NGOs in Soroti

NGO stands for Non Governmental Organisations. The word has become associated with organisations that provide aid to the developing world. They range from charities such as Oxfam up to multi million pound organisations such as the United Nations. There are approximately 400,000 world wide. They have a significant presence in Africa and Uganda is no different.

NGOs, both African and Western support the government in providing the necessities of life. Some Ugandan’s are opposed to the presence of these NGOs and believe they have a negative impact. They believe that the NGOs represent a new type of colonialism (colonialism was the rule of Africa by European countries in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries) and have purposefully prevented the continent from developing. A fellow teacher from a different school stated that academic performance in Uganda is deliberately stunted by NGOs forcing Uganda to lower pupil grades so they don’t challenge the developed world. Another, that the US government purposefully withholds medical supplies to force the government to adopt specific policies. Some of the NGOs do require Uganda to follow particular policies before they give aid, the Dutch government recently withheld its aid to the Ugandan Education Department due to percieved corruption.  

NGOs do a significant job in Uganda. They provide money for water projects through ‘Water Aid’, sponsor children through the ‘Diocese’ or provide drugs for health care through ‘Uganda Cares’. In fact, NGOs play a significant role in maintaining a semblance of living standards in Uganda. In Soroti for example, a third of the schools are run by NGOs, most of the HIV care is provided by ‘Uganda Cares’ and the sheer number of 4x4 vehicles emblazoned with NGO stickers suggest that they provide help with – water, agriculture, roads, health care, schools, HIV awareness, food and counselling to name but a few.

However, many Ugandan’s that I have spoken to worry that a great proportion of Uganda is dependant upon aid from NGOs. There is an immeasurable expectation that aid from the West is a right not a gift. Amy and I have been asked many times by complete strangers for money to either provide their children with school fees or to help set up a business. Of course these people live on the poverty line and would not ask unless they were desperate. However, they are shocked and appalled when we say no. There are many Ugandan’s who are conscious of not adding to the culture of dependency and manage to find an affective way of supporting without hindering self motivation. Halcyon and similar schools seem to have found a good balance in supporting orphaned children through school.

At the heart of it I suppose is the lack of government funds. Uganda is somewhere down around the bottom of the UN development list, 154^th of the 177 countries.  Taxation is minimal and thus expenditure on social provision low. There is no rubbish collection for example. Uganda seems therefore at the moment to be in need of the NGOs to help support the government where their money does not stretch.  

Uganda Cares provides training for HIV treatment as well as drugs and staff. 

 The United Nations provides a wide range of produce.

There are so many 4x4 with NGO labels on. They provide crucial help in many elements of peoples lives

The built environment

I often wonder where the 1300 students of Halcyon go. At first glance the school is small; it is all one story. Its also deadly quiet during lessons with the odd low resonance voice seeping through the open windows. Take a wonder around and you slowly uncover the pockets of learning that are in process. 

The sixth formers currently have the best deal. Their classes are permanently in the main block opposite the administrative building. The rooms are a similar size to those at National but more frugally furnished. This is mainly where I teach and although the heat can be unbearable (from 12:00 until 16:00 the temperature hangs around 35c-38c) at least I am only sharing the space with another 25 bodies.

The O level (GCSE) students study for four years not two. Their class sizes are significantly larger. One English class has to be taught in the Hall it is so large (130 students!). Some of the classrooms for O level are similar to those of A level, thus very cramped when filled with over 100 students. Some class rooms as you can see have been complete but lack windows, others still need to be finished, they lack plaster, paint and the floor is strewn with building debris. This is not a product of laziness but the reality of funding. Classes have to be built to cater for the students, and this is an evolutionary process as the school grows. 

The two principle projects that Halcyon need to focus upon is the building of new A level class rooms to free up space for O level thus reducing class sizes. Secondly, a bore hole for water is crucial. Amy and I have had a frustrating week as we have had no water. The water supply is as sporadic as the electricity and often stops for a couple of days.You have to walk to the town bore hole to get our water each day when this happens. You don’t realise how much water you use until you have to walk 2k to collect it and then struggle back in 38c to get it home. Unfortunately, we haven’t developed the ability to carry the jerry cans on our heads! It wouldn’t be a bad task to add up your water usage for the day- flushing the toilet, drinking, for food preparation and cooking, bath/shower and cleaning. How many litres?

The pupils at Halcyon have to make the same journey. Not only does it seriously disrupt lessons but its a challenge for a 11 year old to carry 20 litres 4 km! A bore hole would mean that when the town has no water the school can turn to the bore hole. It would be great if pupils at National could undertake some research into how Halcyon could get funding to help with the building of the bore hole. Charities such as ‘Water Aid’ could be a good starting point.

The English Language classes are making the finishing touches to their letters to you and we will send them next week. They are very excited to receive letters from National. I hope that you will be able to develop a relationship with a student in a different continent with a very different culture.

Along with several other institutions Halcyon does much to combat the 34% illiteracy rate of the district. It has a committed and tirelessly dedicated head teacher who is attempting an evolution of African attitudes towards time management, not an easy task. With significantly more resources than your average state school, Halcyon can afford its students a relatively comfortable working environment. Classrooms are dry if not spacious, ditto for dormitories and a computer room has been recently furnished with a dozen computers in an effort to address the government’s lofty and somewhat challenging target of compulsory IT education. There are still challenges; some O level class sizes have swollen to 130 due to the schools popularity after its steady rise up the ever so important league tables and water has to be fetched from distant bore holes when the water supply dries up. There is the monotony from a western point of view, of posho and beans twice a day, and the ever present threat of a variety of life threatening illnesses that are part and parcel of everyday life.  You could add to this list a plethora of impediments that do their best to upset a child’s education.

These however, are the lucky few who can be guaranteed a quality education, that is, as long as their parents/sponsors can afford the typical 800,000 Ush (£230) a term.  Not surprisingly the majority of parents can ill afford this and rely upon state schools which are overcrowded, resource poor and staffed largely with untrained teachers. President Museveni has set a noble goal of universal primary education but, despite much promise and growth, Uganda is ranked 154^th out of 177 on the UN’s Human Development Index and thus lacks at present the resources to make this a reality.

For those without family ties to government departments, education is the only means of escaping poverty. Academic success in state schools is by no means impossible, but you can see that the obstacles to such success are gargantuan. Therefore, until Uganda achieves its goal of increasing GDP, tax revenue and thus investment in education, private schools are fundamental to a child’s chances.

The objective of The Halcyon School and the many philanthropic schools like it is to reach children who can not pay the termly fees. In 2012 Halcyon boasted the highest scoring O level girl in the district of Soroti. She is a case in point, orphaned and destined to struggle independently against the tide; she has been sponsored throughout her primary and secondary education at Halcyon. I have no doubt she will make an outstanding medical clinician, if not doctor and do much to alleviate the ill health of her community. There may be similar success stories from state schools but the odds are stacked against it. Until such a case is regularly possible from a non feeing paying school, charitable sponsorship is crucial to help the children of Uganda make their own success. The Halcyon Link Trust and others like it are so very important because they realise that giving a child support through education not only gives that child a chance, but sets a very important example. During my short time in Africa many Ugandans have openly criticised the culture of dependency that blights much of the adult population. Commenting upon the examples would not be wise from our point of view. Supporting a child’s education you might think adds to such dependency, but then think of the responsibility the child has to find their own success academically. They have not been given a financial handout that can be squandered, but a chance to own their success. 

A Ugandan School Trip

An educational Ugandan School Trip

A school trip is a rare thing at Halcyon High School. I think the presence of Amy and I may have significantly contributed to the impromptu excursion to Nyero Rocks, a selection of rock paintings from  sometime in the short chronological era of 3000-1000BC! The paintings significance is yet to be truly uncovered but act as somewhat of an aid memoir for their creators on what a crocodile, canoe and ladder look like. The purpose of the trip however, went beyond the paintings and was to expose the Geography A level class to the variance in the topography of Eastern Uganda. For Amy and I it exposed us to the poverty that lies beyond the urban setting of Soroti.

Away from the dusty, smelly and noisy bustle of Uganda’s largest north eastern town, we found that life may not have progressed significantly beyond that experienced by the artists of Nyero. The populace have adopted more of western culture than the karamogo, a tribe of the far north eastern districts of Uganda who heard/raid cattle, wear only loin cloths and abide by some questionable marital practices. Life however, is simple; the agricultural revolution that modernised Britain in the eighteenth century is yet to touch the villages of Soroti and Kumi districts. Accommodation is the same as that which existed in Britain prior to the Roman conquest and access to water is often a day’s walk away. Don’t think that it will be clean or good enough for drinking either. Soroti itself still struggles with Typhoid and occasional cholera outbreaks. Out in the villages getting past 12 months is a real challenge for the new born with Typhoid coming fast on the heals of Malaria as a major killer. Diet is another step down from the Posha and beans of Halcyon. ‘Cassava’ looks like a dirty elongated sweet potato but the texture is that of balsa wood come black board chalk. Urban Uganda survives on it.

Not once however, were we asked for money or food. Despite the poverty and all encompassing effort of surviving, we were cheerily greeted with ‘Yoga’ (How are you?) and a stiff handshake by everyone bar the children, who may have been a little scared of the balding white man. Amy on the other hand was somewhat of a fascination with her ginger hair and translucent skin, she was more pied piper than doctor. We have certainly been left with the lingering thought that education is going to be a major factor if the lives of these people is to change any time soon. It brings us back to thinking about the importance of the Halcyon High School and the role of The National Academy in helping Ugandan children to climb out of poverty.  

Animal Farm

Animals are a rare thing at The National Academy but apprently not here in Uganda. Firstly, staff and pupils wade through the heards of goats in the courtyard. The Turkeys make a racket and disturb lessons and yesterday a chicken casually walked into my classroom and tried to eat the chalk gathered at the bottom of the blackboard. Today an impromptu rat caused a commotion in an English lesson. The pupils spilled out into the courtyard, needless to say the rat didn't last long. Above all these however, stands/flies the omnipresent mosquito. As lessons start early and finish late they are often plagued with the whining of the little beasts who bring malaria.