Reach the World for Christ
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Directors: Willy and Anne Tumwine, Mbarara, Southern Uganda
Years of partnership with AHI: 3
Progress and Achievements
Willy and Anne Tumwine have hosted our teams when visiting their town in Southern Uganda making us all feel that Mbarara, Southern Uganda is our second home. This partnership has grown quickly with some exciting projects that bring wonderful opportunities for children, widows and the homeless. 2 new schools have commenced construction; Ebenezer HOPE Nursery and Primary School in Kitokye Village and the HOPE Nursery and Primary School in Nakivale Refugee Camp.
It was an amazing experience to visit Nakivale where there was bare dusty ground 12 months ago, and now over 400 eager refugee children learn and play happily in and around the first unfinished classrooms of this exciting project. Teachers are themselves refugees, most have fled from the Rwandan Genocide or Congo War. This project is on 7 acres and our goal is to grow the school to cater for thousands of children living in the camp.
The only completed part of the school is the latrines which have won admiration from the Ugandan Army and the UN who claim they are the best in any refugee camp they’ve seen! The refugees, leaders headed by Rev. Aloys and Army Commanders want to see the school develop into a Senior School as well, so there is much urgent support needed to help these people realize their dreams for the generation growing up in the vast acres of this remote camp.
Without the dedicated work of Anne Tumwine and the refugee leaders, this new school would never have commenced.
Ebenezer HOPE School is in a tiny village nestled among rolling hills of Matoke trees (cooking bananas) and the last year has seen 4 classrooms built and latrines. Currently an office and rainwater tanks are going in as the work grows rapidly and school numbers increase. This school has many paying students which helps pay teachers salaries and allows non paying orphans to attend also.
Children at this school enjoy relationship with students from Investigator College in Goolwa, S.A., where the exchange of letters, pictures and stories enriches the education experience of both student bodies. This school has 135 attending now and will grow quickly as more classes are built and staffed with caring Ugandan teachers from the community. When we visited this school this year, many villagers, men and women, were hard at work in large pits making large mud bricks to bake and use for the future class rooms.
In these 2 schools of RWC, we treated over 500 children for worms, tinea, scabies, ear infections to name a few of the common ailments that plague African children. One clear observation has been the noticeable lift in community health when our schools commence due to better diet, care, hygiene and pastoral care. Many of the sores and ailments from malnutrition for instance disappear quite quickly with the support we can offer through our African friends in the field.
Willy Tumwine has not lost his big heart for street kids and homeless mothers and children who often seek refuge in the church. The new home for young street boys is a joy to visit. Here the boys entertain with their talents of traditional dance, song, brass band and poultry farming. With support from HOPE, most of these boys are now in school, some topping their class and showing obvious signs of going far with their future. The older street boys are enjoying a new carpentry training shed and some are running a street side business of food and motor cycle cleaning and repairs etc. Girls from the streets often with their mothers are being accommodated in small rented huts. Our goal is to help all of these widows to establish a small business to help pay their rent and school fees.
HOPE has also assisted RWC to secure 4 acres of land which makes 8 acres now ready to be developed into a school, vocational traing centre, food production and clinic. This project on the edge of Mbarara will lift the quality of life for hundreds in the area currently struggling with poverty, disease and lack of skills.
RWC has 555 children in the 2 HOPE Schools under construction now. There are several indentified sites within our partners regions which urgently need schools in these remote poor areas for thousands of children who have never been to school. With this partner there is much to do!