In our last blog post we heard The Charcoal Project‘s own Sylvia Herzog explain the ins and outs of our BEEP (Biomass Energy Efficiency Project) in rural Rubaare, Uganda, where the local community of 15,000 has essentially run out of woodfuel for cooking and illumination.
Our principal partner in Rubaare is the local school district that provides education, room, and board to about 1,650 schoolchilden.
The three elementary schools, three high schools, and one vocational school are run by their founder and director, Henry Twinemasiko. Click on the images to enlarge them.
Born to a very poor family and orphaned at an early age, Henry is appropriately a source of inspiration to the schoolchildren, the staff, and the broader community. His character and determination are also one very important reason why we chose Rubaare to launch our first BEEP venture.
Henry was kind enough to take time out of his busy schoolmaster schedule to answer a few questions about the project.
We hope Henry’s story will move you to support our BEEP project in Rubaare.
The Charcoal Project: Henry, please tell us a little bit about your community.
Henry Twinemasiko: It is a rural, poor community of mostly farmers and the local people have little or no education. It is also near the border of Rwanda, Congo, and Tanzania and therefore any problems across the borders tend to affect our community. Most of the land here is bare, with few scattered trees, so there is a great lack of woodfuel, which is the major source of lighting and cooking fuel for the community.
TCP: Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you came to be a school master?
HT: I was born in a rural community to very poor parents in 1969. I grew up doing hard labor to get my school fees and food. My great ambition was to be either a teacher or a pastor. This was because I liked and admired my teachers so much. I also liked the church and church leaders.
I lost my dad in 1983, leaving us with our poor and weak mother, so I continued to struggle for my life as a poor orphan. I struggled with education and eventually I successfully acquired my DIP in Education and a degree in Educational Institution Management.
My experience in the struggle for education helped me learn more about the suffering of the poor and orphans. This is how I developed a feeling of love and sympathy for the poor and orphans. I also realized that, with a little guidance, counseling, encouragement and a little push, these people have a great capacity to develop.
Eventually I developed a desire to start a program that would help and encourage the orphans and needy to have a fairly better life. This is how the idea of REF (Rubaare Educational Foundation) began. In 1998, I began by helping three orphans. In 2003, I started the REF project, which now runs 6 schools and has about 50 associations of parents of children studying in these schools.
At the schools we educate, provide guidance and counseling, teach evangelism, and nurture community development through economic empowerment to parents and students, among others.
TCP: What values are you trying to instill in the students?
HT: Self-respect, self-realization, and self-support. We also want them to be job creators and help others. Finally, we try to build up social and spiritual values.
TCP: What can you tell us about the composition of the student body and where they come from?
HT: Based on our most recent estimate, there are 1,625 students enrolled across all REF-founded schools.
Specifically, there are 819 boys (representing 50.4% of the student body), and 806 girls (49.6%).
Of the total, 651 boys and girls are orphans. That represents about 40% of the student body.
The remaining 60% are poor and needy students.
The students come from many different districts in Western and Northern Uganda. Some come from Cameroon, a few from Kenya and Tanzania.
TCP: What type of support do the school receive from the government and outside donors?
HT: We receive no financial or other support from the government. However, about 10% of the students in the high school get on average about 30% of their tuition fees from Genesis each year. (Genesis is an Australia-based foundation that has supported REF for some time now.)
Other donations come in once in a while but this is not specified and there are no guarantees. It all depends on the willingness and the ability of any sympathetic donor.
TCP: How involved are the parents in the school community?
HT: Parents are very much involved in the school community, especially when they participate in the parent’s association.
Specifically, the parents work hard to raise additional money to support their children in scholastic needs. They also work with REF to encourage discipline among students and staff. They take part in management committees and are the focus of REF’s community development programs.
TCP: What are the challenges you are facing in terms of providing for the wood fuel needs for the school?
HT: Transportation of woodfuel to school. Scarcity of woodfuel. Hectic work of cutting and carrying woodfuel up and down hills and places that are far from the road. The need to employ many workers to do the job. And health problems (associated with indoor air pollution), especially with the cooks. We are also delayed in preparing meals, which affects the learning process.
TCP: What do you hope this project will accomplish?
HT: Improve the general finance and status of REF. Reduce the hectic work in the kitchen. Reduce the scarcity of cooking fuel. Improve the health of the workers.
We also hope this project can provide community economic empowerment through the Parents Associations, especially with the revolving fund that will help parents access the new technology and fuel through soft loans.
We also hope this will improve the health of the women in the community, and bring more support to the orphans and needy among others.
TCP: Is the situation you are experiencing with regard to woodfuel in your area exceptional or is woodfuel access a growing problem in your part of the country?HT: Absolutely. Woodfuel is a growing problem in the bigger part of my country and neighboring countries.
TCP. How involved will the students, teachers, and parents be in this project and what do you hope they will gain from it?
HT: Some of the students will be trained and involved in the briquette-making, stove making, and tree-farming, especially in their free time. Some teachers will be trained and help in the training of others.
Some parents will be involved in supplying the raw material, buying, and selling briquettes. Others will be trained in briquettes and stove-manufacturing, as well as tree farming as to champion and train others.
Both parents and teachers will gain by having improved economic status, especially if the program is able to raise funds that can supplement the ongoing revolving fund program in the form of soft loans to teachers and parents.
[All photos: Lesley Player]
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