October 2023

Back in 2009, I started Educating Africa's Children to raise the money needed to start (and it continues to help support) Dusek Child Care Centre, a primary school in Uganda. We also pay for some secondary, college, and university tuition for certain students. We we started the school, I just hoped that we could help get DCCC off the ground and admitting some students - but it has grown into so much more thanks to the vision and work of the school administrators, teachers, and staff.

I was supposed to go to Uganda to see the school in 2020 (for my 6th trip to the country), but covid had other plans. After postponing the trip, this year was the year. I was fortunate enough to be joined by 8 other people who have supported the school (including my parents).

We all made it over with the only wrinkle being that customs decided to disallow 8 of the 18 laptops we had with us into the country and they fined me. We are working on how to prevent this for next time....but getting there safely was the main goal and we still had suitcases full of a printer, projector, other laptops, phones, ipads, kids clothes, sporting equipment, and school supplies.

Since we had so many bags with us, we went to DCCC as the first destination. The school has continued to absolutely blossom. There's no way to adequately describe what an amazing school it is -- every time I'm there, I am blown away with the quality of the education going on in this rural village. Between the murals on the outside walls (where kids can see them as they play to learn lessons without "trying" to learn), to original plays and songs with lessons, to traditional teaching...the school truly has different ways for different learners to absorb the lessons. The school makes a conscious effort to celebrate all of the different talents the kids have and ensure every child has a place at the school where they can explore things they love. The kids seem truly and genuinely happy. All of the guests on the trip talked about how happy, attentive, and well-behaved the kids are. The teachers at the school are competitively compensated and it is clear the school has recruited an amazing group of teachers. There's a reason why the school is now at 960 kids - it's a place that kids and parents want to be. They know that the education will be top notch and all kids will be celebrated for their various talents.

On our last Friday, we went back to the school for a 12th anniversary celebration. Looking around to see all the parents and kids and community members was pretty overwhelming. Everyone received a catered lunch. The group hired to cater the lunch is a group of women who began meeting at the school grounds in approximately 2015. They were all barely getting by, but they started pooling their money and bought some plates to rent out for functions. Then chairs to rent. Now that has turned into a catering business used by the community - a catering company that managed to cater for approximately 1300-1500 guests at the celebration.

The school has big plans for the future - the immediate next step that we are funding will be internet for the school. I believe the school will set things up so members of the broader community can also access the internet. Having internet for teachers and kids will be a huge leap from where things have been. No other primary schools in the region even teach computer lessons. The kids are at an advantage when they go on to secondary school because they have already learned so many lessons that other children have not had the opportunity to learn, particularly around computing.

The school is also finishing plans with an architect to build a new multi-story building that will have boarding for some students, housing for teachers, and also some other rooms for school use (such as a library and computer lab). Once we can share those plans, we will do so. That will be a BIG project.

Of course, I also did some things like track the gorillas and chimps and see lions and elephants and hippos, etc...Whenever I tell people I was in Uganda, they look at me quizzically. Setting aside the school, Uganda is the only country I know of where you can see gorillas, chimps, and lions in one country....and the parks tend not to be overly crowded, unlike a lot of countries. It truly is a wonderful place to visit.

We couldn't have gotten this far without the support of all our donors. Know that every dollar you have donated has gone as far as it can possibly go to bring quality education to the Rwenzori mountains. Thank you, Robin