Review By: The Eye
Soft Power Education is a 100% non profit, British registered charity and Ugandan NGO. Based in Jinja, Soft Power has worked for the last seven years to bring about significant improvements in the educational facilities of local Government Primary Schools.
Soft Power Education flies in the face of the traditional wielding of so called ‘hardpower’ promoting its assistance instead through collaboration, facilitation and cooperation – ‘soft power’. It was in this vein that the charity’s first project evolved; the donation of community land bringing about the building and running of a preschool at Bwenda which benefits 120 Aids orphans at any one time. A similar project swiftly followed at Kyabirwa (opposite) from which the ball kept on rolling. Kyabirwa village is now also home to several community projects including a flagship education centre offering interactive, ‘hands on’ educational experiences for its 22 partnership schools, a health clinic and an arts centre.
Uganda introduced Universal Primary Education in 1997 and net enrolment in primary schools rose from 2.3 million in 1996 to 7.5 million in 2004 (UNICEF). Whilst this has been an incredible success story for Uganda, improvements to facilities in order to enable schools to cope with this increased number of students were not made. Schools suddenly faced the challenges of overcrowding in poorly constructed classrooms together with a severe lack of teachings aids and equipment.
In 2003 Soft Power set themselves the 5 year challenge of refurbishing, up to Government standard, the 20 Government Primary Schools in the Budondo sub county. 4 years later, a year ahead of schedule and Soft Power has now worked in 28 schools – stretching beyond the original 20 and extending into the sub counties of Mafabirwa and Butagaya. To date Soft Power has built 35 new classrooms, refurbished 97 classrooms, built 47 pit latrines, installed fifteen 8,000 litre water catchment tanks and five underground 50,000 litre tanks. All 28 schools have also been painted inside and out with teaching aids on all classroom walls. (opposite – one of the refurbished classroom blocks at Wakitaka Primary School)
2007 has been an exciting year for Soft Power with the opening of the Amagezi Education Centre (opposite) in the heart of Kyabirwa village. The Centre allows children from the penultimate year the 22 partner primary schools to visit the centre for a truly unique educational experience. The ethos of the centre being “Tell me and I’ll forget. Show me and I may not remember. Involve me and I will understand.”
Furthermore, Softpower has recently embarked on a
new and exciting project in Murchison Falls National Park working in conjunction with the Uganda Wildlife Authority. This particular project will focus largely on improving the conservation education in the area as well as refurbishing 17 government primary schools in the Bulisa sub county.
Soft Power’s work is largely supported by the generosity of overland tourists who not only donate money but actively assist with the school refurbishments by spending a day with them at one of the schools. Long term volunteers also assist for anything up to three months and actively fundraise before arriving in uganda. They are actively encouraging other tour operators in Uganda to participate too!
Soft Power’s only in country annual fundraiser is the annual 12 hour cycle marathon. In 2006 this involved 20 teams of 4 riding 5km laps in a relay. This took place around Kyabirwa village raising over $3000 in the process. At the time of writing this years’ event is scheduled to take place on the 10th of November 2007. We eagerly anticipate an equally successful event!
For further information on Soft Power Education including details on how to donate, volunteer and for the report of the Cycle Marathon go to www.softpowereducation.com
