Uganda

St. Denis Secondary School, Uganda

Key facts:

• The school is attended by about 190 students, lots of them orphaned by HIV/AIDS
• The main school businesses are dairy production, a matoke business, a school supplies store, an internet cafe/copy centre, and a mill for the production of flour
• The Student Entrepreneurship Club meets every other week with guest speakers visiting the school

St. Denis, Uganda: 30-Second Video Highlights

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Background

St. Denis is a Secondary School in Makondo village, a poor community three hours south of the Ugandan capital, Kampala – and it is a school where many students are orphaned by HIV/AIDS.

The school has around 190 students and is owned and run by the local church, relying on charging fees. Most families struggle to pay these fees and around 100 students rely on sponsors from overseas. This isn’t a sustainable situation. The donor organisation doesn’t believe it can keep paying for these students year after year, but if they don’t, then who will?

The school benefits from forward looking management. The headmaster has a clear picture of the school he wants to run. He doesn’t want it to exclude any child just because they can’t pay, but he also wants every child that comes to the school to leave with something more than an examination certificate.

He wants business and skills education that complement the regular academic education, to transform the next generation into ‘rural entrepreneurs’; individuals with the skills, drive and knowledge to start improving their own and their communities' lives – in short, he wants to adopt the Teach A Man To Fish concept of Education That Pays For Itself!

Plan in Action

Teach A Man To Fish has been collaborating with this school since 2007 and has close ties to a US-based NGO which is working to improve the school’s physical facilities.

In April 2009, with the assistance of the school’s staff, board and the local community, we spent several weeks on-site drawing up a School Business Plan to implement this model. Until now, our Field Officers have been working hard to prepare the school and train the staff in order to be able to successfully manage different businesses. There is also an Entrepreneurship Club which meets every other week and invites guest speakers to inspire the students. This allows the students to gain an insight into how to set up a business, what it takes to grow it and what is involved in its daily management.
 
This business plan has now been put into action, and includes running the following businesses: 

• Flour mill (to make the local staple 'posho')
• Dairy
• Internet cafe & Copy centre
• Matoke plantation (green banana, another staple food)
• School shop

Please help to make further progress - donate to this project!

This project needs your support to help the school's educational enterprises develop and to improve the staff's ability to provide a high quality education. Go to our Donation page to support this project now!