Rwenzori Development Foundation

We worked with ten schools in the Kabarole District, schools were elected by the Advisory Board and participated in an annual competition to allocate bursaries for project proposals. After attending an initial meeting in response to an explanatory hand-out, each school voted from a list of projects chosen by staff and students which would benefit the whole school. Beyond the provision of much-needed resources, the main objectives of the competition were to enable students to have a sense of ownership and participation in their chosen project right from the proposal stage, to encourage team-work, and to develop the important skills of managing limited resources in order to achieve a collective profit.

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Implementation of the competition was made challenging due to the flooding of roads and the need for RDF supervision, but Goretti’s hard work in his own car kept transport costs down. Future competitions will be greatly benefitted by the information gathered, such as the voting statistics showing the general wants and needs across all the schools. Purely community-based schools that do not qualify for government aid might also be considered in subsequent years. A great deal of gratitude is revealed by the letters of staff and students reporting the successful deliverance of projects across the schools. The members of Rusakere SSS voted for a water tank for when the well is empty during the dry season. This solved the school’s most pressing problem, and all 700 students benefitted from the swift implementation of a project for which the school had long been unsuccessfully soliciting parental funding. At Kahinju SSS, the competition money was used for the purchase of sports equipment, enabling compulsory physical education lessons and inter-class competitions that resulted in the selection of a favourable regional squad and even some participation at a national level.