St. Denis Senior Secondary School, Makondo
St.
Denis Senior Secondary School is a privately funded school in
Makondo, Masaka District, Uganda. The school was
established in 1995 in order to serve the needs of this
subsistence farming community. St. Denis SS is located in
an extremely rural area in southeastern Uganda, not far from
what is considered to be the epicenter of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. In fact, the majority of students attending St. Denis have been
affected by HIV/AIDS. Not only have these families been
ravaged by HIV/AIDS, but they have also suffered the effects of
two wars and political instability. In the Makondo area, families average less than $20 a
month. St. Denis currently serves 250 secondary students of all
faiths from about 100 villages within a seven-mile radius. Of
the students expected to attend in 2009, only 150 are able to
pay the $180 yearly tuition.
Though founded and overseen by the local Catholic parish, the school does not receive any funding from the Catholic Diocese of Masaka or from the Government of Uganda.
Teach A Man To Fish
Teach
a Man To Fish (TAMTF) is an international NGO based out of the
United Kingdom. Their organizational vision
is “a world free from the extremes of
absolute poverty, one in which all individuals are able to enjoy
the empowering benefits of an education that meets their needs
and aspirations in life.” Their mission is to
“broaden access for the poor to a high quality education
combining vocational training and entrepreneurship by supporting
institutions working in this field to increase their financial
self-sufficiency.” Into Your Hands has
partnered with TAMTF to develop the St. Denis Self-Sufficiency
Project. Through this project, IYH, TAMTF and St. Denis
will collaborate on implementing school-based businesses that
will move the school towards financial sustainability.
Learn more about Teach A Man To Fish
Medical Missionaries of Mary
The Medical
Missionaries of Mary (MMM) is a group of dedicated women who
live in the community and have consecrated their lives to serve
the poor and disadvantaged by providing much-needed medical
services. Their communities all over the world seek to
“develop a more prosperous and dignified lifestyle.”
Their healthcare work is intimately linked with the efforts of
local communities to improve not only their health, but also the
status of women, their food supply and nutrition, their water
supply, their housing, their income-generation capabilities, and
their general standard of living. In Makondo, the six
sisters and their local staff run a health center and a mobile
HIV/AIDS clinic. They are at the frontline of the HIV/AIDS
epidemic and constitute a critical lifeline for thousands of
people. Into Your Hands partners with the MMM in
Makondo to provide assistance to the most needy through our
Hands of Mercy Program.
Learn more about the Medical Missionaries of Mary
Colorado School of Mines
The students and faculty of the Colorado
School of Mines Humanitarian Engineering Department has worked
on various projects to improve the well-being and academic
performance of St. Denis students. In 2007, students and
faculty traveled to Makondo to develop a rain catchment water
system for the school. This project has been submitted to
The Rotary Foundation for approval in their Matching Grant
program. If approved, the students of St. Denis and
adjoining St. Agatha Primary School will benefit from a
bore-hole well and various above and below ground water storage
cisterns along with hand-washing stations and Bio-sand filters
for water filtration.
CSM students have also created an interactive science curriculum that will enhance the challenging science curriculum of Uganda's Ministry of Education and Sports.
