"Kick Mosquitoes out of our school"

Students receive their new Mosquito nets: Oct. 2011

At last mosquitoes are being kicked out of Rubanda Solidarity Nursery and Primary school.

For many years mosquitoes have been the biggest trouble to our kids in our school. A month ago a curious visitor made a risk to ask the kids to mention to him the three good things  they are enjoying at their school and make Rubanda Solidarity school unique.

One of the kids said, '' studying well", another mentioned "eating three meals a day" yet  another said, " here we do not work too hard".

Pausing another question, the visitor asked the  kids to mention three things that trouble them most. With no hesitation, one jumped up to say, " at night we do not sleep because mosquitoes hummer us hard". It's amazing to see how all the children's answers are so innocent and clear to the point. They are what goes on at their school.

Kids excited learn how to prepare their beds: Oct. 2011

Let me say something more on what they mentioned as troubling them most (mosquitoes). Since the school started in 2004, we have seen kids come and go through one class to another. Many fall sick and recover with services from the nearby Rubanda healthy center that offers quality services amidst out numbering  patients to to being the only healthy facility in the community. Its well known that most of our kids get sick of malaria which is also the most common killer disease  in the community. Hence, the kid's last answer hit  right to the point.

Amazingly, May this year,  Dr. Bruce Murray from Grants Pass  Oregon, -USA, working with a team of doctors without borders, had paid a courtesy visit to this very school and looked in their dormitories noticing no single bed having a mosquito net. Wondering whether the community was exceptionally immune of mosquitoes, on his return, Dr. Bruce asked Fr. Dominc Tumusiime, who is a netive and founder of the school, if Rubanda community had mosquito problems like the rest of other communities do in Uganda. Knowing quite well that malaria is the first killer disease in the community, I confessed immediately with a yes.

Kids can't believe that they can be inside with no mosquitoes to bite

Through our discussion, I notices as if Dr. Bruce  seemed to be asking me if the lack of mosquito nets was lack of knowledge. This prompted me to say "no, actually the mosquito nets project is one of our major priorities in the school needs plan but its down  to the bottom due to greater priorities on our list with minimal funds from the community contribution".

It's amazing to see how much and swiftly Dr. Bruce has worked hard since then. He has been contacting his friends, finding time to narrate the beautiful and horrible experiences he saw and his friends have responded generously to his program, "Kick mosquitoes out of the school". Its targeting to raise about 4,000 dollars to buy 309 new mosquito nets for 309 students.  The photos in the article show a batch of kids who have benefited from the project's first circle. Each mosquito net costs about 12$ including other items, transport and labour.

"I have no enough words to express the happiness from these kids  and the entire community. These days, early in the morning, one notices serene faces unlike in the paste when kids would be seen sleepy right away on the first activity on assembly throughout the day", the head teacher recalls.

Look at the pictures to see how things have changed and how much happiness is revealed on the faces of our kids. They say, " mosquitoes are now history". The question now  is how about those kids who have not yet received?. You could be the next generous friend to add to the list and serenity.

"Thank you Dr. Bruce Murray for visiting us in Rubanda from all the way and donating  a big difference; healthy, life and a new smile to our community", the school directness Sr. Beatrice writes. Your mission to Uganda was real and as you once mentioned it to me, you are giving back to God what he has given you in life. Especially your energy and love. And special gratitude to all your friends and our partners.

To you all, our kids send special greetings to say, "you mean a lot to us", the projects coordinator Mr. Rogers noted on the ceremony of handing over the new mosquito nets to the kids.

We all  say, " Thank you and Welcome to Rubanda".

African smiles begin as early as a rising sun!!

These kids are learning how to make an African smile. They are cute. They are  proud because of their chance to early education knowing quite well that there are many visible and invisible children out there who starve of similar  smiles. Their great eyes and smiles invite you to a tireless defense of their rights. Your tender hand could hold them a candle that leads to the sun rise. 

In Rubanda community, we have many kids who become parents at an early age. When kids lose both or one of the parents, kids get unwanted new name " orphan". From then, they become parents to themselves and to their siblings. Its sad but real. Within acute and chronic poverty environment, these kids start parenting each other at an early and tender age for both personal and family survival. You could imagine what they will not search for. That's what an orphan child goes through in Rubanda. And the order of their parenting skills follows the order of their seniority. The older become fathers and mothers to their younger. Why all this? HIV/AIDS is the greatest factor adding to the rising family and cultural social breakdown.  To know more on  the invisible children look at the picture below from the Uganda New Vision news paper and read the story among many that compels thousands of kind and generous hearts to act the way they amazingly do for children.

Facing Death at the hand of a spouse

Elsie Kamire's grandchildren. They were abandoned when their father killed their mother before hanging himself. PHOTO BY Johnson Mayamba. 

By Johnson Mayamba.

Posted  Monday, October 17  2011 at  00:00

In Summary

According to a review on gender based violence in Sub Saharan Africa, Uganda ranks number one with the highest percentage at 60. Unless efforts are made to deal with the problem, the country will experience more deaths of especially women and children.

On April 5, 2011, residents of Terere Village, Nkokonjeru Sub-County in Mukono District were shocked to find Shamim Nyunjimana brutally murdered by her husband who later hanged himself in the near by bush.

Nyunjimana who was eight months pregnant had been married to Ezekiel Masente for close to two years. When her mother Maria Kabanyana gave her away at the age of 16 to a 53-year-old man for a kilogramme of sugar and a bar of soap, she did not know that she was giving her away as a sacrificial lamb. Some people blame Kabanyana for her daughter’s death.

Elsie Kamiire, 76 years and Nyunjimana’s mother-in-law accuses Kabanyana of forcing her daughter to get married to Masente. She says that when Kabanyana realised that her daughter was in love with Masente, she forced her to demand an introduction from Masente which he was not ready to do at the time. It is alleged that Kabanyana then demanded that if Masente could not pay everything at once, he should first get Shs500,000 before taking her daughter, which Masente agreed to do.

Masente then bought a kilogramme of sugar and a bar of soap which he gave to Nyunjimana to take to her mother to get permission from her to be his wife. Kabanyana who admitted to have received the items and gave her daughter a go ahead, said this was Masente’s initiative and that she did not ask for the items but money from him. “That was Masente’s own initiative. He agreed to pay Shs500,000 before taking my daughter. When he sent the items, I thought he was serious, that is why I gave her a go a head,” Kabanyana said.

It is said that few months later, Nyunjimana got pregnant which prompted her mother to recall her from her husband’s place saying the man had not paid everything and that it was wrong for her to carry his child.

Nyunjimana then started spending most of her days at her mother’s place and would only go back to her husband’s place at 7pm till 6am. This became a problem according to Matia Ntagganila, a neighbour to the deceased.

Ntagganila says that Masente stopped providing for the family as he accused Nyunjimana several times of cheating on him with other men. “This is what caused the quarrel on that fateful night prompting the man to cut his wife into pieces,” Ntagganila said.

Nyunjimana’s death is one among many. In fact, on that same night, in the next village, Tom Ramech, 35, beat his wife Harriet Nabibu to death on allegations that she was dating other men for money. At Lugazi Police Station on April 7, Florence Kedodi, 40 years, had come to report her husband. She says he had promised to kill her.

Kedodi says that when she fell sick, her husband Sam Katerega, 50, abandoned her with their four children at Mulago Hospital. “He sold all the property at home including the house we had built and married a younger woman leaving me with nothing. When I complained, he said he will kill me,” Kedodi narrated. The stories of such women abound everyday in different parts of the country.

The three kids in the above story is one among many where children are forced to parenthood at ab early age in Rubanda. 

The Rubanda Solidarity's mission is to make a difference and provide hope to these kids. Because we are convinced that helping these visible and invisible kids to cope up with their new realities is all what their smile is about and deserves. 

Please, if you feel to join us in this mission, just post your comment and request and we shall reach you soon.

He died so young, just @ eight

Funeral Mass for Avitus Ainesaasi 30/9/2011

Children and staff of Rubanda Solidarity Nursery & Primary School  and the community of Rubanda are mourning the death of Avitus Ainesaasi.

Ainesaasi died on 28/9/2011 at the age of eight years at Rugarama hospital in Kabale.

Prial to his death, Avitus spent the whole day at school learning and playing normally without signs of healthy discomforts.

In the evening, as usual, Avitus joined other kids to the assembly and as the school closed he joined his friends, brother and sister going home.

After dinner, he joined his brothers and sisters to play and later went to sleep.Early in the morning as it was his habit, Avitus did not wake up raising fears among his parents who went to check on him. To their dismay, they found he was in bad shape and only fit for hospital emergency. With the nearest hospital at a distance of more that 20 kilometers away and with none existent ambulances, he was rushed to a nearby Rubanda healthy center who found that his health condition had deteriorated and referred him to Kabale hospital where he died shortly after arriving. The  cause of his death is not yet known with certainty.


More than the staff, his fellow children miss him a lot. However, they have been  assured and consoled by Rev.Dominic Tumusiime, the founder of the school, that at the tender age Ainesaasi has met his death, blameless as he was, has gone to God in heaven as the first saint from the school and is praying for all of us.

Ainesaasi, your family, your sponsor, our school and the whole community of Rubanda will  miss your smiles and love. However, as we all feel the pitch of the deep hole you have left behind, your death at that tender age is your blameless journey to behold the eternal life.

We will miss you but hope to see you once again when our time comes.

Good bye.

Rest in Eternal Peace.