First Hand Look

My mom and I were able to return to Bwerenga Village this summer and got to spend time with the wonderful Head Mistress, Faith,  of the school who helped us to understand all the great things going on at the school as well as to better understand some of the needs at the school.
Hope International School continues to take in children rescued from the prisons.  These children were so often wrongly imprisoned and this school takes them in and educates them. Hope International school lives out that love of Jesus by tangibly providing hope, an education, a meal and a future for over 200 children with 60 of those having been rescued from the prison system.  See the newsletter for more details.  This is such an act of sacrificial love to bring in and provide for formerly imprisoned children that have no way to pay tuition yet they open their arms to these children and meet their needs.

Faith, the Head Mistresses, had shared with me that their heart at the school is to be building up a Godly generation. She explained that if the kids fear the Lord then they will have wisdom to help them in life and if the kids fear the Lord then they can share the good news of the gospel with their families and others.  She shared that many parents start coming to church and knowing Jesus and this impacts the entire community.

Faith also shared about some of their needs.  Faith would love to be able to provide a more nutritious daily meal by adding a meat of some type and vegetables.  She showed us a building they are renting to provide more classroom space, and this building is in desperate need of cement floors, doors with locks and windows with safety bars.  She explained how the dirt floors cause dusty classrooms where the students are coughing because of the dust.  Also, with dirt floors jiggers could become a problem.  Jiggers are bugs that can get inside the body.  Jiggers are small fleas that live in the dirt often found in floors of schools and homes in Uganda.  This is a major reason Hope International needs cement floors.

See below an example of jiggers on the left and after someone removed them with a safety pin.  I cannot imagine a child in America going to school with floors that might give them this frightening problem!


image reposted from weisbergfamilyfoundation.org
You can see the urgency to get cement floors instead of the dirt floors they have now!
Faith arranged for us to speak with a local workman who gave us an estimate to put in cement floors.
Cement Floors:  $3,500

Photos of the building with classes that need cement floors, doors and windows.











Other needs:
Doors & Windows with Safety Bars:
Again doors and windows are for protection from thieves breaking in and stealing tables and chairs and protection from the weather as well.  Right now the students must carry their desks which are plastic stools out of the rooms in the one building as they have no way to lock up that building to protect those things from being stolen which is a problem.
Cupboard-
Need cupboards with a lock so that can lock up supplies so that no one comes in and steals supplies.  Also the obvious is to hold the books that are kept in a bin because they don't have a place to put books right now other than a plastic bin.

Teacher Salary:
The need for a good education is huge all over the world and that is no different in Bwerenga village as education is the key to hope and a different life for the children. ​

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