Letter From Rubanda

Dear Friends of Yamba Abaana and of Rubanda Solidarity Primary School,

Peace be with you!

This is a thank you note to you and to all our dear friends of US Yamba Abaana. On behalf of Rubanda Solidarity School, the community of Rubanda, the US Yamba Abaana Board and on my own behalf as the Founder of the school, we want to acknowledge and appreciate all your generous contributions you have done to improve the life conditions of our children. Yes, it’s a journey began ten years ago that we must continue until it’s complete someday.

It always encourages me to see how much can be done with so little, with love, and how much strength unity can provide, able to move mountains. This is what you and all of us are doing in Rubanda Solidarity School. In the last few days, I have been recounting the history of our ten years of existence and found out how fascinating things can be. Looking back and seeing where we have come from and how much has been accomplished, I am amazed and grateful to you personally. Our journey has been a history of bitter times to learn from but with lots of overwhelming blessings to cherish. It renews the spirit.

Please, allow me to take you back a little bit into our history. The mission of founding our school was to improve children’s livelihood. Ten years this year, the seed that was sown on a fertile soil has sprung up like that mustard seed sown and growing up with its branches stretched out for all sorts of birds to rest on. This initiative that began with 90 kids in a pilot class today accommodates more than 310 students only limited by space and facilities. It’s a miracle that together with you we have made. And we are determined to keep engaged in making our school a better home for each child. Thank you for being part of us. As ever, our passion should be to make a difference in the lives of these children who are the most vulnerable in the community that is plagued by the effects of HIV/AIDS, malaria and chronic poverty.

As our mission is to improve the livelihood of children and the community, we will certainly do so by providing equal opportunities for quality education to both girl and boy child alike. This would work against the cultural tendencies that invest more in boys’ education than in that of girls. Indeed it has worked and as of today, I can see the school almost balancing gender enrollments with some classes having more girls than boys. It remains my conviction that doing so would eventually promote justice and human dignity for all in the community and consequently expand the base for true development and better livelihood and peace.

So, what has been achieved in ten years’ work? The success is huge. We registered the first success with our pilot school of 2004. Its landmark was due to our unique program of providing a mug of sorghum porridge for a meal to children every morning before they entered the classroom. This new idea greatly boosted children’s interest for the school and motivated the parents to find out why our school children had a distinguished love for the school. Children found it liberating because it cared about their empty stomachs that no other school did. The findings were immediately approved by parents and collaboration for the new school was requested. A private home was hired to accommodate our new private boarding school which marked the beginning of our school. From that time on, things have never been the same in Rubanda.

With a clear vision, we started to run locally and globally. We began to sell out the pressing needs of our school attaining our first funding for a piece of land of our own in the same year 2005. Few months later the construction of two classrooms and an office was complete. Moving in our own premises meant a lot; soon we got a six bulb solar system, improved our kitchen and worked on a provisional dormitory that was dusty and unhygienic. With the help of other donors from Europe in 2010 a construction of a new dormitory with seven rooms to accommodate over seventy students, fully connected with a sixty three bulb solar system was complete.

In 2012, Rubanda Solidarity School was connected to the United States for the first time when I was assigned to do my missionary ministry in America. Soon it started to attract new friends including you. Thank you for being so generous. With the opportunity of meeting many more generous people, more hands have been joined to our efforts and a great deal has been incredibly noticed within a period of three years. We have already acquired our non-profit status, our fundraising has taken on a professional standard, ongoing and new projects like those of Water and Kindle electronic books have been initiated by our board in collaboration with the community and the implementation is going on well. Right now, we are renovating the old system for water harvesting and the latest seven donated Kindles have just arrived at the school, making the total number to eleven. There is a full engagement of the board with monthly robust meetings, something that is increasingly admirable and empowering.

Back to the school, the results of the children sitting for the national examination to the high school is at a 100% success. This is because of so many intertwined factors that include added morale to the teachers and staff, partnership with other good schools, improved healthy monitoring of children by the school nurse and enough and more nutritious diet. The presence of the improved solar power has done great. It has improved security and provides more time for evening classes. Please in your prayers remember to pray for our current twenty six candidates who will be sitting for their national examination to high school education in November 2014 and we hope too they will also perform excellently.

One may ask what makes our school unique. It’s more than one can imagine. Certainly there is a special power behind it all. It’s this power that seems to be moving each one of us to do what we are doing. The inspiring love, compassion, sense of justice and generosity to reach out to the needy is a big motivator. I have seen and observed this during these ten years and I am always left wondering with joy and gratitude. Yes, it’s that invisible power that has made us make all these miracles happen. And your generous response has played an important role in all this difference.

At the community level in Uganda, similar things are taking place. There is enormously better community understanding and support for equal opportunities to quality education for both the girl and boy child. There is also a registered sense of success to good working environment between our school leadership and the staff based on “unity for success” as our motto and clear administrative structure. The involvement of the community and of children in leadership guidance has also contributed significantly toward the uniqueness of our school. The school leadership endeavors to make our school a home for each child. They also sleep enough and in a better place. Again, because of balanced and nutritious food, children are healthier and concentrate more in class. I recall a day when I ventured to ask a kid who was sternly telling his teacher that he would not be going home for his vacation, “Because at school we eat vegetables”, he argued. Certainly this kid’s response, simple as it may sound, speaks volumes. For that kid, coming to such a school was salvation. Believe me, each kid has got his/her personal story to tell about our school. Again things will never be the same for each kid.

The success mentioned above is much less compared to the general impact not mentioned. And as each day passes by, there is much more to be narrated. However, this is to briefly share with you about our progress because we know how much you care about us.

Thank you again for all you do to support US Yamba Abaana to support Rubanda Solidarity School.

Our children, parents and school staff sent a huge package of greetings enough for you and for all your family and friends. They are all praying for you. “We love our friends,” thumbs up.

God bless you,

Fr. Dominic Tumusiime