Visit highlights commitment to build 60 academies and provide improve quality of education.

KAMPALA, UGANDA—On his first trip to Uganda since 1998, President Bill Clinton and daughter Chelsea made a 90 minute stop at the Building Tomorrow Academy of Gita, visiting teachers and students in classrooms, watching dances by the school choir and greeting hundreds of community members gathered at the academy.

“It is good to be back in Uganda,” President Clinton said while addressing the crowd. “…we are supporting Uganda’s progress and helping young boys and girls to live their dreams.”

The Clintons, accompanied by a traveling delegation, visited several of the academy’s classrooms, dropping in on students learning about everything from varying types of soils to adverbs and adjectives.

“Your teachers here are so good, I didn’t even want to leave the classroom,” President Clinton said.

The funding and design work to complete the Building Tomorrow Academy of Gita were furnished through Building Tomorrow’s student chapter at the University of Virginia. Completed in 2010, the academy was constructed through a community-driven model whereby members of neighboring villages provide over 20,000 hours of labor to complete construction of the building.

“This was absolutely incredible, “ Joseph Kalisa, Building Tomorrow Uganda’s Country Director said. “We have much more work to do, and hopefully President Clinton being with us this morning helps us take a big step forward.”

At the 2011 Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting, Building Tomorrow committed to launching BT 2.0, an initiative aimed at enrolling 15,000 primary-level students annually in 60 Building Tomorrow Academies by 2016 throughout EastAfrica. BT 2.0 will also aim to train over 450 Building Tomorrow Academy educators, grow the enrollment of girls, and develop a classroom curriculum designed for students living in rural areas.

“Both President Clinton and Chelsea were a joy to host,” George Srour, Building Tomorrow’s Founder & Chief Dreamer, said. “They took time to understand in great detail the successes and challenges of our work and were genuinely excited by what they saw at Gita.”

Additional photos from the event.

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About Building Tomorrow
Building Tomorrow (BT) is an international social-profit organization empowering young people to invest their resources, time & talents in providing students in East Africa with access to an education. Over the last five years, supporters of BT, including a college network of over 25 chapters nationwide, have raised over $1.5 million to seed 14 BT academies, eight of which are currently operational. For more information, visit www.buildingtomorrow.org.

About the Clinton Global Initiative
Established in 2005 by President Bill Clinton, the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) convenes global leaders to create and implement innovative solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges. CGI Annual Meetings have brought together more than 150 heads of state, 20 Nobel Prize laureates, and hundreds of leading CEOs, heads of foundations and NGOs, major philanthropists, and members of the media. To date CGI members have made more than 2,100 commitments, which arealready improving the lives of nearly 400 million people in more than 180 countries. When fully funded and implemented, these commitments will be valued at $69.2 billion.