MTN supports Kyabazinga’s Girl Child Program again

By Francis Otucu

Up to 200 students in Mayuge district will have an opportunity to pursue secondary school every year rather than dropping out upon completing their primary level of education.

This after a newly finished and furnished classroom block was handed over to Malongo Ark PEAS High School in Mayuge district on Thursday.

Through its corporate social responsibility arm, MTN Uganda Foundation, the donation in a class room block will specifically go a long way in enhancing Kyabazinga William Gabula Nadiope’s Girl child Initiative which he started to keep the girl-child in school.

Last month, MTN donated Shs50m to this cause and on Thursday, the MTN Foundation, in a bid to widen access to education in the region, commissioned a three classroom block and a sanitary facility to one of the schools in the hard to reach Malongo village in Mayuge district.

This initiative is part of a Shs1.3bn partnership between MTN Foundation and PEAS (Promoting Equality in African Schools), a UK based Non-Government Organization.

Now in its second phase, the project includes the construction and furnishing of 6 PEAS affiliated schools across Uganda.

The beneficiary schools include; Samling PEAS Nama high school in Mpigi, Onwards & Upwards secondary school in Bujuuko, Wakiso, , Apeulai PEAS high school in Amuria, Aspire, Noble PEAS high schools in Ibanda and Malongo Ark PEAS high school.

Malongo Ark PEAS school, one of the beneficiaries was started by PEAS (Promoting Equality in African Schools) a UK based NGO, to absorb the soaring numbers of learners who had no accessible and affordable secondary schools to join upon completing their primary education.

In order to create more space for the ever-increasing number of primary school leavers, PEAS entered a partnership with MTN Uganda Foundation. The partnership saw MTN donate Shs735m for class room construction in 2017, thereby creating 720 additional school places for needy students.

Following that successful partnership, MTN Uganda Foundation entered into a second phase of the partnership that saw the Foundation donate Shs1.3billion to construct and furnish classroom blocks and sanitary facilities in 6 schools under PEAS across the country.

Speaking at the classroom block grand opening ceremony, Mr. Henry Muwagga, the senior Manager, Enterprise Sales, MTN Uganda stressed MTN’s commitment to supporting education in Uganda as an ongoing, long term project.

“Our reason for supporting Malongo Ark PEAS High school with a new classroom block was to create space for more students to be enrolled to the school,” Mbasa said.

The fully furnished three classroom block will create space for 200 students in Malongo Ark PEAS high school. The school started in 2012 with 224 students. Today, the school has 422 learners.

Speaking at the same event, Norah Asiimwe, the Deputy Country Director PEAS Uganda expressed her gratitude to MTN for showing passion and compassion for needy students by providing them with state-of-the-art infrastructure.

“We are happy to note that with this new classroom block, the school will be able to enroll more learners and also decongest their old classroom. This will improve their learning and performance,” Asiimwe said.

Mr. Sam Bawuba, the Director, Malongo Ark PEAS High school also voiced his gratitude to MTN Uganda Foundation.

“We are very thankful to MTN Uganda Foundation for supporting our cause of providing quality education to the less privileged students. A good learning facility definitely leads to better performance,” Bawuba said.

The Minister of Education in Busoga Kingdom, Owek. Nantale Nasabu Otana thanked for supporting the Kyabazinga’s mission of bolstering education in the region through.

“We thank MTN for this new classroom block. This is not the first time they are reaching out to us. In the past, MTN set up a fully equipped computer lab which has provided our children with commendable ICT skills,” said Otana.

The MTN Internet bus was at the school to provide computer literacy classes to the students of Malongo Ark PEAS High School.