The start of the project.

In 2015 the club agreed to work on a long term project supporting people in the Rwenzori district of Uganda. Rwenzori is a mountainous area in rural western Uganda.

Musasa School

Musasa Primary School is located in the Rwenzori mountain range in rural Western Uganda. The school has about 740 pupils. Most pupils live in very simple mud and wattle houses on steep slopes.

The area had no electricity until recently when the Government put a line down the valley, however the school is not connected to it. This means that in the evening families rely on the use of paraffin lamps.

Education

Very few pupils are able to achieve the division 1 grade which allows them to move on to higher education. This is mainly due to lack of resources. Usually only town or private school pupils are able to achieve grade 1. The children are keen to progress and learn. We have already provided the school with 12 solar lights

See Solar Cook Solar

International President Ann Garvie’s appeal in 2013-2015 is See Solar, Cook Solar. Supporting projects to use solar power as a renewable energy source. A project plan will be put forward for a grant to provide solar panels and solar cookers to the Rwenzori region and the schools we support.

Having solar power should enable pupils to have a better chance to progress as it will power laptops for the pupils to use. The solar panels would enable lights and laptops to be used for evening study at school and make the environment safer.

Solar cookers will provide an alternative to using wood from the local protected forests. This will be a more economical and environmentally sustainable alternative to the traditional cooking methods. The school currently buys fuel using funds which could be used for educational activities.

A Visit to Rwenzori

In 2015 five members of the club made a trip to Uganda to visit the school. They look suitcases full of items to help the people. Blankets and knitted items, dresses made from pillowcases. School bags were provided for the children. Classes were held to help the women start up a business making sanitary products. A Soroptimist club SI Masaka had also been started in the area and we visited the ladies. They are one of our friendship link clubs

Gardening Scotland 2015

Soroptimist International of Dunfermline and Dalgety Bay Horticultural Society won GOLD at the 2015 Gardening Scotland held at the end of May.
The garden was on a plot 20 foot square and showed our project based in Rwenzori, Uganda.

The project has several strands; Education, Empowering and Enabling. Split to show these three aspects plus information was displayed in the gazebo describing the everyday life of the people living in the Rwenzori area of Uganda.

Several wonderful wicker figures showed girls at different activities and attracted a lot of attention to the stand; Misty was in the vegetable plot hoeing ; Lucy was at the water pump and Alice studied her text books in the hut.

Building Toilets and water tanks

Over several years the club has continued to raise money to build toilet blocks and water tanks at the schools in Rwenzori. This helps girls especially to go to school. The toilets are composting toilets so the waste provides fertilizer for the crops grown by the people in the villages. Once the toilets are build training is held to teach people how to use the compost and maintain the toilet effectively. They are build using local labour and materials.

Teacher training and GEM clubs

Through continued support from the clubs training has been organised for the teachers in the local schools. Educational achievement has been really good and this is helped by the provision of exam papers and materials for learning.

Classes have also been held teaching sign language to deaf children and their parents to help communications.

GEM clubs (Girls Education Movement) have also been started in the area. Young women visit the girls who are not coming to school to find out why and see what help can be given. Craft classes teach skills that allow women and girls to earn money.

During 2020 we sent money to our project in Uganda to build another block of Ecosan toilets. The pictures below show the progress so far.

SOAP MAKING PROJECT

In 2022 we sent £300 to help the GEM club start a soap making project. It allowed the purchase of materials and training for the pupils and teachers. It was a great success and it is hoped that the money raised from selling the soap will be used to fund more projects like this.