The Newest Additions to Our Sponsorship Programme

From L to R: John & James' Uncle, James, John & Cordelia

Every time I walked to the school I walked through Ndali village to be greeted by the familiar sound of children, and in fact adults, of all ages calling “Muzungu” (meaning white person) at me. However, one trip was particularly memorable - I was walking home just before lunch, and so the village was quieter than it often is when a small boy came and asked me “What is your name?" This in itself may seem fairly unremarkable, however, the majority of children, and indeed a lot of the teachers, don’t seem to grasp the word “your” and so instead will ask you “What is my name” when meaning to ask for yours.

Already impressed I promptly answered him and asked for his, to which he replied John. He then proceeded to ask me where I was going, where I was coming from, what I had been doing there and a variety of other questions. He ended the conversation with a “thank you” and a huge smile and then ran off. The more I considered the conversation the more impressed I became with his confidence and level of English, but realized that since he was at home in the middle of the day and not wearing school uniform he must not be attending school.

Some of the students from the sponsorship programme with
Cordelia, Aubrey, Bill & Jill (Who sponsor 6 students) 

 The next day I asked Aunt Susan (who lives in Ndali village) about him, she knew exactly who I was referring to – she explained that him and his brother had both been attending her school but their father had left home and their mother couldn’t afford to pay the school fees so they had to drop out. She said that John had been top in his year (P2) and his brother, James, was also very nearly top in his (P3). 

Although most of the students who are sponsored through the Ndali Ventures programme are in secondary school, in special circumstances, and if a sponsor is found, then children can be entered into the programme at an earlier stage. John made such an impression on me that him and James have become the most recent additions to the Ndali Ventures Sponsorship programme – they will go back to school at the start of this academic year in February. If you are interested in sponsoring a child or would like more information about our programme then please get in touch.

Textbooks & "Read a book, give a book"

Teaching Maths to P6

I was very excited to return to Aunt Susan’s and start helping out. We decided that I would teach English, Maths and Science to P5 & P6 (a very daunting prospect), as well as assisting with the nursery when possible.

Textbooks 

After the poor classroom buildings, mud floors and distinct lack of windows one of the problems I noticed was the serious shortage of textbooks. The school had just one copy of each meaning that the teachers seemed to spend a large proportion of their time simply copying the textbook onto the board for the children to either read or copy down themselves. This poses a particular issue when teaching English since reading is such a fundamental part of developing language skills. 

Me with the nursery

There were only 8-12 children in each of the classes at Aunt Susan’s so Ndali Ventures purchased enough English, Maths & Science textbooks for P4, P5 & P6 to have at least one between two. I hoped that this might improve their lessons and give the teachers (myself now included) more time and therefore a bit more scope for teaching. It took a while for the teachers to get used to it – weeks later I would still walk in to find the teacher at the front with a single textbook copying passages out on the board whilst the new textbooks remained untouched in the office! They got the message eventually though and I think they have since found them a very valuable resource and one which we would love to expand further.

“Read a book, give a book”

Students from Aunt Susan's reading at Loren's holiday club

The (limited) teaching experience I gained on my first trip certainly impressed upon me the great importance of children’s story books – I found them to be by far the most successful way of engaging the students and helping to improve their English. This was reinforced completely by the response I got from the students at Aunt Susan’s.

Guests who are staying at the Lodge often donate very generous gifts of stationery and other school supplies which they have brought from home. Although, this is of course greatly appreciated, there is actually very little in the way of school supplies which can’t be bought locally – and buying from local stationers and school suppliers has the added bonus of helping the local economy. However, something the schools don’t have and which are difficult and often expensive to buy within Uganda are children’s story books.

Nursery students & Aunt Susan with a book read to them
by Poppy on her trip in March 2012

As a result we have developed our “Read a book, give a book” venture – we are hoping to encourage guests to bring a copy of their favourite story book with them on their trip rather than other supplies. The idea is that the guests will then have the opportunity to read the story to the local children themselves, and afterwards the book will be added to the “Ndali Ventures Library” from which the schools will be able to borrow books.

Fortunate, one of Aunt
Susan's nursery students

We understand that a lot of people reading this won’t ever visit Uganda but may still want to help – we are currently investigating the possibilities for shipping a large quantity of books from the UK - but until then, I am heading out in the summer and will be able to take some with me. Please do get in touch if you are interested in helping.

Our ultimate aim is to have a fully functioning community library - in the meantime, we simply want to build a useful resource for our affiliated schools and hopefully improve the children’s English, as well as allowing guests to engage with the local community. 

Visit to Nurseries Supported by VSO/UNICEF

Sue on the boda-boda
at Nkuruba

One of the next big projects which Ndali Ventures is hoping to undertake and one about which I am personally very passionate is the development of Pre-Primary Education. Our plans range from minor improvements to the existing nursery at Aunt Susan’s through to the eventual building and running of our own nursery (more details and background to follow).

Sue Galer, someone who I met briefly on my first trip has been working through VSO on a UNICEF supported project aimed at “Transforming children’s learning through play in the Rwenzori” since October 2010. I was very hopeful about the advice and support she might be able to give us in the creation of our own projects - unfortunately I didn’t have any contact details, so a few weeks after the start of my second trip I was just contemplating the best way of locating them when, luckily for us Sue came to stay at the Lodge! Although technically on holiday, she allowed me to rack her brains for ideas and also offered to take me, Aunt Susan and James on a trip the following week to visit two of the nurseries (or Early Childhood Development Centres, ECDs) which she had been working with. 

We set off, in true Ugandan style in a Matatu, filled with teachers (or Caregivers) from a selection of the nurseries which Sue had been working with. The first nursery we visited was at Nkuruba, pretty much Ndali’s neighbor! Sue chose this nursery as it has a model outside play area built entirely from local materials.  

It was incredible to see how they had made such a variety of play equipment using such simple materials. It was also great to watch the children interacting with it, taking an interest, and, sometimes, even being a little imaginative. The teachers were clearly trying very hard to engage the children through play, such a stark contrast to the rows of children on wooden benches which is the norm for nurseries in the area.  I could see Aunt Susan and James getting very excited about the prospect of having a play area when their nursery moves to its new location; they were full of ideas and very eager to tell me that their plot of land was bigger than the one at Nkuruba so we would be able to do even more. We were then treated to a variety of songs by the children - the lyrics of my favourite one went something like "To be a teacher is not easy, to be a teacher is not easy, to be a teacher is not easy, but is easy when you are able" (teacher was also replaced by politician, doctor and a few other choice professions).

The second nursery was just the other side of Fort Portal, and one which Sue chose to show us because of the model indoor play resources which the teachers have developed. The nursery was a collection of two small mud buildings and one structure made from bamboo, but the array of resources which had been collected and used in innovative ways was astounding. It would take me hours to describe all the different items they had collected but please take a look at the photos on our Facebook album

They also had a school garden which was tended by the children (from P1 rather than the nursery) and the produce of which the children got to eat as a much needed addition to their poor diet. Building on the work Loren did with Aunt Susan’s school on the importance of school gardens, Aunt Susan and James can’t wait to start developing their own when the new plot of land comes into use.

It was a truly inspiring trip which left us all full of ideas and eager to get started! 

First Visit to Aunt Susan's - 26/06/12

When embarking on my second trip to Ndali in summer 2012 I felt much more prepared, I knew a lot more about what I needed and wanted to do. 

For a number of reasons I decided to focus my efforts on Aunt Susan’s Primary School. A quick introduction to the school can be found here.










I had heard a lot about Aunt Susan’s during my first trip, but it wasn’t until I visited the school and met Susan and James that I realized just how impressive what they’ve achieved is. Their dedication to the school and it’s students is amazing, their love of teaching is palpable and it is clear that they will do anything within their means to improve the lives of the children they teach. Their resources are incredibly limited and the buildings they are using are far from satisfactory but this doesn’t seem to deter them.

My first visit to the school gave me just a taste of what I could look forward to – I went with Aubrey to deliver various supplies which had been donated by guests at the lodge. The balloons were definitely a favourite, although I think they were slightly concerned that Aubrey might pop one. 

More photos from this visit can be seen on our Facebook page.

My First Visit To Ndali - Mbuga Primary School

One of the incredible views from the Lodge

My first visit to Ndali in February 2011 was also my first experience of solo travelling, my first visit to Uganda and in fact, my first visit to Africa - suffice to say, I was fairly clueless about what I was doing or how my trip would pan out. My journey to the Lodge was something I will never forget (and don’t really want to relive), but I got there eventually, and once I did, I knew that I would never want to leave.

Aubrey & Some of the Mbuga Students

Having had a few days to settle in, I walked to the end of Ndali’s drive to Mbuga Primary School, where I would be helping out for the next three months and where I was greeted by the sight of 1000 children in bright pink uniforms. I had no idea what to expect and, as it turned out, I was the first long term volunteer which the school had so they weren’t sure what to expect of me either.

Their first idea was to hand me a P6 (the 6^th year of primary school) science textbook and tell me to teach whatever I wanted – a quick glance over the book revealed a syllabus which stretched beyond what I had just covered in A-level biology into material which I knew was undergraduate and above, all explained using exceptionally long words and full of linguistic errors. So, whilst I was very willing to help, I explained that I didn’t myself understand everything in the book and as such wasn’t sure that I should be teaching it to the kids – the teachers didn’t appear to think this was a valid reason, and simply said “but you have the textbook”. A long discussion ensued and, feeling rather overwhelmed by the whole thing I persuaded them to let me observe for the first couple of days before deciding exactly what I could do to help.

It was decided that I would teach English to P3, P4 & P5 (or at least try to).  The classes all have about 100 students in them, you might think that discipline would therefore be a problem – but in fact, the opposite is true, I found it very difficult to elicit any kind of response from them, and when I did get a response, it was only ever “yes”.  The education system in Uganda is such that, for the first three years of primary school everything is taught in the local language, but from the 4^th year up, everything is (supposedly) taught in English and all their exams are in English. I persevered but only felt increasingly frustrated at how little difference I seemed to be able to make.

The Ndali Planets Classroom at Mbuga

I eventually abandoned the substandard textbooks in favour of “The Hungry Caterpillar” and “The Gruffallo” (a definite favourite). I’m pretty sure the children all thought I was mad, particularly when I took them outside and started teaching them the hokey-cokey, but I simply wanted to engage them in some way and it seemed to work.

Whilst I didn’t feel like I made a huge amount of difference at Mbuga it gave me a clear picture of the implications of the UPE policy and served as great motivation for me (& Ndali Ventures) to embark upon new projects to try and improve the opportunities for education in the local area.