Skip to content ↓

A Ugandan Education

Two Sixth Form students have returned from a life changing visit to Uganda.

Chrissie Moore and Sophie Allen were accompanied by CBA librarian Amy McKay on the CBA's third annual visit to the Sixth Form Conference in Uganda.

The trio spent five days in the African country where they took part in debates about global issues as well as visiting primary schools and some areas of cultural importance.

Chrissie said: "It was a life changing experience. The whole trip was amazing - understanding their culture and way of living was truly inspirational, making me feel how lucky and privileged I am today.'

Sophie said: "It was amazing.  The country, the people and the culture were nothing like I ever imagined. They are all so happy, that you can't help but feel that way too."

As well as an educational trip the team also took along a cash pot of £2000 -raised from the generous CBA community - and used the money to buy books for the Discovery Centre.

The Centre in Jinja (a four hour road journey from the Ugandan capital of Kampala) was founded in the 1990s by a Northamptonshire Charity and acts as an educational resource centre for young people on the local community - as well as across Uganda.

Miss Mckay said: "The library was non-existent when we arrived as the centre does struggle for funds.

"After speaking with the students and asking what books they would like, we went along with staff from the centre to the bookshop and bought 370 books.

"We bought several copies of some educational texts, but also bought some more contemporary books such as a book about Justin Bieber and some Hannah Montana ones"

The staff told Miss McKay the books would be life changing for many students as it will greatly increase their education opportunities.

Following the visit there will be a literature link established between the two schools.

Miss McKay will this year be one of the judges for the prestigious Carnegie award and so she hopes to send the shortlisted books over to the Ugandan school so that the students can read the books and give their verdict.

There will be a SKYPE session so that CBA and the Ugandan students can discuss the reads.

The trio will be putting together a video about their trip which will be shown in assemblies.

A gallery of photos is also available to view on our website.