NTUNGAMO PRIMARY SCHOOL

Elevating Education in Bwindi’s Highlands

The rural community of Nkuringo sits atop one of Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park’s highest vantages. Blessed with stunning views but few resources, the local community is reaching ever higher to empower its children with a brighter tomorrow.

In 2019, the people of Nkuringo partnered with Abercrombie & Kent Philanthropy (AKP) and the Allison Family Foundation (AFF) to expand the local Ntungamo Primary School’s facilities with an on-site kitchen, library, staff room, and rainwater harvesting and storage systems. This partnership has also provided school lunches for over 600 students, as well as some 4,000 textbooks, and more than 400 uniforms, sweaters and pairs of shoes. The students have even started a new band — the first in the entire district — with instruments provided by AKP and AFF.

AKP and AFF partnered with LifeStraw to supply the community with five water filters so the schoolchildren and their families now have access to clean, safe drinking water whenever they need it — a true gamechanger in this remote corner of the world.

Since the program’s inception, Ntungamo Primary School has seen marked improvements in enrollment, attendance, national exam scores and graduation rates. There’s also a new bounce in the schoolchildren’s step — one that earned them the Spirit Prize at the recent District Education Festival.

What’s next for the school? AKP and AFF aim to rebuild an additional classroom block, construct a new pavilion and hall, and continue to maintain the school breakfast and lunch program for all students and teachers. With this continued support, the sky’s the limit for the children of Ntungamo Primary School.