Make-shift Classrooms-Building

Make-shift Classrooms/Building

Mr. Muyimbwa & Wife; the directors of Door of Hope Community School (DoHC Kindergarten & Primary School); are professional teachers. In 2005, they had a vision of starting a kindergarten in one of their rural home area but gave it time for research where to put it. So when chance knocked their way in 2009, they had to put it on their own ‘three (3) hectare land’ in Ssakabusolo village, Lubugumu Parish with 10 children with their three biological children inclusive. Research showed that within Lubugumu Parish & two neighboring Parishes had no Kindergarten. One of the problems they faced in implementing the Kindergarten was lack of classrooms.

To address this program, a MAKE-SHIFT classroom was made for the Kindergarten Children. In this classroom, these young children had to bear the heart from ‘papyrus/hard polyether papers roof’ on sunny days & had to get

wet on rainy days. The walls of their classroom cannot even protect them from the harmful elements carried by the strong wind. Mr. Muyimbwa is praying this temporary classroom is indeed just temporary. To his dismay, he thought that he would only deal in Kindergarten for 5years without primary but parents with children in primary section were begging him to start a primary section next year because of the good result in writing & reading compared to the Primary 1 & 2 Public schools around. This encouraged him to start it the following year 2010 with 200 children from Public schools. During the period of registration, Mother Mary Charity

Organization had to come in to sponsor 12 OVC/PHAs. So the management had to make the make-shift three (3) roomed extension of Primary 1, 2 & 3. The structure does not have proper wall & with noise all around, there may not be a good learning environment unless we build permanent structures, said a teacher. “We have to make our voice loud to the point of almost shouting just for the children to hear. And with several classes doing that at the same time, just imagine how hard it is for everyone. The make-shift building is cobbled from scavenged materials being built by volunteer being parents/guardians especially women & female teachers who

participated in cooking & preparing meals for the builders, the male parents. At the end of term 3 2013, the area Member of Parliament Hon: Kiyingi Bbosa (Independent, Mawokota South Mpigi), donated new Iron sheets to replace the Papyrus mats. The teachers were worried not all of the temporary classrooms will be finished by February 2014 for term 1, because of lack of materials like nails & wood, Mother Mary Charity Organization had to lobby from a friend with a hardware who donated the materials in time and had

to complete it. Mother Mary Charity Organization scrounges for materials like this. Makeshift accommodates at least 80 children, or the size of two nine-by seven-meter classroom while the makeshift building is designed for 40 children each. In January 2014, the school registered 160 & had to cut off some due to lack of enough classrooms to contain them. The increase of children is brought due to the best performance in writing & reading a problem Public schools. Parents don’t mind paying 20 dollars as fees school provided the academic performance is good other than free Education when the child cannot either read & write.