The
School History |
St.
Bernards Secondary School and Orphanage in Kiswera is the oldest
private school in Uganda and is over 50 years old.
The school is named after
its founder Bernard Kakinda Bwewussa,
The school is
situated 100 miles from Kampala, Uganda and is located in Kinoni
23 km from Masaka town in South Western Uganda. It is run on a
non-profit making basis. |
Bernard's
daughter, Olive, says
"My father was the founder of St. Bernard’s Secondary School/Orphanage.
Principle among Bernard Kakinda's ambitions was to help needy
students from Uganda, Kenya. Malawi and Zimbabwe with free education".
Bernard
Kakinda died in 2000.
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Unlike
other schools in Uganda, it was founded for the purpose
of helping the poor in the East African states.
However, the local demand has since then doubled, reducing
drastically the number of foreign students. |
Olive
and a co-worker in Saudi Arabia
|
St.
Bernards School
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The
school receives no financial help from the government of Uganda
and now relies totally on fundraising and donations.
Today,
however, there are over 120 students on the school dependents
program. For those who pay for their tuition, the fee is
as low as US$80 for boarders for one academic term and US$50 for
the day students. This is less than half that other schools charge
for the same time period.
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Olive
has been working as a nurse in Saudi Arabia for more than 20 years.
She has recently retired and returned to help run the school.
During her stay in Saudi Arabia she raised funds for the school
by selling baked goods, plants, Christmas crafts etc. Generous
people from her church raised and donated money to the school
and also sponsored students through University. |
| Low
fees and increasing numbers of needy students makes it difficult
for the school to sustain itself. Consequently, the needs
of the students have superceded the structural development and
those buildings available are extremely run down. |
Now
that Olive has retired, the financial support for the orphanage
from fund raising in Saudi Arabia has sadly decreased, In addition,
the money Olive had been raising was not enough to meet the school’s
needs.
The school badly needs your support. |
The AIDS epidemic in Uganda has grossly increased the need to
support the orphans.
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