UG 12 - TODAY FOR TOMORROW: ST. MARY COLLEGE
Project Location
The St. Mary’s Girls' High School is located in Aboke, area of the Lango area, 35 km from Lira which is the capital of the region and 350 km northeast of Kampala which is the capital of the country. It is a primarily agricultural area, blessed with fertile soil and good rainfall. It is densely inhabited but not industrialized, while trade has some relevance. Since there are no significant industries, there are few families with a stable income.
The majority have only what comes from the land that usually consists of 5-6 acres per family, so there is difficulty in cash for various needs that are not food. People are very hardworking. We cannot speak of extreme poverty, but being in a rural area, the great majority of people still live in huts where the furniture consists of a bed, a few chairs, a small table and a little more.
The school was founded 55 years ago with the aim of offering rural girls a holistic higher education that would eventually open the doors of a profession or even a university. The school is private and belongs to the diocese of Lira. The aim was to have young women, from rural areas, prepared and therefore able to assume significant roles in Ugandan society and to express the female dimension in the life and choices of the country. It was necessary for the female part of the rural population to be able to speak up.
Project description
The school is residential for various reasons. It is not only the English tradition that justifies the boarding school but also the distances, the lack of electric light in the various villages, the absence of regular public transport, and more.... Living in school is a cost that sometimes becomes very heavy for families. The school offers the use of textbooks and cultivates its own land producing cassava, sweet potatoes, sesame, corn and more. The students contribute one hour of hoeing in the fields per week, they also take care of the school’s cleaning: classrooms, refectory, dormitory and courtyard. This contribution reduces running costs so that the school can charge tuition in line with those of government schools.
For the new school year we will have an increase in students as the school’s steering committee has decided to respond positively to the request of so many parents who wish to enroll their daughter in St. Mary’s.
The construction of the new classrooms is well underway, the dormitories are completed and parents have committed to paying for the construction of three now completed toilet blocks. What is now urgent is the furnishing of the dormitories and some classrooms. We need new tables for the classrooms and bunk beds for the new dormitory.
Objectives
- Respond to the needs of the increased number of students
- Provide students with large single tables and comfortable chairs for long hours of class and study
- Provide this furniture without weighing further on parents who already pay the school tax
- Making the school more efficient in its infrastructure
- Make the use of dormitories efficient with simple, dignified and long-lasting furniture
Beneficiaries
Direct: students who can follow the lessons and study more comfortably.
Indirect: families and the region that will have a more complete high school.
Referent sister for the project: sr Angiolina Bianchi
Project's costs