A New Kindergarten for Uphill
This is the story of ten years in the life of a rural Ugandan school building.
These days we in the west are all being encouraged to reuse or recycle to cut back on waste, and help reduce climate change. In Uganda, our experience is that before anything is thrown away it is considered for repair, reuse or recycling. It seems like they are ahead of us when it comes to being eco-friendly. As you’re about to read, they are pretty handy when it comes to upcycling, too.
In its very first days, Uphill Junior School was a wooden hut, not much more than a large timber shed with earth floors, a tin sheet roof (only on half the building), and no proper windows or doors, just holes in the walls. This magnificent structure sat on rented ground in the village of Iruhuura.
In 2015, the Uphill Trust was able to provide the first funds to support the school. For obvious reasons, the most urgent job was to complete the roof. Once that was done, the schoolroom’s walls were painted, a water-collection tank was installed, and we bought more school equipment for the kids.
The following year, the Trust was able to buy a piece of land as permanent site for the school and begin work on a new brick-built primary school. Progress was as quick as donations allowed, and all the while, the wooden building continued to be used on the rented site.
Then, during 2017, that very first wooden Uphill Junior School building was dismantled. The kids watched the process with tears in their eyes until they were reassured it was being rebuilt bigger and better just down the road.
And so the building was moved to the new site. The wood and roofing were recycled and, with some additional timber, the building was enlarged to become two. These became the classrooms for the lower primary and kindergarten years.
During the next few years more brick classrooms were built for the lower primary classes, which just left three classes of kindergarten in the wooden huts.
Wood has a limited life span in Uganda’s harsh conditions – equatorial sun and tropical rainy seasons take their toll. However, the “new” classrooms were used up until the 2020 lockdown when it was plain that they were no longer fit for purpose.
Unintentionally, the lengthy Ugandan lockdown and school closure provided the perfect opportunity to dismantle these huts for a second time. But they were not to be scrapped. They were rebuilt as larger classrooms on their own separate site, with hard floors and with their own playground outside.
The original single, wooden building had now become a three-classroom Kindergarten. Recycling and upcycling to the maximum!
So now, in 2025, these ten-year-old classrooms are bursting at the seams with 150 little people who are beginning their education journey.
Apart from the overcrowding, the actual structure is getting towards the end of its life. There is limited time before these rooms are no longer safe and sound.
Our priority has to be to build a brick kindergarten with three roomy classrooms, and all the space needed for early learning.
To do this, there is a massive total of £50,000 to raise. However, we have decided to make this the Uphill Trust’s 10th Anniversary Challenge. So, we have a big challenge ahead, and we’d be delighted and grateful if you could help.
We’re calling on all runners, walkers, cyclists, bakers, group leaders, educationalists, artists, and more – can you help us with our fundraising? Every little bit raised will be added to the pot!
Do get in touch to find out how to set up an online fundraiser for The Uphill Trust Kindergarten Appeal.
Can we do it? We need your assistance, and every brick counts, but we have had such incredible help in the past that we believe we can.
Thank you for continuing to believe in and support this project.
Tags: 10th Anniversary Challenge, Fundraising Appeal, Uphill Junior School, Uphill Kindergarten
