Update from Justus Matsiko

Wonderful greetings from Marumba Christian School in the mighty name of Jesus. 

It is so amazing that we are all still alive despite what Covid-19 has done to us both economically and health wise. We have a thousand reasons to glorify his holy name. As we all know Covid-19 has devastated the whole world and to be alive now, and still moving, is by God’s grace.

I want to express my heartfelt sincere thanks to the entire team of Bright Hope World for having kept supporting Marumba Christian School when we went into two serious years of lockdown. May the good Lord bless you all.

Recent Events

Activities

The last two years have been marked by the sober mood of Covid-19 with too many restrictions in many areas which have affected normal life like they have in so many areas around the world. Here in Uganda, it has been two silent years especially in the education sector. The whole sector has been on hold.

However, we are so thankful to God that finally we are back to our usual noise pollution and dust in our classrooms and roads. The Lord has been so gracious to Marumba Christian School, and we reopened the school like many others which is something we do not take for granted because quite a large number of other schools have closed completely. 

Our school head teacher Mr Ampumuza Capher went to Dubai for business, and we have a new head teacher now named Mr Turyasingura Andrew. He has been with us at Marumba School for the last few years, is a good, hard worker and above all he is a born-again Christian. Therefore, we have complete confidence in him and do not expect that our performance will decline in any way.

We are so grateful that the community is still believing in us and that is the reason why we have registered a big number of students who have returned back to Marumba School. Our enrolment right now stands at 200 pupils, and we expect more in term two and next year as other schools have not survived the lockdowns. Our roll before Covid was 250 but we expect to have 400 pupils now. 

Current Issues and Challenges

Just a few days back thieves broke into our kitchen and office and took things worth US$1,200 which we are struggling now to replace. These included:
a) Three big saucepans that were used to prepare breakfast and lunch for the students
b) 1,000 kgs of maize flour
c) All our cups and plates
d) Two photocopiers from the office and many other items

Most of our buildings are in bad shape. The main school building is being affected by running water both at the front and back, so it needs urgent repairs, the most affected part is the back of the building. All our temporary structures have the same problem, of course we would want to repair them.

The water tap is always vandalized by people who usually come at night to steal our water, so I want to build a wall around. 

We have run short of seats and desks as you will observe in the pictures and need approximately 100 desks at the cost 40,000= (around US$1,142). Some children are having to sit on the floor and under Covid-19 Standard Operating Procedures it is not allowed to have congested classrooms like this.

We are also praying for US$2,000 that is required as part of preparing and acquiring school documents for registration with the Ministry of Education last year from the municipal council. These included the school building plan, land titles and other documents. (Note: BHW has recently supported the school with this resource and the school registration has been able to proceed.) 

Prayer and Praise Points

Praise 

1) Praise God for His faithfulness and goodness throughout the Covid-19 pandemic that kept us well and alive
2) Praise God for our teachers, pupils and parents who have returned back to school well

Prayer Points

1) Pray for the teachers and children to remain safe while at school because new Covid-19 cases have started emerging in some schools.
2) Pray for the school safety and protection
3) Pray for resources to renovate and repair some buildings 

I hope this will give you an understanding of what we are doing at the moment. I will give you more details of other programs but right now these are some of the challenges we have.

We shall ever be grateful to you and the entire team of Bright Hope World for the compassionate heart you have always shown to Marumba School.

Thank you so much 

Many blessings
Justus Matsiko

Comments from BHW Uganda Partnership Facilitator

Justus expects the roll in the school to grow this year to around 400 students. Many of the children are now vaccinated, but the Ministry of Education is requiring reduced crowding and social distancing in classes etc, as part of the arrangements for keeping schools open.

The school presently meets all Ministry requirements and is able to stay open but there are likely to be future requirements as well. This particularly relates to seating and desks. The school will therefore always have ongoing financial requirements, but we should be enormously grateful to Justus and his team for their resourcefulness and commitment.

BHW has supported the school and Justus and Reuben with a milk cooler which is a business that is in great demand when schools are open. During the pandemic the business, which has relocated to Mbarara, declined a lot, but is now improving dramatically. When schools are operating normally the milk business does OK and Justus is talking about a plan to repay the funds which BHW lent for the cooler, into the EM Fund (UGA07b). I will write more about this when it comes to hand.

Reuben is not presently involved in the school and is living in Gulu up in the north of the country. He has a chainsaw business and about 100 beehives. We have not heard from him for a while but would expect that his business forms part of what is being supported by the EM Fund.