St Jude Primary School in Kamwenge was started in 2013, with the commitment of the members of Kasojo Community Development Group as a seed project to provide equitable education services to the disadvantaged children of the area, geared towards up lifting their standards and forging a bright future for the children of the land, while serving as a model for other schools in the vicinity. The school initially started in temporary structures made out of local materials like reeds and sticks with a simple roof on top.

Since then, the school has grown from strength to strength with the help and the backing of the amazing local community. However, the hard work continues with the aim to build safe and functional permanent school buildings.

Lack of access to basic education in the Kamwenge district is a very real challenge. Recent research on primary school aged children in the area indicated that many had to work on family farms in order to raise money for fees and to grow food to eat. As a result, these children struggle to complete their education, without additional, critical support that projects such as ours provides.

Around 800 children live in the area, with 1000 living in surrounding areas, many of whom are orphans. St Jude Primary School is the only real alternative to boarding schools that take children away from their homes and families. Providing safe and quality education for the area's many children is therefore increasingly straining staff and resources. Our school provides a critical, invaluable service in Kamwenge and we want to see increasing numbers of local pupils enrolling. However, as we are, we cannot match this pace with our services!

So, we must build to provide high quality and safe educational facilities for our community's children.

WE CONTINUE TO NEED HELP WITH FUNDING:

* Land acquisition

* Construction materials for building and decorating classrooms

* Operational materials for furniture and educational resources

* Human Resources