NGO gives items worth sh260m to schools

Mar 12, 2006

<br>THERE were ululations and celebrations as primary school teachers and pupils in Wakiso and Mpigi districts received items from Volunteer Action for Development (VAD), a local NGO working in the two districts.

By Ronald Kalyango

THERE were ululations and celebrations as primary school teachers and pupils in Wakiso and Mpigi districts received items from Volunteer Action for Development (VAD), a local NGO working in the two districts.

VAD is funded by Friends of Uganda, a Germany-based organisation, which has been working closely with women’s organisations until recently when they decided to extend their services to primary schools in the above districts.

At the function held at Wakiso district headquarters, 40 primary schools in Wakiso and Mpigi received cement, iron sheets, desks, tanks and iron bars all geared towards setting up better infrastructure.

Two water tanks were given out to two primary schools –– St Joseph Maya and Bakaka.

The other package included 1,340 bags of cement, 760 iron sheets, 145 desks and 170 iron bars all estimated at sh263m.

“We realised that construction of a fully fledged school does not help many children so we decided to support several schools with construction materials,” said Benedict Male, the VAD director.

Male said over 54 schools in Wakiso and Buwama sub-county in Mpigi have been supported, 2,155 farmers in Wakiso, Kakiri and Nsangi sub-counties have been trained in organic farming and 900 of the trained farmers are working in groups and 600 are working individually.
Ilse Schumer, the coordinator of the project, appealed to the beneficiaries to use the money and the donated materials efficiently.

“My work is to solicit for the money, but the German nationals who are contributing towards this cause of fighting poverty, would be much more interested in seeing the impact of the project to the beneficiaries,” said Schummer.

Susan Nakawuki, the newly elected Member of Parliament for Busiro East, who represented the district Chairperson Ian Kyeyune, urged the beneficiaries to use the items for the purpose they were donated instead of diverting it for their own business.

“Through out my campaigns, I pledged to support a number of primary kids with books and part of their school fees. I stand by my pledge because that is the only way we are to uplift the education status in our district,” she said.

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