Project info
Ubuntu Children’s Literacy Centre Mutolere, Uganda
Organization and cooperation partner in Germany:
Freunde für Freunde – gUG für Entwicklungshilfe – Friends for Friends
Ubuntu Children’s Literacy Centre: Planning and construction of the school since 2017
Managing Director Uganda: Pontius Mayunga
Friends for Friends gUG: founded in 2017
Shareholders and managing directors: Silvia Beller and Michael Arns
Coordinator: Marliese Arns
Location: Mutolere, Uganda
Project: Teaching tent for the first two classes of the school
Our funding:
Costs for the tent in the amount of 6,500 €
Funding period: 1st half of 2023
Marliese and Michael Arns have been regularly on site in Mutolere for 20 years and have since supported the people sustainably and in partnership with several projects. There is now a large network of helpers in the village who are committed to education and training of their friends in Uganda.
One project is the construction of the “Ubuntu Children’s Literacy Centre”. “Ubuntu” is a Bantu word, also spoken in the local Rufumbira dialect, meaning to live and develop community and belonging. Literally translated, “I am because we are!”
The project operator
In southwestern Uganda, about 100,000 children have no home. Despite compulsory education, many, especially girls, cannot afford further education. For many children, lunch at school is their only meal of the day. On weekends, there is a supply of especially needy children at the hospital, at the moment there are about 600 children. Here “Friends for Friends” supports in cooperation with several organizations.
In order to alleviate the children’s need, the non-profit company “Freunde für Freunde” was founded in Neuss in 2018. Many children and their families have since been supported through a sponsorship program. Overall, this commitment leads to great relief and encouragement in the local community. At the moment there is an “Agriculture Project”, which is led by James, a former sponsored child and graduate farmer. In the future, there will also be English courses for people who have dropped out of school or want to relearn this language. Further educational offers for adults from the village surroundings are planned.
The staff of “Friends for Friends” work exclusively on a voluntary basis.
Ubuntu Children’s Literacy Center – Pre & Primary School
At the “Ubuntu Children’s Literacy Center”, girls and boys of all ages from preschool to primary school graduation will be taught in smaller classes than usual. The target group are children of parents who can pay school fees as well as children from sponsorships. Children with physical disabilities can also attend the school. The pedagogical contents result on the one hand from the Montessori pedagogy and on the other hand from the curriculum of the state of Uganda.
This includes practical work such as gardening, sewing and handicrafts. Important is important to us is the promotion of the self-determined and independent learning of each child according to their individual abilities and inclinations (“help me to do it myself”).
In the “Ubuntu Children’s Literacy Center”, parent workshops on parenting issues will be offered. This kind of parenting is a new concept on site, which gives a new understanding of children. A way of parenting is made comprehensible that, for example, rejects punishment and instead works with encouragement and consistency.
The first buildings have been erected: a guard’s hut, a kitchen, toilets, the enclosure of the site and the playground. During the construction of the school, the helpers are each trained by a skilled craftsman, so that they can then work as skilled craftsmen themselves in the future and train other colleagues. First, the permanent school buildings for the kindergarten and the first 3 classes of the elementary school will be built, so that the school can grow with the students. In the last step, the school will be expanded for grades 4 to 7, making it a regular pre- and primary school.
With the teaching permit granted by the school authorities, the first two classes can already start now due to the special construction and erection of the teaching tent until the permanent school building is completed.
Why we are committed to the project
We are impressed by the way “Friends for Friends” has been supporting the people in Mutolere and Kisoro reliably and at eye level for many years. The focus is on the sustainability of the projects and on helping people to help themselves.
In the many years that we have made friends with the people of Kisoro and Mutolere, we are the ones who have been able to learn from life there and the ones who have been given gifts in our hearts. Who is the giver and who is the taker?
Silvia Beller and Michael Arns, Partner and Managing Director
Outlook
We admire the courage and perseverance of the Arns couple, Mrs. Beller and the many committed friends in Germany to work for a livable existence and the development of a good future for the people in Uganda. We are happy about the reports that reach us about the progress of the school. We will stay in contact and can certainly continue to support the school project in the future.
