My 2010 Trip to a Secondary School in Northern Uganda (Page 5 of 8: "Hardship at the School")

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          Scroll down to view the images or click here or view the next page that highlights a couple of the students.

          Introduction to the images on this page: There were several students at the school who were orphans or refugees. They had no families and were boarded at the school. The school didn't have the money to feed them during the two-week break. By Thursday, August 5, 2010, I saw these students cutting up and eating roots that had little or no real nutritional value. They were so hungry that they had no energy or strength to talk or to do much of anything. One of the teachers asked me to say something to them. I didn't know what to say. I walked away crying. I told the teacher that I was overwhelmed and that I didn't know what to do or to say. He replied, “Why don't you just tell them that? They'll understand.” On Friday, August 6, 2010, Betty and I stopped in the city of Gulu which had something that Nebbi didn't have: an ATM machine. Using bank and credit card that I had brought with me, I withdrew enough money to feed the students for the next two weeks.

          Many of the parents who send their children to the Nebbi Standard College pay money to the school, but many others are unable to. Instead, they pay by giving food or by giving anything that they have (sometimes even animals), but it is not enough to meet all the needs of the school. The school has an American sponsorship program, but the money hadn't been coming in as much over the last few months. During the last term, 70 of the 147 students didn't eat lunch because the school didn't have enough money to feed them. Many of those students ate no breakfast, walked three miles to school, worked all day at school without lunch, walked three miles home, and had their one and only meal of the day.

          Inspectors from the Ugandan Ministry of Education had recently visited the school. The school was informed that they needed to make many renovations to the school or they would risk loosing their status as a National Testing Center. The required renovations included constructing a new stairwell, safety railings on the second floor, and putting in windows and doors.  The school needed the equivalent of 10,000 American dollars to make the renovations, which they did not have.


           
            This is their kitchen: a pot of boiling water over burning wood.
          The roots that the students were eating (described above) can be eaten raw or boiled.
          I tried them both ways; they have no flavor either way.


           
            I am standing on one of the two stairways to the second floor.
          They are not very stable.
           
          This building, which is in Nebbi, is where NEBSTA started before moving to its current site.


           
            This is a picture of the students cutting up and eating roots because it was all that they had.

           
            Through all the hardship and suffering, there are things that give the students joy.
          The students appreciate these uniforms that were donated by Kalamazoo Christian High School..


           
          They asked me to plant a couple of trees on the grounds of the school.
          One of them was a fruit tree that will eventually provide food.

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