After the clinic and our support of the Nursery, Primary and Secondary Schools make up the next biggest component of our program in the Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement. The students we support are mostly Kenyan refugees, but there is also a small group of Sudanese students and one Congolese that receive full support for school fees and supplies as well.
I was really hoping while I was here to observe the schools in action, and see t he classrooms filled with students, but sadly I had arrived right in between first and second semester 
and they were off school for the whole week. I hadn’t really thought to ask, but the logistics of my trip made this week the only one I could manage, so I’ll have to leave that for the next visit.
I was, fortunately, able to see one small group of 6th grade students at the
“Can Rom” Primary school in a classroom cramming for their big exams that were coming up at the end of the year. This was a really nice treat after seeing all the quiet, empty school buildings. The principal of the Primary School made a short presentation, introduced me to the class, and had our Kenyan students raise their hands–more than half the class was supported by Real Medicine.
Charles Naku, RMF Project Coordinator Uganda, then made a short speech to them about the importance of education and how proud we were to see them working so hard during their holidays. It boggles the mind to even try imagining a group of 6th grade students in the U.S. voluntarily coming to school in the middle of their vacation? Now try and imagine them doing that on an empty stomach.
I met with each principal of the 5 schools we support: two nursery schools, two primary schools (elementary) and one secondary school (high school). Each was deeply thankful for the number of students we supported and each had a “wish list” to present to me in the hope that, should our budget have anything left or we find additional funding, the students might benefit.
The wish lists were as follows:
Beth Cole Nursery School: Funds are needed to repair the roof structure as the existing roof is in danger of collapsing. Classes have been moved to a very small cabin but with 100 children it is hard to imagine that they can all fit inside.
Daystar Nursery School: Though this school building is in good shape, there are no desks, chairs, or
furniture of any kind, forcing the students to sit on floor. Funds for chairs, benches or desks, and some toys are needed.
Can Rom Primary School: RMF supports the school fees and supplies for 223 of the 534 students here, but there are still many more in the settlement that should be attending but aren’t. 
The buildings constructed by the UNHCR and the Ugandan government were all in decent shape and large enough to house the students but the principal, who had just started two months ago, said there were still many things they needed to make this a good learning environment. The things he wanted to do most for his students were: plant trees in the school yard for shade and buy musical instruments, games, soccer balls, and costumes as they have no extra-curricular activities at all.
Arnold Primary School: RMF supports 201 of the students here, and like the other schools, there are always other things that can be funded beyond the school fees. Teachers at this school travel quite far to get here, and their lunches aren’t covered, so most wait all day until they return home to eat supper. The complete lack of extra-curricular activities was also mentioned.
Vocational Training Center: a path forward?
After all the meetings with everyone over the course of three days, the one thing the community decided it needed the most, for both graduated students and adults, was a Vocational Training Center. After putting it to a community vote, the idea of reinstating a long since defunct Vocational Training program was presented to me as a wish for the rest of the year.
Many vocations were mentioned but the three that would have the most impact for actually finding work were: carpentry, tailoring, and hairdressing. There exists enough demand within the settlement to put people to work in these trades, but training would also present the opportunity to eventually leave the settlement and support themselves.
Particularly important is giving the recently graduated teenagers something productive to learn so that they have a real chance at finding a job. I met one of the top students, a very engaging kid with great spirit and obvious intellect, and he couldn’t find work anywhere. Like bored teenagers or young adults anywhere, they are turning to alcohol to pass the time and numb their frustrations.
I was shown the space where the old Vocational Center was run, and it still had all the training lists on the wall, and a few odds and ends of rusting carpentry tools. The idea had obvious merit, 
and fits in with RMF’s idea of helping people rebuild lives with the aim of getting off the aid as soon as possible.
I had agreed strongly that this was a good idea for the community as a whole, but once again wasn’t sure how we’d manage it with our budget. I told them to carefully study exactly how much it would take to get this program up and running, at least with one of the programs, not all three. We will revisit this idea once I have heard back from them, but it would be fantastic to start a program, however small, that gives people the ability to start paying their children’s school fees themselves and be self sufficient. This is after all one of the driving ideas behind Real Medicine.
If you’d like to donate to this or any of Real Medicine’s causes, you can click the donate button on this page or through our website at realmedicinefoundation.org
School project funding:
- $50: toys for Nursery or Primary School
- $100 or more: Tree planting, Sports equipment, or Musical Instruments for Primary School
- $500 or more pays for furniture at the Daystar Nursery School or can go towards fixing the roof of Beth Cole Nursery School.
Read more about the Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement Project, Uganda
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