Trustees visit November 2023
As in most ‘developing’ countries, there are few opportunities for less privileged Ugandan children. In a country with 65% adult unemployment their futures are restricted to manual labour, insecure, small-scale trading, or subsistence farming. The state provides only primary level education, commonly with classes of more than 150, and there is no access to training that can produce nurses, engineers, or farmers able to take advantage of modern technologies. As a result, the economy as a whole suffers, lives are precarious and unrest is never too far away.
Against this background a remarkable local family in Northern Uganda has founded a school to provide secondary education … effectively to GCSE, for deserving children from less privileged backgrounds. In 2011 facilities were very basic, but the vision and commitment of the founders was inspiring. What is now the UK charity, Keframa School Build came into being.
Land was purchased and funds raised to provide a building capable of teaching 300 children. It was opened in 2019. COVID took its inevitable toll on attendance, but the visit of 2 trustees in November 2023 confirmed that Keframa High School is once again a happy and thriving community.
Keframa High School in 2023
The ethos is explicitly Christian. Governance is shared with the Anglican Diocese of Lango, who nominate five members of the Board of Governors.
A long-standing individual student sponsorship scheme needs more sponsors (at £25/month for 4 years) to enable more of the rural poor to attend.
As Keframa High School recovers from nearly 2 years of school shutdowns, numbers are returning to above 250 in 2024. The Christian ethos, attention to students’ well-being, and a safe rural location all make the school attractive to parents making choices about secondary education. Our sponsorship scheme is supported by a local sponsorship officer, who both identifies suitable candidates and supports them at school and at home.
The school’s success brings the charity’s next major challenge into sharper focus. The students all board and are accommodated in the old buildings dating from before 2011, and situated some 400yds from the main school site.
These are barely adequate. They are cramped and dilapidated, and they have been condemned by the authorities. Students refer to them as one of the few features of the school they are unhappy with, in sharp contrast to the new building.
We are halfway to our requirement, expected to be £250,000, to build girls dormitories (for 150) and staff housing for 4 families. This is URGENTLY needed. With help we hope to have the funds to start building in 2025.
We have excellent classroom facilities for 300 pupils but expect these to be fully utilised within 2 years. 4 classrooms and facilities for a further 200 students may cost a further £100,000.
Dormitories for the boys on the main site, and additional staff accommodation will need to follow. We recognise this is a long-term project.
Donate via the Give as You Live link on our website:
https://keframaschoolbuild.co.uk/index.php/about/
or contact Michael Arlington on 07973421282 to engage further.
To Sponsor a child:
Contact Ian Baird-Smith on 07753638052
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