Bevan Community School
The heart of our work is Bevan Community School. Providing access to nursery and primary education for more than 230 local children.
In The Classroom
This is truly a community school with parents paying a modest fee when able and with a number of the children supported by UK sponsors. Even though state education is free in Uganda, many children do not attend as they cannot afford the uniform and materials required.
The primary aim of our school is to achieve academic progress within a happy learning environment. Hands on activities and child centred learning are key to this. We have high hopes that many of the children will progress to secondary education and even further!
Learning To Swim
Unfortunately, many local people have drowned as a result of accidents on Lake Bunyoni. Storms can blow up quickly and the villagers often need to cross the lake to go into town in their dangerously small home-made canoes.
Most Ugandans cannot swim and after 7 people from the same family drowned, the charity committed itself to providing funding to teach the school children to swim. A safe swimming area with changing facilities has been constructed on the edge of the lake.
A teacher from Bevan school is a qualified swimming instructor and she regularly conducts lessons with the children, who absolutely love it and more importantly, it will keep them safe in future
Feeding The Children
Many people in the Rwanyana area suffer from malnutrition. They grow crops on the poor soil to feed their families but there is often not enough to go around. Bevan Community School children get two meals per day when at school, cooked in the school kitchen, which was funded by the charity.
They get a nutritious diet of porridge in the morning and posho (a maize meal paste) and a bean stew at lunchtime. This could be the only food the children get that day.
Music and Sport
Singing and dancing has always been a big part of the school curriculum and indeed the Rwanyana community. The children have made home made shakers and other simple musical instruments to accompany them.
They were thrilled when a donation from the Valley Music Festival allowed them to purchase two large drums to accompany them.
Organised sport is not the norm in most Ugandan schools but a visit from two UK sponsors introduced team football and netball to the great enjoyment of the children