The Uganda Community School Project

Student SKIT in English - June 2008 – “Problems Caused by Illiteracy!”

Our Uganda Community School Project in Nawantale, Uganda combines American educational designs and English environmental literacy with our determined, African commitment to our rural home.

We are inspired because this Project has been giving us free adult English classes for one year already, plus many other services. We have eagerly learned leadership training as community School Board, Elder Committee, and Student Leader volunteers who will determine school policies for our villagers as the community school expands. And, this summer, we had two workshops to begin our training as policy guardians of the Project as a sustainable, environmentally healthy campus which will also provide employment opportunities to many of us who qualify.

We are poor peasants and farmers who really see how this Project will help us eradicate our low standard of living. We also see how some of our lifestyle habits must change if we are going to benefit from the literacy we desire. We now have hope that our existing agrarian lifestyle can improve with education. Here are some of our challenges in the Project Mission and Goals:

To maximize solar energy due to absence of electricity in the region. To minimize modernization harmful to the natural resources of our village and to look for ways to revitalize depleted natural resource
To utilize earth-friendly construction companies to build our buildings, willing to provide apprentice opportunities in masonry, carpentry, and other construction skills for Nawantale residents who qualify.
To incorporate soccer competitions as a motivation for campus sports employment opportunities: coaches, field maintenance jobs, landscaping maintenance, and field day organizational jobs where English literacy becomes important.
To participate in adult education workshops, skills-oriented field training programs utilizing local trainers and volunteers from America, and to implement certification programs as the core of adult education at the Community School. To provide the Uganda Secondary Education curriculum to all adults of the village free.
To include women and girls in all aspects of adult education and job opportunities equally.
To promote micro-loan and scholarship potentials to encourage entrepreneurial businesses to provide needed services to stimulate the campus and village economic development.
To involve as many villagers in English literacy education as possible.
To promote health education opportunities and network with local health agencies to reduce HIV-AIDS, malaria, and other preventable diseases. To find ways to afford vision care for all students.
To empower the local village teachers and parents to guide Pre-School and Infant Child Care policy for the school so that development of human resources in our village will begin with the youngest children, especially to include the Maria Reed Montessori Schoolhouse as essential to infant care.
To optimize agrarian science and eco-friendly growing and irrigation techniques in all aspects of the food production for the village, whereby over time, food production research and field experimentation in soil, pest, and food/water storage advancements will be done on school land for family-managed, edible landscapes and garden plots. To create a food co-op to prevent food insecurity for village families.
To build strong family ties to the campus, to coordinate with local community programs, to bring in progressive children’s school programs, Montessori Infant education & childcare, field sports, music and fine arts education, and technical skills opportunities to bring about a sense of commitment to a “new” agrarian ethic, and to guide ourselves in long term environmental health and education for all.
To keep accurate records, historical accounts of the school and community development, to document the project operations in visual, word-processed, digital, and internet journalistic records.
To remain a charitable corporation in all fundraising operations and abide by the By Laws in all fundraising and disbursement functions so that the highest standards of excellence in motivation, planning, execution and follow though are maintained at all levels of the corporation.