By Naischa Puri ‘23
A glimpse into my conversation with Jonathan Djumbe, founder and executive director of The Innovation School, a refugee school in Uganda.
The Wardlaw + Hartridge Service Leadership team has been working with The Innovation School, a refugee school in Uganda, for a few years now. I, as a founding and leading member of the service team, had the opportunity to speak with Jonathan Djumbe, the founder and executive director of the school. In speaking with him, I learned much about the school and its needs while we continue to raise money in order to support them in their advancement of access to education.
The Innovation School has experienced some changes as we have been working together: their enrollment increased, they were able to buy land, and they expanded and developed their classrooms. Using brick and cement, the school has created classroom spaces where students can learn more comfortably, adding desks and plastering inside and outside the four rooms. Jonathan also mentioned that they are able to maintain the classrooms more thoroughly.
While they have been making strides in their development, Jonathan mentioned that the rooms are still lacking in space for the considerable number of students that are enrolled. There are 627 refugee students across three sections, in a structure similar to the Lower, Middle, and Upper School distribution that we have at W+H, breaking up groups of students by age. “In one class, we put 10 desks. But you’ll find that in one class we have 60 or 80 people. So, they have to sit like five [at a table, and it is] very squeezed,” said Jonathan.
As our conversation continued, Jonathan mentioned that transportation often takes time away from learning, and, for older students especially who are preparing for national exams, he would love to dedicate resources to creating boarding opportunities with living quarters, water, and electricity. W+H can also support this school in contributing to a computer lab, as the current growing digital age highlights that education regarding technology is indelibly important. Jonathan also expressed to me that access to clean drinking water is a real challenge, and in order to have a direct supply through well installation, costs can be $1,000 to $2,000. They would also be able to use this water to clean classrooms and other spaces.
Another point Jonathan brought up is that students sometimes struggle to study or complete work at home due to a lack of school supplies such as pens, pencils, and paper, and the school is working to provide these for students. Jonathan also hopes to utilize a school bus in order to apply what they learn in the classroom: “...we, as The Innovation School, we want to be innovative. If we can get the school bus, whatever we teach, we take children in the fields, they explore, they learn what they see.”
The school has wonderful programs already incorporated into their curriculum such as a writing program, drawing classes, a women’s program to teach women how to sew and provide a safe space from early pregnancy or marriage (started in the time of COVID-19), and their Smart Club, which works to raise awareness on and prevent drug abuse as well as sexual safety in the community. “Here at school we also promote soccer. We have a football team of children. But apart from that, we also have a school library. We wish to have many books so that we are able to promote reading,” he added.
The Innovation School in Uganda works hard to educate and empower students with the resources that are available to them. We as a school and community must do our part and use our privilege for good, and contribute to their resources in the ways that we are able to. After all, it should be our goal and wish to see education as a right and not a privilege.
Thank you to Ms. Nicole Nolan and Mr. Marc Spivak for their constant support and encouragement in our efforts!