence is advised. It is worth checking that the school you choose to support is serious about Humanism and not just tapping into a willing funding source. Find out who owns the school (is it registered with the Ministry of Education, does it appear in the Uganda Registrar of Companies as a not-for-profit company and does it have a bank account that is ring-fenced for the school and produce annually audited accounts. Schools that are members of the Uganda Humanist Schools Association should meet these requirements.
At the end of our visit to the schools we have been supporting we were hugely heartened. They are doing their level best to promote education based on reason, compassion and tolerance and that does not discriminate on the basis of belief. We saw a genuine desire to achieve high standards of education and welfare, where the needs of every child is important. Our support for the schools has made a huge difference. The schools are bringing hope to some of the poorest communities in Uganda.
Posted: May 3, 2022 by Steve Hurd
Kanungu makes a flying start
by Robert Magara, School Director, May 1st, 2022
We had food throughout the term. This was possible with continuous support from UHST and local fee collections. We managed to provide daily breakfast and lunch for the children and their teachers; as well as on Saturdays during weekend remedial teaching to make up for the impact of the Covid lockdown.
We were able to pay all teaching staff their salaries up to the end of April. We are proud of the continuous salary support payments from the UHST trustees, which made this possible.
We were able to get 30 more twin desks and bench seats. The furniture problem is reducing, and my aim is to have enough by the end of this year.
We had a very successful visit from the BBC Panorama team who made a documentary for BBC World Service ARICA EYE – https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0byxwg0. The film focused on religious cults and humanism in Uganda and featured the Kanungu massacre and our school and Humanism as a beacon of hope for the future.
So, despite some challenges, we had a successful term.