ST VIANNEY JUNIOR SCHOOL PARENTS' ASSOCIATION

PROJECT PROPOSAL FOR PROVIDING EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS AND SKILLS TRAINING EQUIPMENTS AND TOOLS TO ST VIANNEY JUNIOR SCHOOL, UGANDA

Background of the Parents Association and the school

St Vianney Junior School Parents’ Association is a community-founded organization which was established by rural farmers of Namayina and the neighbouring communities to establish a junior school where farmers could take their children to get all-round education at affordable cost. The parents got concerned about the increasing number of their children who drop out of school due to lack of school fees and loiter in the community without doing any kind of productive work. This is caused by the prevailing chronically persisting poverty, which has encroached on our communities from generation to generation. We resolved to reverse this trend by establishing a community junior school where our children can get educated both in academics and in life skills. This could enable the pupils who completes Primary Leaving Examinations and fail to continue with secondary education to get employed in the local communities using the skills acquired that can empower them to work as builders, tailors, carpenters, bakers, welders, plumbers, or crafts-makers. With this humble social contribution to our communities, we are hopeful that a youth can start a humble productive life and within a short time can also up-grade his/her skills by taking further training in the related fields. Our mission is to lay foundation for poor children with skills they can build on in their future life. Many children who drop out of school have failed to build good futures because they were not assisted to acquire skills and the knowledge they acquired at primary level was only book-knowledge but not skills. Let us now put much emphasis on the young people’s formal education and skills knowledge.

Having established the school in 2011, St Vianney Junior School Parents Association constituted the General Assembly as the supreme decision-making body of the school. The association has elected a Board of Directors to act on its behalf in implementation of the school activities and ensure that the educational and skills training programmes are implemented fully and solicit for funds to procure the vitally needed scholastic materials and training equipments and tools. The board also analyzes the pressing needs that affect the members and the entire community which makes the schooling of our children to be very difficult or impossible.

The association was registered as community-based organization by Wakiso district to establish and operate a junior school in Nangabo sub-county in Uganda and also to help poor parents who bring their children to this school to be economically empowered to raise money for school fees. St Vianney Junior School was established last year to advance education to children from poor rural farmers. With the collective efforts of the community members and GORTA Ireland, the school was constructed comprising of five (5) structures.  

The school focuses on preparing children to excel in primary education to Primary leaving examinations to increase literacy among our children especially the girls and other vulnerable children in this poor community where people depend on subsistence agriculture.
The school shall provide a vocational training programme to pupils of St Vianney Junior school and other youths who are unable to continue with post secondary education to reduce barriers of young people and other high risk children, specifically the drop outs to get back into the school system.

The area has also been heavily hit by the prevailing HIV/AIDS epidemic killing parents thus leaving numerous orphans and other vulnerable youths. We therefore planned this early childhood general education support programme focusing also on how to help orphaned and other high-risk children.

The school is located furthest part of Kampala City and has a population nearly over 200 pupils. All the parents and guardians live below poverty line defined as income below US$ 5 per month.
When HIV/AIDS hit the country since 1980, Wakiso district was one of the regions that suffered the devastating disease killing the able-bodied people leaving behind numerous orphans. Additionally, the compounding civil war effect which lasted for 5 years was a major cause to the decline in the agricultural productivity and this forced many cultivators in abject poverty. This resulted into lack of financial support for our children to access education. Therefore, many pupils who would have excelled in their education missed the opportunity due to lack of school fees and other scholastic requirements.

In order to address this problem, the farmers have started up St VIANNEY JUNIOR SCHOOL DAY AND BOARDING to enable their children attain education at affordable cost and assist the orphaned and other vulnerable children.
The school was opened on 31^st January 2011, but still lacks the vital training equipments, tools and educational materials to provide a fully-fledged educational programme.

The school held its first general assembly; and the members elected the members to serve on the Board of Directors and the School Management Committee for a term of 3 years (2011-2013).

The Skills Training Project

We have started the Skills Training Project that shall benefit our children by providing them training in life skills to learn tailoring, carpentry and joinery, welding, plumbing, welding, etc at this tender age along with the normal academic studies. Abject poverty right from our ancestors characterizes our community. One of the contributing factors to the persistence of poverty is lack of education and skills training for youths. Although people may not be highly educated, it is important that they should be trained in skills like in other communities, where you find people who are illiterate but they possess skills in carpentry, building, tailoring, bread-baking, etc. They can do productive work and earn a good living. In the case of our community, our ancestors used to depend on agricultural occupation alone and brought up their children in that line. When agricultural productivity declined, the rural farmers suffered from both poverty and hunger because they have no alternative occupation of earning a living. As we struggle to develop our communities on a sustainable long-term programme, we are very optimistic to bring up the young children through the process of combining formal education and skills training activities.

The skills training project will be undertaken along with the normal academics and participating classes will have to attend special training lessons on Saturdays and Sundays in order to catch up. Training shall be carried out on Saturdays and Sundays for 5 hours each day, and during the holidays on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays from 8.30 am to 12.30pm. The project is one of the strategies that the community is undertaking to alleviate illiteracy and poverty through creating employment in our communities starting with empowering pupils in our school to get equipped with various life skills. This shall enable those children who come from the economically weakest families who will not be able to go for further studies beyond primary level to start productive life using the acquired skills.

The training will cover upper classes starting with primary five (5) to primary seven (7).

St Vianney Junior School was opened in January 2011. It is housed in the buildings constructed by funds donated by GORTA Ireland. As a new institution with the above stated educational programme, there are quite a lot of vital educational materials and training equipments and tools urgently needed to be used but the school revenue is very limited. Below is the list of the items vitally needed in the school to improve on performance and delivery of services.

Project sustainability:

The project can be well developed if funding is obtained to attract parents who are financially well off to bring their children in the boarding section which shall increase the fees revenue to sustain the all the school the project activities. The products and services to produced while training pupils shall be sold to generate incomes which shall be used to sustain the project.

Monitoring and evaluation of the project:

The project shall be monitored by the Rotary Club of Kampala/Ssese in collaboration with the Rotary Club of the Carsa of the Stirling, UK, if it funded by the Steve Sinnot Foundation. The Rotary Club of Kampala/Ssese shall to undertake the supervisory role and reporting on the project to ensure successful implementation and proper financial management.

Evaluation of the project shall be done by the staff and members of the board of directors and management committee members. The implementing staff shall submit weekly and monthly reports to the joint board of director and management committee members to be reviewed and assess the impact of the project. The periodic tests given to pupils shall be used to determine the progress of the project.

List of the vitally needed educational materials; and training equipments and tools for the skills training:

Details of our Bank Account:

Name of Bank:           Centenary Rural Development Bank Ltd

Branch:                       Bwaise Branch

Swift Code:                 CERBUGKA

Account Title: St Vianney Junior School Parents’ Association

Account Number:       2420400077