ROOFING OF A 3 CLASSROOM BLOCK AND OFFICE, TREE PLANTING AND WORKING IN SCHOOL GARDEN, HOME OUTREACH OF ORPHANS AND VULNERABLE CHILDREN, HIV/AIDS AWARENESS.

KIKANDWA VILLAGE, KIKYUSA SUB-COUNTY, BAMUNANIKA COUNTY, LUWERO DISTRICT. ABOUT 50 KM NORTH OF KAMPALA.

Kirabo Children's Centre Day and Boarding school was started by a small group of female teachers who were born in Kikandwa and Kikyusa Villages in conjunction with the local community members in 2006.
The idea was hatched by M/S Sarah Muwanguzi Nabatanzi who had realized that children in that area were exposed to ignorance and diseases as a result of poverty and the average illiteracy rate was about 70% in the area. The area has many people affected by HIV/AIDS. A number of orphans over 250, their parents have died of HIV/AIDS and living with foster parents e.g grand parents who are too old to look after them (70 years and above) and others with friends and well wishers or next of kin. Kikandwa and Kikyusa villages are amongst those villages which were destroyed by the war in 1980-1986 causing many people homeless, died and others migrated to big cities e.g Kampala for their safety. The teaching of the pupils was done from the Church which was the only existing building in the area with only 20 pupils.
In 2007, many people in and outside the area developed interest in their initiatives and amongst those was the grandmother of Sarah Muwanguzi Nabatanzi who is still surviving and is called MRS MUWANGUZI CHRISTINE who donated 50 acres of land to the project. The community mobilized funds to construct 3 temporary wooden classrooms roofed with corrugated iron sheets. They currently have 270 pupils from Nursery to primary 5 level.
UVDA helped them to construct a three permanent classroom blocks and office to wall plate pending roofing, putting doors and windows, making the floor and plastering. Since most children live with old grandparents, they usually come to school without breakfast or anything to eat during break time or lunch yet some of these children are malnourished and quite a good number of them are attacked by malaria and others have jiggers in their feet. They lack mosquito nets and medicine.
Therefore, the school started an agricultural project where they grow food stuffs and fruits on large scale for children's consumption at school. They are also planting some trees for environment protection. They also constructed a fish pond but have not yet introduced in fish due to lack of food for fish.

Volunteers are expected to participate in all the mentioned programmes (construction, gardening, tree planting etc).

€200 to be paid upon arrival.

The nearest Government Hospital is at Wabusana 7 kms away and that's where the HIV/AIDS Programme will be conducted.

Participants can bring with them some scholastic materials, sports kits, agriculture tools and also raise some funds for construction.

FURTHER CONSTRUCTION OF GARUBUNDA PRIMARY SCHOOL, WATER AND SANITATION ON LAKE NYAKASANDA AND HIV/AIDS AWARENESS.

GARUBUNDA PRIMARY SCHOOL AND LAKE NYAKASANDA ARE BOTH LOCATED IN GARUBUNDA VILLAGE, KEBISONI SUBCOUNTY, RUBABO COUNTY, RUKUNGIRI DISTRICT ABOUT 360 KMS FROM KAMPALA IN THE WESTERN PART OF UGANDA.

The construction of Garubunda Primary School was started by UVDA Volunteers in 1996 in conjunction with the local community members of Garubunda village.
There was only one old grass thatched mud and wattle school building built 60 years ago accommodating about 100 pupils which was in such a dilapidated state nearly collapsing. Since that time, UVDA has conducted several work camps constructing that project from Primary 1 to P. 7. Due to Universal Primary Education system (UPE) in Uganda, the school now accommodates over 1000 pupils but the buildings are not enough for them. Lake Nyakasanda is a small lake of about 150sq meters. It is located near Garubunda Primary School and very close to the house where UVDA volunteers will be accommodated. The lake water is used for domestic purposes to include; drinking water, bathing, cooking etc. at the same time people swim from the same. Clean drinking water from a spring well could be obtained from a distance. The water in the lake is contaminated while its outflow is poor. Some domestic animals like cows, goats and sheep also drink from the same source. We also noted that people make a local brew of beer from bananas using the same water. There are very few fish in it due to water contamination and some parts of the lake has a lot of papyrus reeds. There is currently installation of a gravity water system since the area has a lot of hills. Some houses are already receiving clean water in their homes, although very few. There is need to help the local people to clean their lake water as well as educating them about hygiene.

Garubunda village is situated about 100kms from Bwindi Impenetratable Forest National Park where gorillas are found and Queen Elizabeth National Park and Mt. Rwenzori is also not very far. It is also possible to visit Lake Bunyonyi in Kabale near the border of Uganda and Rwanda. People are pastoralists and are very friendly.

€200 to be paid upon arrival.