This is Mbuya Church of Uganda Primary School found in Mbuya a Kampala suburb. In its dilapidated state, this UPE School is the knowledge hub of over a thousand pupils from the underprivileged areas surrounding it. It has existed for over 50 years but barely have a concrete facelift yet the structures are edging every passing day. Inside these shuttered roofs and walls, young boys and girls are endowed with the knowledge that will perhaps elevate them out of this unfortunate class in the future. The pupils are aware of the challenges of learning in such a building but what to do, this is the education they afford.

Anyone who has been through universal education in Uganda will attest that infrastructure is one of the most biting problems for such schools besides the wealth of knowledge embedded in the heads of the teachers of students who go through this education system. Most of these schools have been existent for more than 50 years without having a single facelift. The Head Teacher of the school Wasswa Godfrey Kijjambu said with such poor conditions, grounds can never be leveled with the privileged students from the affluent class. “The poor infrastructure affects the psychological part of it especially these children compare; for example if you look at the neighboring UPE schools, some of them are relatively better off and private schools are relatively better off so when these children meet they compare a lot.” Said, Wasswa Godfrey Kijjambu – H/M, Mbuya Church of Uganda Primary School.

To help such schools, NSSF in partnership with the Kampala Capital City Authority and the Kampala Hash House came up with a 7-hills HASH RUN 3 years ago. This charity run is aimed at raising funds for the renovation of the 79 edging schools in the capital. “We are raising money to help this school that is in a very bad state. They are 79 within the Kampala City Authority area that are in very bad conditions, some of them have even got asbestos as you know it has been condemned worldwide.” Said, Richard Byarugaba – NSSF Managing Director. “We have slowly started improving infrastructure in our schools, we slowly started improving the sanitation facilities of our children and we feel we are on the right track. But 79 schools is not a small number, it’s a huge number and it takes a wrath for all the schools to be renovated and to look good.” Said, Juliet Namuddu – Director Education, KCCA.

2018 of the HASH RUN will take place on the 25th of March across the 7 hills of Kampala with a target of 400 million Uganda shillings set as the organizers strive to give such pupils a better education.