Biology lab starts to take shape

Before we land in England (for a three week short break) we wanted to update you on progress at Great Lakes Regional College, and especially the work we have been doing at the SEED building. I am sure you remember that we are on a deadline to get the new Science Education faculty open by end of August and we have spent the last few months trying to get the building work completed. Right now, as I type the landscaping outside is starting and the painting inside is being completed, we hope! And the furniture is starting to be made and fitted by the college workshop. Tables, stools, cabinets….. (and if you look at the photo’s carefully you will see the sink that Pete fitted!). We are hoping by the time we get back the Chemistry and Physics lab will also be fitted out.

Completion of our project work!

A huge thank you to all of you who donated money for us to complete a personal project whilst out here in Uganda. As you may recall from previous blogs we decided to renovate a particularly awful toilet block that the ladies were using at Great Lakes Regional College.

Before we started the block was accessed through a dark banana grove and there were no lights at night making going to the loo a vulnerable and scary experience after dark. The four toilets were concrete rooms with a hole in the ground and the eight shower areas were the same but without a hole! The girls would fill a bucket at an outside tap and go into a room to wash down. Only half the cubicles had doors and those that did had no locks. The building was dilapidated.

First of all we persuaded some of the Volunteer Uganda volunteers to become involved in painting the inside and out with a high quality waterproof paint (that cost a fortune – so thank you all who donated!). With a fresh new look we then installed lighting, running it through the banana grove from the nearest building – thanks to an American VU volunteer (Rhonda!) and a college volunteer (Nathan) and Pete’s local apprentice Ivan who did the electrics. Then we had new doors made (by the college workshop) so that every room has a door. These are hardwood and so we decided not to paint them as they are beautiful as they are. We persuaded the workshops at the college to remove a little from the bottom of the old doors so that the water would run under them and not rot the doors. We spruced them up with some yellow gloss paint to protect them from the weather. Then we put new locks on, inside and out. What a difference this makes!

New look toilet block

Next came the tiling – your money paid for a professional tiler from Kampala to use the left over (read free!!) tiles from the SEED project we are involved in to tile the floors. He used all the offcuts to make a mosaic pattern and then he grouted them (although Sam finished the final two!). And finally we were ready for water – and of course this is where Pete steps up to the mark! All four toilets now have a tap so the girls can wash their hands and the floors having used the loo (it’s still a hole in the ground). The toilets are now much easier to clean and therefore hopefully will smell less. Five of the other rooms now have proper showers with shower heads to save the girls filling bowls and sponge washing, much more hygienic and convenient. The last three rooms we have left for those who want to continue to use a bucket to wash. Changing a culture takes time!

Showers – much better than a bucket of water!

Tiling and taps fitted in toilets

We spent every penny that you gave us (and a little more) to finish the project. We have some yellow gloss paint left that will find its way to other projects in schools. You have made a huge difference to the lives of many of the girls here in Kanungu as they work on their diploma’s and degrees. We can’t possibly thank you all enough. Webele Munonga (as they say here!).

Looking to the future.

 

The SEED project moves closer to completion as the plumbing goes in this week, furniture is being built night and day in the college workshop and we are hoping to see the painter and builders to do the final touches over the next couple of weeks. So it’s all very exciting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

As the building work plods along we move our thoughts to focus on recruitment of teachers and students. We want the SEED project to inspire and motivate the next generation of science teachers so that more and more students choose science as a career. One of the ways we can do this is to enlist regular outstanding local scientists to teach the diploma and degree courses. And another way is to bring in people from outside Uganda to keep the courses fresh and cutting-edge…..

 

Perhaps one way do this is to invite scientists from around the world to spend a week with us in Kanungu enriching the curriculum by giving seminars on their area of speciality – to faculty tutors and students in a programme that could also include Talks to A level students at Great Lakes High School. Locally to where I live in Cambridge there is The Human Genome Project campus and the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology  – both of them world renowned (the latter of which is where I did my PhD!). We also have many biotech companies and of course the University. There must be someone out there that would like to come and join us?

 

Another option would be to start up an exchange programmes where students from a university / high school in the developed world come out to work with our students on a project together – teaching and learning from each other. Anyone out there interested in working in partnership with us?

 

We also envisage that we might get some long term volunteers staying for a term / semester or two, teaching as part of the faculty within their subject specialism (and perhaps pedagogy too). As well as teaching students they would be able to help local teachers to develop their own skills in the classroom. If you are a UK science teacher, does this sound like a challenge that you would enjoy?

 

Please send the link on to anyone you know as a scientist or a science teacher……! Thank you…..