The Testimony of Volunteer Bocchi, Back from His Mission in Uganda

Our volunteer Paolo Bocchi has recently returned from Uganda, where he supervised the project “Giving Knowledge”; here are his words:

“I have recently returned from Uganda to finalize a project I had been working on for some time, called “Giving Knowledge,” a concept that is very important for us at Amurt because it can measure the evolution of a people, of a nation. Knowledge is learned at School, and the higher its quality, the better; in Amurt's schools the Neohumanistic system is taught, which makes us people aware of our role on earth, that is, human beings who are part of a universal system permeated with love. Respect for all living beings is promoted, each important for existential balance; the study of yoga and meditation is also an integral part of the teaching programs because, besides promoting relaxation and inner balance, they improve the students' learning. Study is then clearly of fundamental importance for the education of the young people, and the new library, that is, the project we are carrying out, will certainly add quality to school teaching. It will be a place devoted to teaching, study, the reading of books and the use of the computer, with computer science lessons and more. A space that Wasswa lacked, where the young people will also be able to gather to socialize during break time.

The School is made up of the kindergarten and the primary school, which goes up to seventh grade; there are 10 classrooms in total with 14 teachers, of whom 2 are governmental, that is, paid by the Ministry of Education, while the rest are paid by Amurt, and most of them are former students who grew up right here and who are making themselves available to the little ones because they firmly believe in the project.

Lessons begin at 8 and end at 4:30 p.m.; from 1 to 2 p.m. lunch is served, which is a dish called posho, a kind of polenta served with a plant-based sauce with beans or other legumes. I asked whether it could be alternated with a bit of rice or pasta, but I was told that this would be financially unsustainable, given that about 370 mouths have to be fed every day. Maize, on the other hand, is grown right on site, a few meters from the canteen, and turning it into flour to boil is a very economical and genuine operation.

To reach the school the boys and girls make the journey on foot, naturally on dirt roads; at best it is only a few kilometers, but sometimes they take more than an hour, also because the area is hilly and it rains very often around here. When it is the rainy season, in fact, more absences from school are recorded for reasons related to the impassability of the route.

For those who live too far away we have common rooms that are used as a dormitory by the boys and girls who are looked after by the older boys and girls.

This year the rainy season, besides arriving early, is causing disasters, and unfortunately the work on the new library has been slowed down and has also had an unexpected change of plan: the building will no longer be single-story as in the design but two-story, so it will be doubled, with a total area of almost 200 square meters. The idea came from the director of the school; we spoke with the building contractor and he granted us the modification included in the price initially agreed. So we will have the library on the ground floor and the computer room on the first floor.

Since it will still take a little time to complete the work, we have provisionally set up the two future classrooms in other premises so that we can use them right away, and we therefore proceeded with the inauguration.

The ceremony was simple but deeply felt by both the students and the teachers, who expressed all their satisfaction and gratitude at being able to count from now on on one more facility for teaching, but above all one equipped with 10 new-generation computers, a dream come true given that at present, for lack of funds, a single computer was being used for 40 students.

Now electric power will also be guaranteed by a new diesel generator that we purchased in Kampala together with the 10 computers.

Sincere gratitude can also be read in the children's eyes. I had been in these parts about 10 years ago; I now meet again 2 of the children of that time, by now at university, Alex and Sophan, 2 orphaned boys who grew up in the Children's Home thanks to the long-distance adoptions of Amurt Italia. It is very beautiful to talk with them, discovering them as adults after so long, listening to their path, the balance they have reached, their dreams as young people who were not particularly fortunate at the beginning of their lives, but who, with a good education, a great deal of study and work, are now a wonderful example to imitate for all the other little students!”