In June, I (Keith Bourne) went on a survey trip around Buvuma Island with Jason Carpenter, who was  Uganda's Country Director of Samaritan's Purse at the time.  We were looking at education on the island.  Jason wanted to see what kind of educational facilities there were on Buvuma. 

We were able to visit several schools on our trip and one thing really stood out to me:  the lack of teachers. 

All of the schools we visited appeared to be understaffed, especially the government schools.  The government has built several schools around the island, but they are only paying for one teacher or so at each one.  The kids then have to pay school fees so that the school can hire more teachers, and there goes the supposed "free education" in Uganda. 

Maybe the government will be able to hire more in the future, but for now it is a big problem.

Another problem is the fact that there is only one Secondary school on Buvuma Island itself, and this with a population of 25 - 30,000 people.  There is another Secondary school on Lingira Island, just off of Buvuma.  But that is it. 

We are looking at building a secondary school at Kikongo, but first we need more housing for the teachers we currently have teaching in the primary school.  We are in the process of doing that now, so a Secondary school may not be too far in the future.  We'll just keep praying and trusting God to lead the way.

Would you please pray with us?