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Nawantale Woes

Program Goals

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PROGRAM GOALS:

What are the main Project Goals that our Community School is addressing?

Community Health and Health Education
Our village population is approximately 3,000 and we don’t have access to consistent supplies of water from our rickety bore hole well.  This is called “water insecurity” and the community health consequences for us are devastating.  One of the first goals of the Project is to tackle this lack of water, and the Project Office installed a 500 gallon rooftop catchment system to help distribute water.  The Project plans include sinking at least one well on Project land.  The educational curriculum will include classes on water filtration, water systems we can build for our homes, water storage, boiling water, and other ways to keep our water supplies safe.  We are already learning about hygiene and community benefits of hand-washing with soap.

The global food crisis in May-July of 2008, coupled with our drought,  is the next community health problem that the Project is addressing. We are farmers, peasants who make a little money on our food crops to support ourselves.  Drought and high costs for rice and maize flour mean we don’t grow or earn enough to feed ourselves.  Malnutrition comes from “food insecurity” and the Project sent us money to create an emergency Food Bank in May-July so that 50+ families without any food were fed.  Also, the Project feeds all of us on special days when Mum “kaay” from the USA is here.

Assembly, June 2008-Over 2,000 Villagers Eat!

The Project School will include family agricultural plots, and edible landscapes, where classes can focus on improving crop yields through small classes, a food Co-Op for agricultural training and food sales, and food preparation classes to train us about food bacteria and cooking skills. We need ongoing education and screening for HIV-AIDS, diabetes, vision, hearing, mental health, hygiene, nutrition and pre-natal care.  The Community School will refer us to health clinics and hold educational classes as follow-up to screening results.  We hold regular Friday Assemblies to learn many of these topics now.  The Project School will hold these types of classes in the Health Education Building and we can attain certifications in certain public health job skills when the buildings are finished.

 

HIV AIDS Assembly for Nawantale Villagers

“I am Nakisige Pelinah; I live at Nawantale Bulondo zone. I am 42years old and am a Musoga by tribe.  I am happy because of this project and I say that if this project goes on, we shall have anything [we want] to do because we are learning much which we did not know. So we beg our lord Jesus to be with our mother Kay Grosso, Executives in USA, all donors, well-wishers and the Administrative Director, Mr. Kawuzi Samson to give them energy to continue doing their work because this project is good so we thank them. But another thing is that; we have a problem of eyes so we beg our mother Kaay to be with the Administrative Director, Mr. Kawuzi Samson to solve it. Thank you our Mother Kaay.”

Teen/Adult English Literacy Classes

Over the past year, 400+ of us have attended English Literacy classes, in our national Uganda Secondary Education (USE) curriculum, held for 2 hours daily under the trees or in the government elementary school in the afternoons.

 Mutesi Proscovia’s Gratitude Speech for Classes, 2008
“On behalf of all the students of this school, I would like to send greetings to all ladies and gentlemen who have come to this function.  We as ladies, we have benefited a lot, because so many women can now read and write.  The coming of this school or Project helped ladies to stop rumor-mongering, back biting each other...The coming of this community Project prevented the ‘nothing-doers’ in the village and they would like to encourage all tutors, Director and Board …to add in more effort in all things…  May God Bless you all.  They are all grateful…I am called Mutesi Proscovia, Vice President Student Guild.”

We are beginning to connect the ability to read with the need to make good decisions about where our village is going.  For example, we learned in June 2008 about “global warming” and the problems that cause environmental pollution.  We can read about the mistakes of modernization and make good decisions for ourselves as an agrarian community that wants to avoid some of the modern world’s problems and use our new English literacy to work our land responsibly.

Library and Literacy Outreach

Project Library Opened January 2007

We have a lending library and copy center, staffed by our Librarian, for all residents, students, and visitors at the Community School Project Office, 8 miles away in Balawoli Village where there is intermittent electricity.

Our library will be relocated onto the Project campus when the new Library and Computer Lab building is built, with MANY more books and classes for us on computer literacy in the computer lab which will be solar powered.

Pre-School and Infant Child Care
Our village has two “pockets” of preschool aged children the Project wants to serve with the Maria Reed Montessori Schoolhouse(s).  We presently do the best we can on our meager resources with little food and no pay for the volunteer teachers we rely upon. The first group of 50 preschoolers learns songs in a church directly across from the Project land.

 

Perinah Teaches Preschoolers in Project Zone, 2007

The other “pocket”, however, meets at the farthest edge of Nawantale Village in a small church, in our most remote zone.  These 50 children include the orphaned infants being raised by foster families and grandparents.  In this “pocket,” called Buboode Zone, infants and pre-school children would be excluded from our future Maria Reed Montessori Schoolhouse unless the Project also helps us.  Mum “kaay” has assured us that the Buboode children and teachers will not be left out.

We are learning that our infants and pre-school aged children will excel when they receive high quality education BEFORE they enter elementary school.  We like what we see happening in Entebbe, Uganda and want it here for our children!
  

School Board, Elder, and Student Leader Literacy Skills

 

School Board and Elders Committee, June 2008, with Mum “kaay” (front row, right) and Samson Kawuzi (last row, far right), Project Administrative Director, Where All Receive “Mastery” Certificates

Electing our volunteer leader boards was the first activity the Project asked of us in 2007.  We are now learning leadership training in School Board policy and decision-making for the Community School operation.  We’ll learn appropriate budget and fiscal training, contract negotiation and vendor selection, and we are already using our new English literacy to conduct banking, purchasing, curriculum assessment, and employment procedures for the Project.  We have written our School Board Constitution and By-laws, legal framework and non-discriminatory policies of the charity.  We work closely with Samson Kawuzi, our Administrative Director, to implement administrative policies locally and we provide local political leaders with regular updates about the school programs. 

We have been so inspired by the leadership roles of the Project, that we elected our first Adult Learner’s Leadership Board.  We were sworn into our voluntary offices in a ceremony in June 2008 during the Assembly Day where we welcomed Mum “kaay” back for her third visit.
 
Athletic Education and Competitive Sports Training

Our new Athletic Coach has delivered two winning teams for our Project!  Both the men’s and women’s football teams have produced championship trophies for the Community School Football Clubs and will defend the men’s trophy from August through October, 2008.  The athletic program teaches physical health, literacy in sports rules, team skills, and the human body.  The Project Five Year Plan includes a soccer field and outdoor amphitheatre for larger events, but for now we coordinate with the Nawantale government Primary School so we can use their football field for local games and practice.

New Football Uniform Donations in June 2008 for the Project Football Club – We Won!	New Football Uniform Donations for the Women’s Team in June, 2008 Were Lucky – We Won, Too!
	Coach Waiswa Presents the Kamuli Cup to Pastor Sengooba, Chairman of the School Board, October 2007

Primary School Expansion

Pink is the color of Nawantale’s Primary School uniforms.  Many of our children are presently not in pink due to family poverty.   The Community School Project will explore relationships with the existing government Primary School, explore potential expansion, including Elementary level Montessori Programs, and other effective primary educational systems over time so all Nawantale children are served.

 

Nawantale Children Not In School…Yet!

Skills Schools Without Walls
Nawantale has very few technical jobs for us.  The Project is the only employer in the area and we are eager to apprentice to local contractors who will build the classrooms and campus buildings designed by the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture.  The Project School hires cooks, security guards, and other technically focused workers and we get training on-the-job already.  But, we are eager for the employment opportunities to clear land, apprentice in masonry, train small groups in landscaping design/maintenance, water system installation, solar maintenance, plumbing and sanitation/septic systems, childcare, and health care assessment training as the Project grows.     

 

Maintenance and Cleaning Tasks for the Water Catchment System 500 Gallon Tank, June 2008

The Uganda Community School Project has already purchased six acres of land for the campus.  A total of 25 additional acres is available for the expanded high school campus, agricultural fields, Co-Op and garage, irrigation well, Maria Reed Montessori Schoolhouse, classroom buildings, library, administrative center, football field, music and fine art center, and future Nawantale Mountain Conference Center and Habitat which will enable the Community School to sustain its major economic presence as both employer, conference center, and institution of learning. A major portion of our technical skills will come from learning the ecological assets of the Frank Lloyd Wright, Taliesin designs for all the campus buildings. We had our first Technical Workshop without Walls this summer, taught by the Taliesin Uganda Project Manager, who visited our village with Mum “kaay.”

 

The Land is Ready to Build the First Buildings. Thanks to the SMFG Foundation Grant – June 2008

We will learn the technical skills to build, manage, maintain, and expand the Community School into a well-run, sustainable, model campus. It is our dream come true!

“My name is Namwase Ruth a student of Nawantale Community School in level two. I support this school to continue teaching us because some of us have learnt how to write our names.  I also thank the organizers of this project because all people who work in it got jobs and they are paid.  I thank Mum kaay for what she has done for this project because if it wasn’t her effort to start Adult education at Nawantale, some of us would remain ignorant but the school has opened our eyes.”