Uganda's blog

Ssebuguzi John Robert has attended St Denis since S1, and was previously a day scholar walking an hour and a half from his village, Misenyi, to school every day. Now in S4, he began boarding at the start of the school year as he was missing evening study sessions. Robert is not sponsored, and if he can find the money he would like to go on to S5 at a school in Masaka.

Term 2 began with the appointment of a new Deputy HM – an exciting development for the St Denis businesses as the role includes that of overall Business Manager. Entrepreneurship teacher, Ssemambo Henry, accepted the position and has proven eager to get involved in the businesses and develop them.

Laurence Kagolo was employed soon after the St Denis Posho Mill began operation. Previously he had been a student as St Denis until 2006, when it had no library and no science equipment. He completed S3 there, before moving to San Joy SS to complete S4. His favourite subjects at school were commerce, maths and science. His worst subject was fine art. Unusually for a young Ugandan lad, he doesn’t like football!  He loves God and has an ambition to be a priest.

My first few weeks at St. Denis have gone well and it is wonderful to see the posho mill up and running and thriving. Talented St Denis student Ndalike, in S4, was recruited to produce a sign for the business and it looks fantastic:

The Uganda workshop series has been going well this month with a development into practical skills based workshops, intended to give school management and staff the real skills needed to set up successful school businesses. Many Ugandan schools, especially rural schools, have tried some form of income generating activity, but staff often lack the business skills needed to make them into successful revenue generating businesses.

Name: Marion Ssewajje  Age: 17  Class: S2 Boarding student

After almost two years and a lot of teething problems, the St Denis Posho Mill finally opened its doors to customers on 1^st March 2012. Although the building and machinery has been in place for over a year, the mill was only connected to the electricity supply in February this year, to the great relief of the community who have been waiting and fundraising for its operation throughout 2011.

After a long and anxious wait for the students and staff of St Denis, a new headteacher was finally appointed and arrived on 28^th Feb. Namulema Lucia has come from being deputy head in an urban school in Masaka in order to see St Denis through the next stage of its development. She was selected for her diplomatic nature and commitment to the continuation of the self-sufficiency project and will be closely supported by the Parish, our field officer, and a new projects manager to ensure that the school businesses continue to thrive and develop.

Teach A Man To Fish Uganda offer workshops to school directors, head teachers and teachers in Uganda who are interested in the Teach A Man To Fish model of sustainable education and want to learn about the benefits it can bring to their schools. We held an introduction workshop at Lweza training center on 10th February which looked at "Overcoming the challenges and creating solutions for sustainable education in Uganda".  We were joined by some furry friends!

In Uganda, the academic year begins in in February and ends at the end of November. This means that students have their longest holiday of two months over the Christmas period in preparation for moving to their next class in the new academic year.