We have BIG PLANS for the Buhumba Village primary school during 2023. We are going to implement a comprehensive health and hygiene program with full time staff, which will include:
The health and hygiene program will be housed in our new administrative building, which has capacity to store medicines safely and securely.
We also plan to construct new composting latrines that will allow for treatment of waste for safe use as fertilizer, which is an important measure to limit the spread of intestinal helminths.
We are thrilled to have the facilities and support in order to provide these programs for the 500 primary school children in our community. We greatly appreciate the support of our donors that allows us to do so.
Stay tuned for more details as we implement these programs!
Earlier this month a huge class of 500 children started the new school year at the Buhumba primary school on Idjwi Island. There are 258 girls and 242 boys between 1st and 6th grades.
It has been an eventful few months on Idjwi Island. The isolated nature of the island, and some basic precautions, have provided a degree of protection during the Covid-19 pandemic. The community and kids, however, continue to struggle with neglected tropical diseases such as malaria, trachoma, and schistosomiasis, as well as common conditions such as malnutrition. Once again, we have coordinated a visit from our global health pediatrician and local medical team. In the middle of September they spent several days at the school providing medical examinations and treatment for hundreds of children. This was a very important visit because the cost and scarcity of key medicines on the mainland have complicated these efforts.
The robust enrollment at the school presents a different set of challenges. Although we are thrilled with the impressive school building and administrative offices that we have constructed, we are conducting a needs assessment and analysis of options to continue to expand the school complex, and expect to have some plans in the near future.
As always, we greatly appreciate the continued support from the GlobalGiving community!
Greetings from Idjwi Island! There is much to report from the primary school in Buhumba Village.
We have approximately 450 students at the school this term. We anticipate an increased enrollment next fall and are looking into ways to accommodate additional students. This fall, the school was chosen as a regional site for the national primary school exam. This is the first time that the school has been selected for this important examination.
Covid-19 continues to be a concern. Although vaccine distribution has been very limited, medical checks are conducted at the main port near the school, mask usage is good, and we maintain a handwashing station at the school.
The Idjwi Island Education Fund continues to support the students. Our local medical staff provides check ups and medicines. We are also completing additions to the administrative building, which houses the medical clinic.
We appreciate the generous contributions from our many supporters and ask that you remember the fund this year on Giving Tuesday and as many of you make year end contributions.
Greetings from Idjwi Island!
These photos are from a medical mission in April when our local medical professionals visited the Buhumba primary school to examine and treat hundreds of children. A significant number of the children suffer from malaria, intestinal parasites, malnutrition, and other conditions that are prevalent in the region. Our medical team, doctor Samy and nurse Faida, purchase anti-malarial and other medicines in Bukavu (a city on the southern tip of Lake Kuvu) and bring them by boat to the village to examine and treat the children. They also visited a local community on a tiny adjacent island to treat children there.
Our recent construction projects have helped facilitate more regular medical visits. The recently-constructed administrative building includes a nurse's station with storage for necessary medicines and supplies. We plan to continue with these regular medical missions to support the children's overall health and ability to learn.
The generous support from our GlobalGiving community helps make this possible. Thank you!
Greetings from Idjwi Island!!!
The kids are thrilled to observe the construction of the new administrative building at the primary school in Buhumba Village. This new building also will be the home to our health care program, which provides regular check ups from our health care team. Construction should be finished within a few days, and will complete our initial construction plans with the classroom building, latrines, and the administrative building. We still have big plans to support the growing student population and the school staff in the Buhumba Community.
Please join us on #GivingTuesday to support these delightful children with a donation, which will be matched as part of the #GivingTuesday campaign.
As always, we are grateful for our many donors who have been so generous in supporting the children on Idjwi Island.
Project Reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you will get an e-mail when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports via e-mail without donating.
We'll only email you new reports and updates about this project.
Support this important cause by creating a personalized fundraising page.
Start a Fundraiser
Make a monthly donation & get 
