Building Tomorrow is excited to announce the start of construction on our 19th primary school in Uganda! Follow its progress here and stay tuned as school #20 isn’t too far behind!

Butiti village, the future home of BT’s newest school, is located approximately 4km from the main road – Kampala-Gulu Highway – and roughly 80km from Kampala, the capital city. Butiti itself is a small village, accessible by a small dirt road, surrounded by cattle ranches; the majority of families are cattle keepers.

The nearest formal schools are between 3 to 6km away, respectively. The nearest informal school, Butiti Parents Primary School, is not really a school at all as evidenced by the photos above and sits adjacent to the current construction site. This “school” currently accommodates 117 students; 52 girls and 65 boys. Despite its appearance and condition, each parent has been contributing 20,000 to 30,000 Ugandan Shillings each term.

The 5 acres of land for the new school were donated by neighboring Lyantonde district, out of a plot of 12 acres that were originally set aside for cattle grazing and is currently being managed by community leaders in Butiti.

The school will serve the following communities of Butiiti, Kyakara, Nyakayenje, Walusi and Nyarukonge.

According to available district-level demographics and data compiled during our needs assessment phase, the following table demonstrates the large percentage of out-of-school children in each community; noting that “in-school” statistics include students enrolled in informal schools (such as that pictured above):

Many factors currently contribute to the large number of out-of-school students, including, though not unique to the area:

1. Lack of infrastructure
2. Distance to the nearest school
3. Unsafe commutes; dirt roads
4. Lack of qualified teachers in the schools
5. Cattle-keeping/family responsibilities
6. Community mindset on free education (“You get what you pay for”)

**To learn more about how BT is working to address each of these and other factors, see “Building Tomorrow: from Access to Learning“

To date, the community’s response has been overwhelmingly positive, as witnessed off-hand at the first of many community meetings (pictured above). Here, parents, guardians, family members and local leaders provided informative feedback regarding the proposed construction process and partnership. Local leaders and other officials have promised to support the project during construction and after. The community has promised to actively participate in all activities at the site including construction by offering their time, unskilled labor and security for the materials at the site.

Parents have also agreed to continue supporting the school post-construction in the form of termly contributions to subsidize the government’s support; funding a nursery teacher, lunch, and supplemental classroom resources.

Follow the school’s progress at buildingtomorrow.org/butiti