The school we are supporting was started in September 2017 as part of Acholi Diaspora Initiative, and has been embraced by community members who lived and experienced over two decades of civil unrest which caused massive displacements, loss of lives, livelihoods and broken family structures. The school faces a barrier in accessing Montessori Teacher Training, and must travel to Kenya to access it, which this project will support.
Mother Earth Montessori school in Gulu Uganda serves families within an Internal Displaced Person's camp. Because they cannot return to their prior homes, have no land or jobs in the camp and they cannot leave, they are stuck in a political situation with no easy solution. The school consists at present of one classroom. With the very rapid growth in the number of students, there is a need for additional teachers, classrooms, and Montessori materials, which is financially unattainable.
This project will solve the immediate problem of getting training and certification for teachers for this school, so that the school can grow to meet the demands of the growing community within the IDP camp. Students need to travel to Kenya in order to access Montessori Training (which is very strictly regulated), as well as materials and building to support this expansion.
The likely population of this camp will grow over time. As it does, we would like to support the school in growing with it to start children off to a strong start in an quality Early Childhood Montessori setting. This growth will allow us to support training additional teachers, expanding the campus, and getting the materials to serve exponentially more children (doubling the size with the addition of the next classroom).
