S4S Update: New Textbooks!
Science books for our partner schools!
The money you all raise is split over the six basic areas of implementation at our partner schools. One of these areas involves supplying our partners with scholastic material. S4S is committed to providing the schools with the supplies they need to give their students the best possible education. One of our biggest goals is to fill the classrooms and libraries with all the textbooks the schools require to teach the Ugandan curriculum. Last week, S4S sent an order to several publishing houses in Kampala for literally thousands of science books! When delivered, all of our 11 partners will have every chemistry and physics textbook they need, meaning that S4S has hit another one of its exit targets. Using funds from Round 4, S4S hopes to be able to purchase enough books for the remaining five core subjects. As of now, our partner schools lack the books needed to teach these five subjects well. Thanks to all of you who have donated books or dollars, your support is translating into real opportunity for your Ugandan peers.
S4S Update: Three Down, Three to Go!
Three Ugandan teachers—Ketty, Robert, and John—have been awarded two-year visas to the US
If you’ve been following this website, you know that six Ugandan teachers will head to the US for one month of team teaching in December under the S4S Reciprocal Teacher Exchange. We’re ecstatic about this upcoming trip because we’ve never brought Ugandan teachers to the US in this capacity before.
Yesterday three of the selected teachers were called for interviews at the US Embassy in Kampala. It can often be difficult to obtain an appointment for the visa interview, and the interview itself can be very challenging. In order to grant a visa, the US Embassy has to be assured that the people intending to travel, in this case our Ugandan teachers, have every intention of returning home. The three candidates traveled to Kampala overnight and sat for interviews in the early morning. After an almost disastrous start (one candidate forgot her passport!) all three got the opportunity to sit before an immigration officer and tell their story. After an agonizing couple of hours, the S4S team learned that all three candidates had been successful and were awarded two-year visas!
Invisible Children Uganda has good ties with the US Embassy, thanks in part to the great work our teams do on the ground in Gulu, but primarily from the efforts of everyone involved in the global IC movement. Without the continued publicity from your support, our teachers might not been so successful. Plans are underway for the remaining three selected teachers to sit for interviews. Keep your fingers crossed!
S4S Update: Girl’s Dorm Rising at St. Mary’s
Last year St. Mary’s Lacor School asked for a girl’s dormitory. S4S, with the help of thousands of students across the world, has combined forces and raised enough funds for a new two-story girl’s dormitory. Work is well underway on site: the walls of the first floor are done, and the huge task of casting the second floor’s concrete slab has started. Within two weeks, S4S expects the walls of the second floor to have taken shape. Before we know it, the S4S engineers will be capping off the roof. Seeing the building grow day by day is incredibly exciting!
Security of the female students and their access to education are concerns for the entire school community at St. Mary’s. In years past in Uganda, young girls have been pressured into leaving school at an early age to help at the home and start families of their own. Historically, African communities have regarded the women in their ranks as second class citizens; however, after huge efforts to sensitize communities, girls and women are becoming empowered through local and national programs. This hard-earned empowerment and the shift in the way society sees women is playing out in northern Uganda. The new girl’s dormitory at St. Mary’s Lacor was requested by the entire school community, and as such, is a prime example of how the community has shifted their traditional ways of thinking toward a more equality-based mentality.
Thanks to all those who are continuing to raise funds for St. Mary’s Lacor. Your efforts are making a huge impact!
S4S Update: 2nd Girls Dorm at Gulu High
The walls of Gulu High School's second IC-built girls dormitory are getting higher and higher with each passing day
Last month S4S signed the contract for the second phase of construction of a new girls dormitory at Gulu High School. The winning contractor is now on site and making rapid progress; walls are rising from the recently finished foundations. This project will utilize most of the funds raised for Gulu High from last year’s S4S tour.
The new dormitory will stand side by side with the existing girls dormitory completed under Round 2, with a third dormitory planned for 2010! When complete, the three new buildings will provide safe and modern living facilities for 576 female students. These dormitories have become S4S signature projects in the region, raising the bar for secondary school development in the North.
For those of you fundraising on the behalf of Gulu High, keep up the efforts—the girls are eager to move in!
The S4S team arrives at the Awere SS original site to begin construction of the new Girls Dormitory!
The S4S team and contractors stake out the location for the new Girls Dormitory at Awere SS
Today the S4S team travelled to the Awere SS original site to stake out the exact location of where the new girls’ dormitory should be built. Unlike our other partner schools, the Awere SS original site is yet to be occupied; the students and teachers are currently operating in their displaced school in Gulu town. Because the site is not in use, most of the land within the campus has turned to “African bush” making today’s siting of the new girls dormitory more than tricky! However, with help from local labour and the S4S engineers, the site has been identified, cleared, and work has commenced.
The beginning of the 2010 academic year will see the students of Awere SS return home to their original site. Currently on site are three new classroom blocks, a new laboratory block, water and electricity supply and two new blocks of latrines – next is the girls’ dormitory! Watch this space for progress reports as the new dorm rises from the bush!
S4S Update: New Classroom Block at Keyo SS!
The students at Keyo SS received their new IC-built two-classroom block
Today was a great day: our Country Director, Jolly Okot, and the S4S team traveled to the Keyo SS original site to hand over their first completed project—a brand new two-classroom block! As our newest partner school, Keyo SS had yet to benefit from the funds raised in Rounds 1 and 2. However, with funds from Round 3, the S4S team has managed to construct a much needed facility. These two new classrooms are only the beginning of the many structures S4S intends to build at Keyo SS.
In her welcome speech, Jolly noted that the buildings S4S is putting on the ground are the tools to take Keyo’s students out of poverty; but tools are only useful in the hands of those who work hard. “Your brain is your brawn. Use it every day,” Jolly remarked. The students committed to care for and maintain their new classrooms, pledging a huge thank you to all supporters of Keyo SS.
Donations from Round 4 are going towards a second (and hopefully third) classroom block. For more information on Keyo SS and the work that remains, please check out the S4S website.
Student Trip Blog
Above: Visiting students look out over the Ugandan countryside from atop boulders at Ft. Patiko
Every year, IC organizes a trip for its top fundraising students in the Schools for Schools program. The trip—a two-week, all-expenses paid adventure in Uganda—took place a few weeks ago. Twenty students flew out to see firsthand the way their efforts inspired educational progress in the North. We visited partner schools, met with mentors, explored the local market, shadowed students, went rafting on the Nile, and searched for lions.
The trip was awesome. But don’t take my word for it—check out what one of the American students wrote about her trip.
Want to come out to Uganda next summer with IC? Easy! Kick it into high gear this fall when the next Schools for Schools fundraising competition gets rolling, raise the most money in your cluster, and then pack your bags!
Not sure how the whole Schools for Schools thing works? Check this out.