The Ivuukula International School

Imagine . . .

Every morning you walk along a hot, dirt road for one hour just to get to “school”. But this is like no school you have seen before. There is a small, brick, one-room building. There is no longer a door on the building, just a rectangular opening where a door should be. The windows are just square openings in the walls, nothing to close the windows. Depending on the direction of the sunlight through those windows, it is quite dark inside that one room, for there is no electricity in this building. There are poles for electrical wires, but as of yet, those electrical wires have never been connected. And when the rainy season comes, everything in this school is covered in mud.

But just as you finish taking in the reality of this school building, you realize that nobody is even inside the building. In fact, everyone is over sitting on the ground under a tree. You see, the building is falling apart. Nobody has bothered to maintain the school building, so it is no longer safe to be inside of it. You go join the other students. There is no division among grades anymore because there is only one teacher. All of the students sit on the ground; the teacher sits on a tree stump. Some of the children still have old school uniforms to wear, although they are dirty and worn out. Most of the children wear whatever clothes they can find. There are no books. There is no paper. There are no pencils. There is no chalkboard, nor any supplies or teaching aides for the teacher to use during the lesson. There is not even a toilet. And not only have you walked such a long distance to attend this school, but you have actually paid tuition money to be here.

The devastating reality is that this is exactly what school is like for the children in the village of Ivuukula, Bukono, Uganda, where my husband is from.

Recently, I and my husband, along with our two young children, journeyed all the way from our home in Utah to my husband’s village in Uganda. As an educator by profession, I was shocked to see the “school” that the children attended. My husband explained that 30+ years ago, he and his classmates met inside that small, brick, one-room building. But even my husband was surprised to see that same building still standing, completed neglected and falling apart. And no other building has been built to replace it.

And the question kept nagging at my teacher-mind: How can children learn like this?

Of course the children have another option. Their parents can send them to board at one of the good-quality schools in the capital city of Kampala. The children have to board if they go to school in Kampala because it takes anywhere from three to five hours to drive there—in a bus, because these families do not own cars. But this isn’t really an option. Paying the tuition for just one child to get just one year of education at one of these Kampala schools would completely bankrupt these families in the village!

So for children in Ivuukula, the options are clear: 1) pay so much money for education that it completely ruins your family, or 2) pay a little money for an education that isn’t really an education. Neither option is good.

But then I had an idea for a third option. Build my own school for these sweet village children!

My husband owns two pieces of land in Ivuukula—one land is 8 acres in size, the other land (just a short distance away from the bigger piece of land) is 3 acres in size. As strange as it may seem, buying land in Uganda, and proving that you own the land with a land title, is one of the hardest things to do. We have already overcome this hurdle. Now we just need to develop this land into a 21st Century school for children who desperately need, and deserve, such a school.

We are already beginning the process of creating the Ivuukula International School as a non-profit organization in Uganda. We are also working on becoming a registered school with the Ugandan Ministry of Education. We are even developing the school's board of directors. Much of the preparatory work for this school is already complete or is underway. The vision for the school is clear, and now it is time to make the school a physical reality.

I have a Master's Degree in Teaching and Learning. I have taught for 12+ years, during which time I developed curriculum and mentored new teachers. I have been fortunate enough to teach not only in America, but also in the United Arab Emirates. I have visited several schools in Tanzania and Uganda. In the 9 years that my husband and I have been married, I have studied and learned about the educational system in Uganda. I have the education and experience necessary to create a school built on educational best practice. I also have a myriad of friends in the education world from whom I can gain ideas and knowledge.

When I say that the options for schooling are dismal in the village, I mean for all children, primary school and secondary school alike. For this reason, I intend to build a school with three main buildings: Nursery School (Pre-k, KG1, and KG2); Primary School (P1-P7); Secondary School (S1-S6, including A-Levels). The campus will also have an Auditorium building for assemblies and performances; two small computer labs for the children to learn 21st Century technology; a Library, which is quite a novelty in most of Uganda; a kitchen and cafeteria, so that these children from poor families will be guaranteed at least one good meal and a snack every day; two playgrounds and a soccer pitch to encourage physical health and development; a garden where the children will get to participate in growing the food that they eat; and dormitories for children who still live too far away and need to board. All of these buildings will have electricity and the internet, because we will ensure that the electrical wires finally get connected in the village. We will also have generators, so that the school can continue functioning with electricity, even when the electricity goes out in the village. I also intend to have buses, so that only the children who actually live close to campus will need to walk to school.

On the smaller piece of land, I intend to build housing for the teachers. There are plenty of licensed educators in Uganda who are struggling to live. Either they can’t find work at all, or they have a job that pays them so little that they can’t pay rent, or they have a teaching job at a school that actually just doesn’t pay them for months at a time. Because of this, many teachers live in squalor. I believe that teachers have the most important job in the world, and I’m not exaggerating in the least. Because of this, I believe that teachers should absolutely have their basic life necessities met. When teachers are cared for well, they care well for the students with whom they are entrusted. So my teachers will have comfortable houses to live in.

Both properties, the school campus and the teacher housing, will be fully walled in. The gated-entrances will be guarded 24/7 by security guards. Safety of both students and teachers will be a top priority. Between the teaching faculty, bus drivers, security guards, cooks, etc., we will be creating 40+ jobs, growing the economy in a large way for this village.

In order to keep the school functioning as a self-sustaining, world-class institution, the students will need to pay tuition. However, the tuition will be manageable, a fraction of what they would pay to go to the schools in the city. The school will also offer partial and full scholarships for the children in greatest need.

This school in Ivuukula isn’t a luxury; it’s a necessity! Every child in the world has a right to an education. But these dear children aren’t being educated, because the schools in Uganda that actually educate are just too far out of their reach. I need your help to fill this vital need and create a school for this village. Once the enrollment is full, we anticipate having nearly 400 children. But full-enrollment won’t happen immediately. For this reason, I am trying to raise enough money to build the campus and teacher housing, and to keep it running for the first year of operation.

If you want to change the world, you educate a child. Nelson Mandela once said that “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” Please help me change the world for these children by donating to the Ivuukula International School.