Help Uganda's Kisabwa Village Build Their School

We are so excited to have the construction complete for the four new classrooms as well as the construction of the latrine building. What a change these additions brought to the APEC campus! It feels and looks like a school now. Our original funding goal was met. Thank you to everyone who contributed either through this site or directly to me. For a list of current funding needs, please scroll down for a quick list. We would love your help with any of the items, donations large and small are helpful!

Original Project Description

I can't begin to tell you how wonderful the Kisabwa Village children and the Angels Park Education Centre staff and volunteers are. They are so friendly and so committed to their mission of educating the children in their community! They have big hearts, big dreams and an amazingly strong sense of community. My name is Julie, I am a retired Principal with a passion for education. I am now serving as an ambassador or advocate for a start-up school, Angels Park Education Centre (APEC), in rural Uganda. My goal is to raise $3,400 (my family will contribute the remaining $1,200) to purchase building materials to construct four much-needed additional classroom spaces on their new school campus. The Kisabwa community provided the land for the school this past year and is contributing the bricks and the labor to build their school. They need financial help to purchase the cement, sand, roof timbers, metal roofing, doors and windows for the additional classrooms.

Let me give you some background:

During the summer of 2022, I was lucky enough to travel to Uganda. My husband, daughter and I were, by happenstance, invited to visit a small rural school, Angels Park Education Centre, in Kisabwa Village in the Lwengo District about 18 km outside of the city of Masaka. The school was started 5 years ago by civic-minded volunteer leaders in the community who wanted a better future for the children, including the many children who are orphans, in their Village.

The community, Kisabwa Village, is very, very poor. Most families in the village are subsistence farmers surviving on one dollar or less per day, sometimes only having enough to eat one meal a day. Drought conditions in 2021 and most of 2022 drastically reduced crop harvests creating widespread food shortages. There is no electricity and the only water source for the 500 or so households is the nearby swamp (yes, the swamp is their main drinking water source). The nearest school, before a group of community leaders launched Angels Park Education Centre (APEC), was several kilometers away in the next village. Children would have to walk to and from school and the majority of the Kisabwa families could not afford the school fees. As a result, most Kisabwa Village children were not attending school, despite parents wanting their children to get an education. APEC launched with 30 students 5 years ago with a commitment to not charge fees for their impoverished children. When we visited the school, they were renting/borrowing small rooms in the village to serve as their classrooms. APEC’s number of students had grown from the initial 30 to 150 children and the space was nowhere near adequate. After meeting the school team and community leaders, and the children, I was hooked and volunteered to do what I could to help.

Last October, we, along with some friends and family members, started by purchasing 80 Ugandan or East African children's books (their first books) to help the children learn to read. We also purchased seeds to replenish their supply after two seasons of crop failures due to drought. Kisabwa Village community leaders also stepped up and donated a plot of land to the school for a future school campus. In November and December, we were able to provide financial support to build their first two small classrooms on the newly donated land. Through the first phase of school construction, we have developed effective ways to transfer money and established accountability systems (they send copies of all receipts and pictures of materials purchased as well as photo documentation of the work in progress). Our financial donations purchased cement, sand, and roofing materials. Although the Kisabwa community members lack money to donate to help build their school, they contribute significantly in other ways including providing the bricks (they are made locally), what sand they can, and, most importantly, the land and the labor (community members with building experience volunteer and do the construction). There have even been donations of chickens and goats to help raise funds. Typically within days of receiving funds, the materials are purchased and the construction volunteers go right to work. And, in case you are wondering, the Ugandan government does not provide assistance to rural communities like Kisabwa Village and although many NGOs are doing good work in Uganda, the number of villages and the needs are so great that it is that even if they could get on a list it would take at least 5-10 years to get help.

We hope to start construction in the coming weeks. Our goal is to complete the four additional classrooms by the end of May when their second school term of the year begins. If successful, they will then have a total of 6 classrooms on campus for the 150 students for Term 2 so that all classes can be taught indoors in a classroom on their new campus. Currently, most of their classes are being taught outdoors on benches. Your donation will help make this happen! Believe it or not, it took only $1,800 in cash donations ($900 per classroom) to complete the first two small classrooms. The four new classrooms will be slightly larger and we are projecting a cost of $1,150/each. Given the relatively low cost, with your help, building four more classrooms this spring is completely doable. I can’t express the excitement and enthusiasm within the Kisabwa community that they are going to have their own school! Everyone is excited knowing that this is a huge step towards breaking the cycle of poverty for their village.

If we are lucky enough to receive more donations above the $3,400, all additional funds will be directed towards their next priority, constructing bathrooms (latrines) on campus (a school neighbor currently allows the children to use theirs but it’s quite a distance for the little ones who need a bathroom). Again, any donation amount helps! A bag of cement is about $13 (in the bag size they are buying), and each roofing panel is about $20.

I am happy to provide more information or documentation to anyone who would like it. Unfortunately, you cannot “Google” Kisabwa Village, Lwengo District, and come up with a map location or image (it is too small and lacks the economic or political importance to be on a Ugandan map even though it is only 12 km away from Kyabakuza Trading Center, a major trading hub). APEC does not have a website (they don’t have electricity, wifi or internet, and cell service is weak and unreliable in Kisabwa Village). A simple solar power system and a cistern-type water collection system are future needs that we hope to tackle down the road, after the completion of the classrooms and latrines.

If you are traveling to Uganda, I know a great school that would love to have you visit!

Some excerpts from emails that I received from the APEC Team:

“When we had no hope of roofing our two buildings, the good news of your donation ($700) came in through Ronald and all the APEC team was filled with joy for this donation, thank your mum and all donors who donated towards our roofing project, many thanks to you for making those useful connections. Thank you for all your love and support to the children.”

-Julius Muyima, APEC Principal, 1/23/23

“Good news, this has been one of the best (growing) seasons in a long time, the children enjoyed fresh maize/ roasted and boiled and also freshly cooked beans. Thank you for making this possible through your and donors' seed donations.”

-Julius Muyima, APEC Principal, 1/23/23

I want to thank you and donors on behalf of our community for your kind love and support. Good news, the school is opening on Monday for a new school year and school term. We are excited about using our new facility.”

- Ron Katongole, APEC Volunteer & Treasurer, 2/1/23

Our current needs (updated July 8, 2023):

You can use the Go Fund Me contribution comment options to let me know what you would most like your contribution to help with! I will make sure it happens.

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