How Rotary is providing opportunities for a brighter future

By Rotary International

School children in Kampala, Uganda.

School children in Kampala, Uganda.

By Carolyn Johnson, Vice-Chair of the Literacy Rotarian Action Group and member of the Rotary Club of Yarmouth, Maine, USA

Recently, I visited a small government school outside Kampala, Uganda. The school is located on the edge of a growing community, but most of these students live in a small nearby fishing village.

Many of the children were barefoot and dressed in what they could assemble of the school uniform. The school is basic: a concrete floor, block walls and a tin roof- but clean and neat, with all the children wearing broad smiles and clearly happy to be in school with caring and supportive teachers. The first time I visited this school, it was a very different sight.

Just three years ago, the school was a tiny building of three cramped classrooms – no doors and no windows. Each teacher taught two grades without books and education materials. That day, children weren’t attending classes, but a cow had made itself at home in the school: tipping over benches, knocking down the old blackboard with its horns, and doing what cows do. It was not surprising that parents didn’t enroll their children in school. It …read more

Source:: Rotary International Blog

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