PRIMARY SCHOOL
Good education is important to give the children hope for a better future. For this reason the ‘Samaritan Primary School’ was built in the children’s village and opened her doors in 1993. Every year a new group of orphans is welcomed to this school. These children are enrolled by family or villagers. After several conversations and an investigation, 20-30 children will be admitted. These children come to live in our village and can go to school. Many of them lost their parents because of Aids and are literally standing empty handed. For each child Children’s Welfare Mission finds a foster parent, to cover food, accommodation and school expenses.

The primary school has seven classes and the teachers are local. Because the children all have different backgrounds and different levels of learning, the classes are arranged by level and not by age. Through state exams, at the end of every school-season, it will be decided if a child can go to the next class in the following school-year. At the school all the classes are taught in English, since this is the official language of Uganda. Next to that most people speak at least one of the many African original languages. As common in Uganda, all the children wear their school uniforms during school-time. Of course Children’s Welfare Mission pays for the uniforms of the orphans. At the end of the primary school the children will be able to go to our vocational school.

SECONDARY AND VOCATIONAL SCHOOL
In the year 2000 the secondary education has been started. It is a combination of a Secondary School and a Vocational School. At this moment there are approximately 300 children attending this school. A part of these are the orphans which come from our primary school and a part are children from surrounding villages and regions. Their parents pay tuition fee. Through the education at these schools we can prepare the children better for their future. Some of the children are even competent to go to the university of Kampala. Most students choose a path to learn a craft, such as carpentry, computer science, construction, sewing or electrical engineering.

The school has 10 classrooms and an office. Some of the classrooms are built and set up as a practical classroom. Outside the school, there is a building site set up, where the students can learn to lay bricks and build. For the future of the school, and most certainly also for the students, it’s of great importance that the school is being expanded in the next coming years. This gives us the opportunity to offer them a greater range of crafts, so that they can choose the craft which will suit them best. Also we are working on a follow up for the students: how can we help them to find a job or start their own company!

The primary school has approximately 150 students and the vocational school 300 students, which means we have to regularly invest financially to expand and to maintain the schools. We love to do this, because it is wonderful to see these children develop when they live in a safe environment and investing in good education for their futures!