“Welcome to the pearl of Africa” said Phillip, HYT’s
Operations Manager on our first day here in Jinja. Only ten days later and both
of us feel very welcome in our new home for the next six months and excited
for what is to come.
Tristan meets some children at Naminage (1v5)
We started our week by picking up from where Harry and
Henry left off and with the continuation of our structures audit – visiting and
inspecting every structure HYT has ever built.
It was great to be able to visit so many sites this week and see a few
of the many villages at which HYT has made a difference. With HYT having worked
at so many schools and villages over its seven
years here, and with some being as far as three hours away, we began at
our more recent ‘Rotary’sites which are all in the Kamuli district to the North of
Jinja and next to our 1V 3,4,5 and 6 projects.
Freddie and Tristan hold an impromptu maths lesson at St Kaloli PS
Accompanied by ‘Mr Wyndham’ and ‘Mr Phillip’ we made our
way north to inspect these sites. We were welcomed sincerely at every school we
visited and it was soon apparent how well regarded HYT is and how grateful the
locals are for its work. We were
delighted to find out how much money our water tanks were saving the schools,
especially at Makoka, where the teachers living there are saving 60,000UGX each
per month.
Inspecting the recently completed water tanks Naminage Mixed Primary School
Fortunately, we also had the time to look at some future
projects, and we started off by visiting and old secondary school project
called Mutai. HYT’s involvement at this school has had such a positive impact
that pupil numbers have doubled since completion and are expected to double
again in the next year. As a result of the increasing attendance HYT have
decided to build an additional classroom block and work has already started by
some of our ISSB trainees.
The foundations at Mutai for the new 4 classroom block
Next on the list was Buyala, a project that we will be
starting in a few weeks. It has been planned for four classrooms, an office, a
kitchen and a water tank to be built there in just six months. It will be
rewarding for us to be able to watch (and hopefully help!) this school
transform during our stay here.
Buyala Primary School
We are very much looking forward to next week, as we are
planning on starting the newest of HYT’s ‘One Village at a Time’ projects,
Kymenulo, as we look for trainees willing to undergo the rigorous training
programme that has made HYT so well
renowned for their use of ISSB technology.