Community, education and healthcare support, Bunyoni, Uganda

My name is Alex Steele, and I will be raising funds for Hakahumiro Primary School and the local community at Lake Bunyoni, Uganda, on Sunday 1st September 2024. I will be running the Cheltenham Half Marathon on their behalf, to support their current plans to renovate their school, the library and a health clinic.

I know the school’s headteacher, Denis Turyagyenda, from several visits to Hakahumiro Primary School and the local community over the last 8 years. I have met him and other local community representatives, and seen first-hand their dedication to the provision of the highest quality of teaching, education and healthcare for children and the local community based at Lake Bunyoni in the south of Uganda.

Since May 2024, Denis and the local community have been raising funds to renovate the school, including a library and health clinic for the local community. Parents of children at Hakahumiro Primary School have been contributing by making bricks, and providing labour to carry hardcore and aggregate stones. They have sought support to acquire building materials, including iron sheets, cement and iron bars for construction, and they are now seeking further funds for plastering, cementing and painting of buildings.

They have made great progress since May 2024, but they are still seeking funds to complete all building work. When I have visited the school on several occasions over the last 8 years, I have always been impressed by Denis, the teaching team, local community development groups, and of course, the passion and dedication of local children who really want to learn, and who see their education as a key way to alleviate poverty and to support community and economic development. They are an amazing community, with limited resources. So I have chosen to support them by raising funds through participating in this year’s Cheltenham Half Marathon.

I will be running the Half Marathon on Sunday 1st September 2024, with a clear focus on the brilliant team of compassionate and hard-working members of the community around Hakahurimo Primary School. I hope that together we can make a valuable contribution to their ongoing renovations and building work, to support the school and the local community.

Thank you.

Alex

ABOUT ALEX

Alex has been supporting a range of NGOs, small charities and community development organisations over the last 20 years, in Uganda, Kenya, Malawi, Bangladesh, Colombia and Venezuela. He makes regular trips to provide support on the ground, working with local communities in areas of entrepreneurship, local economic development, climate change mitigation and adaptation, sustainable development, health care, women’s empowerment, education, and linking action on the ground with research projects and local universities.

Alex is the Founder and Director of Improwise, an organisation which works with individuals, teams, organisations and communities, to find new ways of working to cultivate growth, learning, resilience and human flourishing.

Alex is also a professional jazz musician, and he uses music as a medium for experiential learning, exploring how the cultivation of improvisational mindsets in individuals, teams, organisations and communities, can enhance innovation, creativity, resilience, collaboration and leadership.