View our latest mission trips to Uganda – Kumi here.
Kumi Bazaar is a Government Primary school in Kumi Town. We embarked on this partnership in 2017 and last year our volunteers helped build 2 new classrooms. It runs seven classes P1-P7 and in 2018 has over 1,000 pupils in nine classrooms. We are told that enrolment in 2019 is likely to be in excess of 1,100. The largest class is P4 with 200+ pupils in a standard size classroom, where there are not enough desks or room for them and many children sit on the floor.
The standard of English spoken by the pupils is good so there is opportunity for great engagement both in and out of the classroom. On previous visits there has been a lively relationship between the children and their teachers and there is an obvious enthusiasm to learn.
The needs of the school are many but the most pressing is the requirement for classrooms for existing students and in future. In 2018 we plan to build a new 2 classroom block. All we need now is volunteers to come and help!
We added this to our visit programme in 2013, we visit here to help in leading a service and also hear testimonies from some of the prisoners.
Most of the population of Uganda is semi-illiterate, and the country faces problems such as poverty, disease and domestic violence. Mothers’ Union members in Uganda have been credited for their work in educating people and counselling couples and many members are considered community role models.
Although a promising start has been made at establishing income-generating projects, these are still few in number. Instances of domestic violence in relationships are high and limited incomes harper members’ capability to actively perform and make a difference to their highest ability.
Through work already achieved and plans in place, members in Uganda have made a difference in many lives, accomplished either through informal education on topics such as marriage, children and health, or economic activities. Mission Direct continues to provide support to this great project.
Mission Direct came to Kumi in 2010 to work alongside the charity Children of Hope and Dignity (COHAD), building homes for orphans of AIDS and civil war. Each home houses eight children loved and looked after by a ‘house mother’. COHAD provides food, education, healthcare and nurture – giving them back some semblance of family life that they are desperate for. Crucially it gives them hope for the future.
So far, we have helped to build four houses – enabling up to thirty two children to receive education, medical treatment and a family life – as well as a piggery to provide an income to the project, as piglets are reared and sold on; and a cow shelter, which provides milk for the children and a daily income as excess milk is sold.
