Improve Education for 400 Children on Idjwi Island

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:

• Training program with our global health pediatrician.
• Testing and data collection to develop baseline health measurements for evaluation.
• A full-time nurse at the school.
• Regular visits by a doctor from Bukavu on the mainland.
• Regular testing, prevention training, and treatment for malaria.
• Regular treatment for key neglected tropical diseases.
• Tracking to measure the results from these interventions.

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!