Meet Victor and Sylvia, the lovely directors of Victory Nursery and Primary School in Bwindi in Uganda where we volunteered for two weeks in February this year.
Want to know more about our story? Check it out in our blog post HERE
Victor and Sylvia, the directors of Victory Nursery & Primary School posing with me in front of the Anglican Church in Bwindi, Uganda
FROM A POOR BACKGROUND
After many years in the hospitality industry around Uganda, Victor came back to his native village, Bwindi, with Sylvia to start a new life. It was not long after that they came up with a bold idea. Having known poverty first hand, Victor and Sylvia decided to start a local school back in 2006 in their tiny rural village to help the most disadvantaged and vulnerable children in their community. They started out small with only 33 kids and a building with mud walls and no doors or windows. Their school was luckily noticed by some foundations and NGOs during the years, which poured donations into the school to build new sections of the school or to improve the already present buildings. In particular, a foundation decided to sponsor more and more children at Victory School throughout the years and still doing so.
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At present the school hosts almost 400 students, half of them boarding in the dormitories, and the school has scored 56th during the last year’s exams against all the schools in Uganda and 2nd in the Kanungu district (Bwindi’s region).
Not sure how to make it happen? Have a look at our article on how to make it happen!
Drying clothes at school on a sunny day in Bwindi, Uganda
AN INTERVENTION FROM ABOVE
At the beginning things were not easy for Victor and Sylvia. They didn’t have enough money to pay for windows or doors, however they opened their school in any case to start helping children in their village. Victor told us about the time he fasted for 3 consecutive days to ask for God’s help when things were not looking good for his newly started school. Many people in Uganda, especially in Bwindi (Victor and Sylvia included) are deeply religious, most of them practicing the Anglican faith and only some devoted to Catholicism. Fasting is a common practice to honor God and ask for favours. And exactly after 3 days of fasting an NGO from Italy showed up and helped Victor and Sylvia build more classes – it’s hard to argue with them about whether this was God’s intervention or not. It was surely a blessing!
How to stay safe on the road everywhere in the world - Read more HERE
A packed and joyful Anglican church for the Sunday Mass in Bwindi, Uganda
FIRST VOLUNTEERS AT THE SCHOOL
After spending time with the students and teachers at Victory School, we can imagine how proud Victor and Sylvia should feel for their achievements. And still they have so many more plans for the future to improve more and more the quality of the education provided at their school.
Some students are orphans or their families can not even afford sending them to school (as they earn less than USD1 per day which is UNDER THE POVERTY LINE).
Thanks to Victor and Sylvia’s efforts and the kind help of donors, Victory School is more than ready to host more volunteers in the months to come and teachers and students can’t wait to welcome them!
READ MORE ABOUT OUR OTHER VOLUNTEERING EXPERIENCES IN:
TANZANIA
Please check our Victory School’s profile on WorkAway if you are interested in volunteering for this beautiful school.
CLICK HERE - WorkAway.com
Ugandan mama and her adorable baby in Bwindi (Uganda)
We always keep our door open for new projects and ideas – we’ve been already volunteering and travelling in Nepal, Philippines, Malaysia, Tanzania, Uganda and we are currently in South America - stay tuned for more!
As our motto says: we travel, we learn, we grow.
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