Kahendero village
Brighter Brains Institute is pleased to announce that we have begun raising funds to establish a new humanist preschool in Kahendero - a small fishing village on the shores of Lake George, adjacent to Queen Elizabeth National Park. The preschool will be situated on 2.5 acres of property owned by Bwambale Robert Musubaho. Bwambale will be the director of the new school; he’s also the director of Kasese Humanist Primary School (10 miles away) and BiZoHa Orphanage School (two miles away in Muhokya).
Children in Kahendero are generally not well cared for and most do not attend school. We would like to try to bring positive changes.
Now that funding for BiZoHa is largely complete, BBI is embarking on the Kahendero project, to further its ambition to spread secular thinking in western Uganda. The budget is $8,768.76 - this includes 3 classrooms, a kitchen, a clinic, and a 4-stance pit latrine. We already have a generous sponsor of $1,200 for one classroom, which will be announced further once we have a classroom name and are closer to starting construction.
The new location, Kahendero, while idyllically set between two wondrous natural areas, is a largely dysfunctional community afflicted by with myriad social problems - crime, drugs, pollution, disease, gambling, prostitution, alcoholism, and illiteracy. We have hopes of improving the community and the lives of its residents with our investment and involvement.
Among the pioneer orphans at BiZoHa we have two from Kahendero who live in the hostel. The new location will not be an orphanage, only a nursery school for 3-5 year olds. We will make it a priority to offer orphans free breakfast and lunch if funds allow. When they reach primary school age, they may attend the Bizoha Primary School that is two miles away. As for the number of orphans, Kahendero has scores and scores of them. If we can increase the hostel capacity at BiZoHa Orphanage then some orphans may also come to live at the hostel when they are older.
Child prostitution, illiteracy, and drug and alcohol use by the very young are not uncommon in Kahendero.
In addition to the nursery school we plan to open a health clinic. Common diseases in Kahendero are bilharzia, malaria,cholera, HIV/AIDS, influenza, kwashiokor , marasmus, TB, sexually transmitted diseases, typhoid etc. The transmission rate of HIV/AIDS is very high at the fishing village. Our clinic will try to provide free HIV testing and counseling, condoms and femine products which are hard to come by in the area. We would also provide free anti malarial drugs and medical drill lessons on personal hygiene to the Kahendero community. This would make our clinic there very unique.
Our goal is to improve the health, education and opportunities of these children as well as to spread the message of Humanism in this very superstitious area -- teaching the children and families to value science, logic and reason and to embrace the humanist values we promote at Bizoha.
If you would like to help, please see our Donate page to take action!
Our Humanist Values as posted at Bizoha Primary School and Orphanage