The children, teachers, parents and the entire community of Katumba are very excited and proud of our new school. As the first brick-built school and first significant investment in the area it lifts the spirits of everyone here.
We wish to thank UHST Supporters for making this happen.
Despite the problems of Covid, landslides, floods and high prices we have achieved a lot during the year.
The new school library is nearing completion. Once all the furniture has been installed, we will have a safe storage place for books and will transfer books from off-site storage, so that children can more easily access them.
The computer room has windows, doors, electrical cabling and has been plastered. It is now being painted before being fitted with furniture and a first computer linked to a data projector.
Lightning arrestors have been installed to prevent the school from lightning destruction. As the school is in a mountainous area, lightning is a serious threat during the long-rainy season.
Our first cooking stoves were badly built and broke apart of first firing. Fortunately, UHST supporters have paid for some decent new efficient cooking stoves with chimneys. This has greatly reduced our firewood consumption and costs.
We are now embarking on large scale tree planting on the extra land paid for by UHST. This should provide a sustainable source of future firewood. Our aim is to make Katumba School environmentally sustainable.
We are delighted that a former student has returned to us as school nurse, since completing her training. She loves working in the school and is very grateful for the mentoring support she has received from staff.
Immediate priorities for our school are:
to build a girls’ washroom and staff toilets;
to improve conditions for P6 and P7 children sleeping in the school, by providing decent metal framed beds, mosquito nets and eventually building proper sleeping; quarters so the classrooms can be released for teaching and learning
we need a solar electricity system to provide reliable lighting in the dormitories, since there is a continual problem of mains power cuts
and, of course, we need many more books and learning resources if our children are to become independent learners.
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.
Posted: November 1, 2022 by Steve Hurd
Katumba Parents Humanist School steps up a gear
Written by Juma Irumba Siriwayo, School Director
The children, teachers, parents and the entire community of Katumba are very excited and proud of our new school. As the first brick-built school and first significant investment in the area it lifts the spirits of everyone here.
We wish to thank UHST Supporters for making this happen.
Despite the problems of Covid, landslides, floods and high prices we have achieved a lot during the year.
We are now embarking on large scale tree planting on the extra land paid for by UHST. This should provide a sustainable source of future firewood. Our aim is to make Katumba School environmentally sustainable.
We are delighted that a former student has returned to us as school nurse, since completing her training. She loves working in the school and is very grateful for the mentoring support she has received from staff.
Immediate priorities for our school are:
Nursery children lining up for breakfast…
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.