After a three-year break due to Covid Hands Around the World Jersey volunteers have been back in Bugarama as part of our new Ubumwe project.
Four Jersey trustees, Mike, Dennis, Myfanwy and David, were joined by six local volunteers, Eric, Joel, Samson, Chance, Eddie and Innocent together with a team of a dozen paid workers who spent three weeks at GS Bugarama Cite, where we cleaned, repaired and painted nine classrooms.
Bugarama Cite is our latest partner school to benefit from our renovation programme after working in five other schools in Bugarama. We also have funds to replace the old primary classrooms which are really in very poor condition. Over the next three years, we will build a total of 15 new classrooms in three phases.
This is all part of our new three-year Ubumwe project. Last year, encouraged by Jersey Overseas Aid (JOA), we commissioned an independent Impact assessment of our previous interventions in Bugarama. This was conducted by David Musendo of Lifetime Consulting Ltd. The report recognised that HATW’s ‘primary focus to reduce overcrowding in targeted schools and facilitate more conducive school environments has been remarkably achieved’ and encouraged JOA to continue to build on this success.
In December 2022 Dennis and Mike visited Bugarama and began discussions with our nine partner schools, including Nyakagoma in Nzahaha and Mubera in Gikundamvura sectors, on their priorities moving forward. This resulted in a three-day Co-design workshop in May 2023 which produced the Ubumwe project.
Meaning Unity in Kinyarwanda, Ubumwe underlines the fact that the project is jointly owned by all partners. the overall aim is to promote good quality education and equitable opportunities for children and young people in and around Bugarama. Our three main objectives are improved learning environment and conditions, improved quality of teaching and delivery, and academic progress for children from vulnerable backgrounds. The picture below gives shows the range and scope of the Ubumwe project.
JOA has agreed to support this ambitious project with funding of £529,000 over the next three years. HATWJ has also committed to raising a total of £282,000 over the next three years. To achieve this we shall have to go out to find new donors and new sources of income.
It was a delight to get back to Bugarama and visit each of our partner schools and our friends there. They are doing a remarkable job of rising to the challenge of delivering good quality education to a rapidly growing population of children and young people. Since our last visit in 2019, all the schools have had significant investments in new buildings through the World Bank but still struggle to deal with congested classrooms. Nevertheless, the schools are looking in good shape, the teachers are enthusiastic about developing the curriculum and new methodologies, and the children are keen to learn.
In future posts, I’ll have more to say about aspects of our Ubumwe strategy.
In the meantime here’s a picture of our four Jersey trustees at Nyakagoma and a slogan that sums up our contribution to the schools …..
… and a few snapshots of the wonderful welcome we received.
RSVP charity, Bugarama visit 