Nkondo dancing out of its crippled past

By Titus Kakembo                                                      

Once declared a hard-to-reach area crippled by not only poverty, archaic farming methods and illiteracy, Nkondo in Busoga, is fast transforming into a model village worth emulating.

For a start, a tour of Immery Primary School reveals a computer laboratory, furniture and more than 600 neatly dressed pupils.

“The district administration saved us from using a tree shade as a ‘classrom’ when they constructed for us a classroom block,” said the headmistress, Violet Nanyonga.

“The challenge is to encourage girls too to study even when they are in their teen age. Traditionally they used to be married off.”
 

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The computer laboratory that was furnished by Rotary Club Kampala North. (Credit: Titus Kakembo) 

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Governor of Rotary District 9211 Robert Wagwa Nsibirwa. (Credit: Titus Kakembo)
 

While the Rotary Club Kampala North President Eric Byenkya gave the symbolic key and T-shirts to Nkondo Kidera Development Union (NKUDU) to run their health services, uphold the education standards and income-generating activities, the Church’s foundation shook with foot stamps of jubilation.

“The ball is now in your court,” said Byenkya amidst ululation and thunderous drum beats.

“This is not the Nkondo we got here five years ago with a population of 3,500 people. Attitudes have changed and the general outlook to life is totally transformed.”

The pupils sang and danced themselves hoarse and lame when the project was handed to the administration to run.

This triggered Rotary district governor Bob Wagwa Nsibirwa to sum it up saying thus:

"This is testimony that lives can be transformed. Residents are able to add value to their produce through the maize miller in place. They no longer have to depend on the rainfall patterns, given an irrigation scheme in their midst.”
 

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This tree was a 'classroom' under which Engineer Batumbya was educated in the 1960s. (Credit: Titus Kakembo)
 

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There is no stopping the dance of Imeri Primary School jubilating. (Credit: Titus Kakembo)

A nurse at the health center said belief of witchcraft when patients suffered from malaria or other illnesses like cough is no more.

“We are overwhelmed by the number of patients flocking the center throughout the week,” she said.

“The objective was to increase capacity and quality of maternal & child health care in community health care center here.”

And this is in addition to Vocational Training Teams (VTT) from Makerere University in Kampala and Drexel University in Philadelphia, USA.

The residents were taught dieting appropriately to reduce visitation to hospital.