A community organisation, born in a classroom.

Founding story

It started with children who had nowhere else to go.

In 2016, Betty and Francis Tibagye opened a free primary school in Bulopa. The first classes met under a mango tree. There were more children than classrooms, and more need than money.

They did not turn anyone away. The school took in children whose families could not afford the costs that keep a child out of school — the children the founders had built the school for.

By 2018, the register held hundreds of children, with 320 new pupils arriving in a single year. A sponsored run organised by friends in Germany funded the first permanent classroom block. Pupils at Grundschule Zellertal raised the money for seating, a girls' latrine and blackboards. The school began to look like a school.

Then came the pandemic. Schools closed. Funding stopped. The buildings stood empty, and the community carried the relationships through two difficult years. When the school reopened, the need had grown: more children, fewer resources, and families whose incomes had disappeared.

The answer was not to become a bigger school. It was to become a community organisation. Women's groups, farmer training, seed and animal donations, a storage facility, water points and men's circles are now part of the same body of work. The school remains the centre, but the household is the unit of change.

Today there are more than 1,160 children in school, 320 new pupils every year, and 20 projects at different stages. Some are finished. Most are ongoing. A few are waiting for the next funder. The school is still free. That is the promise that has not changed.