Rubanda Solidarity: The Dream & History of Rubanda Solidarity 2004-2012

2004: Study Year

Volunteer teachers with new kids admired by public school students in the background 2004

This article is published by Fr. Dominic Tumusiime who is an indigenous son of Rubanda community, with an experience of vast traveling and Gospel mission work in Africa and USA as an ordained catholic priest.

The article unveils the origins and history of Rubanda Solidary Development Association (RSDA) in Rubanda community. It also highlights how its existence inspired and given birth to Rubanda Solidarity Nursery Primary School (RSN/PS), the first private primary school in Rubanda community. The mission of this school remains to have improved conditions of living through the provision of quality education to both boy and girl child. This would in a long run provide quality knowledge, build equality, enhance good employment and salary earnings, savings that enable other outcomes like; better resources to food, healthy services, housing, education, mobility and communication, leisure and others.

A brief history of formal education in Uganda is that it has evolved along the years. Before Independence in 1962, schools were run by colonial powers and missionaries of each church entity. But after independence things changes. Most of the colonial run school were taken over by the new government while missionary founded schools remained run by churches until later when most of the them were nationalized.
Those nationalized schools started to receive sponsorship from the state and those which were not including seminaries remained private and self sponsored. However, the greatest challenge of formal primary education both during and shortly after colonial rule in Uganda was to convince majority Ugandans that the white man's formal education system being imposed on them was of any value. Because many were highly suspicious of it being the white man's trap to steal away their children, property and corrupt their moral and social life. And when the issue came to girls' formal education, the resistance was double as it was believed that the girl would be easily morally corrupted, stolen or even educated to the advantage of the future husband's family.

As time went on, state and church run schools performed side by side, people came to understand the difference and started to make choices according to their financial possibilities. And this historical factor has remained a measuring stick between private/church and government run schools.

Another important factor between church and government run schools is that church schools are considered private and mainly sponsored by the community which has power to decide on its affairs of development with no unnecessary bureaucracies. The running depends on their funds those solicited from donors to top up. This makes a big difference in the governance and responsibility of the community between the two schools. For example, while government schools are supposed to be state run, there is never enough funds to fully equip the school with all that is needed including school meals and teachers, the biggest setbacks to children's morale.

During my early inspirations into why children were dropping out of school, I was very much thinking of the lack of meals at school but I had no facts nor a research to base myself on. As and opportune time seemed to have arrived, in 2004 assisted by Sr. Stellamaris Kyasiimire of the Good Counsel of Mbarara set up a study class of ninety students. Since our main concern was to find out whether our hypothesis of lack of meals at school was the main cause of drop out, we encouraged the community to contribute financially and make up a fund for a mug of corn breakfast for each kids every morning before entering the class. The study class with to community volunteer teachers allocated in a public school premises under a big tree since we was no free room.

After a year under the tree, we conducted an evaluation with an amazing results that confirmed our kids in the program were waking up very early and running to school. When asked by their parents why they go so are under the dark they would reply, "we do not want to find breakfast finished", many parents narrated. In the whole year program, we did not find any absenteeism due to food other than sickness or parents carelessness.

In 2005 together with two other students Valentina and Morgan from Roma Tre University in Rome, we carried out another research for our maters in Human development and Food security. In this research we found out that chronic poverty was another major cause for children's drop out. Because children provide labour for food production in almost all households. And school program would interfere so much with this provision that has no alternative source. This is a silent major conflict to food security.

Back to RSDA. Rubanda Solidarity Development Association started in 2002 through supporting a family that had adopted three orphans in their big sizeable family of eleven persons. The orphans had lost both parents to HIV/AIDS virus in the same month in 2002 leaving both of them at Rubanda health center where parents were being assisted.

At the beginning everything is always atrial. My first move then was to support a family that had adopted three of the five kids into their largely sized family of eleven persons plus three more kids with a project of five chicken layers meanwhile I continue to study the situation and find out a better solution. Soon the family project grew from one to twelve families and to thirty six in a difference of one year.
What made this incredible growth was the system used in motivating the mothers who badly need other means of income as the main providers to most households. We created a small project of providing a start up capital for three chickens, construction of a chicken house and provide feed them for one month until they begin to lay eggs and make income to sustain the project.
And the means of group expansion was a condition we put that each member who received chickens would commit herself to rear them crossbreed and return one chicken to the group. The returned chichen would then be given out to new members. This was tremendously successful. However, its main challenge was the endless bottomless hole of poverty they had to feed with very limited source of income. " Its very difficult to think of saving when there is no dinner for the children nor keep an egg for another chicken when there is no dinner for children" one woman boldly exclaimed at one of the women's regular meeting.
There were so many lessons drawn from the chicken project that encouraged us to think of more ways to support women and youth and prompted us to seek registration of our young organization. We started the process and in 2005 we were registered as a CBO (Community Development Organization)m targeting vulnerable Children, Youths and Mothers.

The Rubanda Solidarity Development Organization is located in South western Uganda, Kabale district, Rubanda county, Ikumba Subcounty.

The origins of RSDA go back to the invasion of the HIV/AIDS pandemic virus in the 1980s in Uganda and Rubanda in particular. The second reason was the increasing levels of poverty, growing number of orphans and widows coupled by horrifying primary school drop outs and chronic poverty in the community.

For many years Fr. Dominic Tumusiime who is a wondering why there was so much increase primary school drop out among kids in the only public government sponsored schools in the community not only in his family own family but in the entire community of Rubanda. Motivated also by increasing HIV/AIDS infection and serious social and healthy impact especially to increasing vulnerable children, youths and mothers Fr. Dominic pondered on what would be a timely solution.

sought for ways to offer some solution. vylnerable children trecking to find out the real causes of increasing poverty primary schools drop outs. Childing droping out of schools was incresingly getting getting out of hand. They had lots of resentments and many of them could hadly tell you their reasons but commonly express lack of money or lack of someone at home to assit them. Its was indeed a big problem within the only existing government public schools in Rubanda community.

Inspired by some kids who explicitly mentioned of hanger in the school, in the year 2004, I got curious to find out or confirm the hanger that kids had mentioned. With collaboration of Sr. Stellamaris Kyasiimire, a religious sister of the order of Good Counsel sister in Rubanda, I initiated a study year that involved 90 children. We opened up our pre-primary class program using St Andrew's goverment assisted primary school compound. However, our classes were under a tree due to lack of structures. For one year, two community volunteer teachers conducted classes from 8:30 am to 1:00 pm. And every morning a cup of corn porridge was served to every kid.For every parent was asked to contribute 15,000 local currency equivalent to 6 dollar per year for each kid for breakfast evryday before the kids began their classes.

Sr. Stellamris Kyasiimire, teacher Angela and kids 2004

Together with the community (children's) parents and guardians we agreed we raised 15,000 Ugandan Shillings equivalent to 6 US dollars for each child.
We found two generous community members to guide the kids as teachers.

A year later and evaluation conducted by Fr. Dominic Tumusiime, Sr. Stellamaris Kyasiimire, Mr. Rogers Orishaba and all the parents found enormous enormous Food was confirmed the major cause for children to resent going to school as most kids do not eat enough dinner, no food for packing while going to school, no school meals served and no money to buy snacks during break. And most kids are worried of finding the little food available at home eaten by their little siblings staying at home.It was clear that food plays a great role in children's education by many parents commenting that conflicts had drastically dropped in their families between the involved kids and their parents than the kids outside the program. " Since this program started my kids always wake me up every morning to go to school and when I ask them why so early they say never stop saying, 'we do not want to arrive and find breakfast over' ", one of the parents joyfully narrated. Coupled by other genuine reason like better standards of education and discipline observed among our study class kids, we decided to begin a private community school. However, we strongly believe that any community development must invest a lot on community involvement and participation for best results and long term sustainability. Consequently in the flowing pictures we give you a crew of what this journey was been like in 2004 and continues to be.

2005: launching and progress of the new community private school