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10 years ago, an overlander leader decided to stop in Bujagali Falls and put something back into the community that she so often went through. The premise was simple. Education is the key to break the shackles of ignorance and the bondage of crippling poverty. She reasoned that the travellers to this part of the world would want to give a little something back. Money and help was always welcomed.
At the same time, the government decided on a policy of universal primary education. This meant that technically, primary school education should be free for all. What it failed to recognize was that there were not enough schools, or teachers, or money in the kitty to actually ensure that this was a feasible policy to carry out.
The reality now is that schools are overcrowded, poorly maintained, lack sanitation and have limited resources. From this, Softpower Education was born. It wants to improve the quality of life through education. To borrow from the SPE handbook: SPE focuses its work on rural areas in Uganda where the majority of the population is deemed to be living in chronic poverty and solely dependent on farming for food and income.
Chronic poverty stems from a variety of inter-related factors like lack of education, serious health issues, environmental destruction, large households and remote locations. SPE focuses primarily on primary school education to tackle more of the factors that contribute to chronic poverty…..improving sanitation at schools…..facilities for washing hands….encouraging children to take their learning home…training children in agricultural methods and diversity..to support and share learnings at home.
Because the Ugandan government relies very heavily on external agencies for input to meet the basic needs of its population, they are naturally very supportive of the work that SPE does. But it is also necessary to reduce the level of dependency in communities to equip themselves with the skills and resources they need to break the cycle of poverty for themselves. SPE's success is based completely on partnerships with local schools and local communities. Every project comes about as a result of opportunities identified…or specific requests for assistance from the local community.
So far, SPE has worked on 28 schools where 36 new classrooms were built; refurbished 97 classrooms, built 7 pit latrine blocks(46 toilets in total); installed sixteen 8000l water catchment tanks and 55000l underground tanks. All 28 schools have been painted both inside and out. And teching aids have been painted on the inside at the request of the teachers.This creates an environment matching the children's enthusiasm for education as well as, in turn, making these schools attractive to some of the best teachers available. So this is where we came in. We were going to be painters, decorators and refurbishers. All volunteers pay SPE a weekly fee that covers the material costs associated with the charity and running the project. All other costs were our own too. And onto Walukuba West Primary School we went. It was going to be home from home. Monday to Friday! See the 3 blog entries for Walakuba and the one for Bujagali
Everybody asks where does the name Softpower come from - a Buddhist philosopher who made the comment in 1996 that, "In the past there was hard power in the form of military might and political force. But the future is soft power involving factors such as knowledge, information, culture and ideas." With the primary focus of the charity being eduction, it seemed fitting that the two concepts were joined together to form SOFTPOWER EDUCATION. Have a look at www.softpowereducation.com for more information on this truly worthy and exemplary charity.
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