The Project
Our First School: We have witnessed vital improvements at the Rock Foundation School by providing minimal financial help and support. Hiring a security guard, installing windows and doors, providing teacher training, purchasing new desks and textbooks and offering school lunches are just a few simple ways that substantially benefit the children. By sharing our work with our local schools here in the United States, the children in our community benefit by learning from their new friends across the world.
Who we are in the United States: Bay Roberts, Patty Gilbert and Sari Ghiselli are three moms here in Colorado who care about children and education. Patty and Bay travelled to visit the Rock Foundation School in Uganda in November 2005.
 
 Who we are in Uganda: Harbert Ganyana, the director of Rock Foundation School, is dedicated to all the children of Rock Foundation School, paying and non-paying alike. He currently fosters 4 orphaned children in his own home. Harbert believes that education is the only hope for the children and he is determined to provide the best learning environment he can, regardless of the conditions.
Hussein Tadesse is our program manager in Uganda. Hussein has extensive experience working with schools, children and in education. He monitors and evaluates our programs at our targeted schools.
Harbert Ganyana’s biography
 The story of how this project began: In the winter of 2005, a little girl named Juliette came into our lives. She arrived as an email attachment from Uganda, Africa. Her beautiful solemn face with dark perceptive eyes crept into our dreams at night and we felt her quiet presence beside us during the days. After a month of this we decided to do something.
Bay’s first idea was to adopt this child. Juliet had recently lost both her mother and father to AIDS, a disease that is creating devastation to families all over the world. Her plan was dropped when she learned that adoption would require her family to move to Uganda for three years. If Bay could not adopt this child, then what else could she do? Apparently, other parents who had seen Juliet’s picture felt the same way and we grouped together to raise money to pay for her school fees and to send her shoes, clothes, a backpack and school supplies. If this child was in need, how many other children also might need our help?
 This is how our relationship began with Juliette’s school, the Rock Foundation School in Kampala, Uganda. In November 2005, Patty and Bay boarded a plane to travel to Kampala to meet Juliette and spend two weeks at her school. We wanted to see the Rock Foundation School for ourselves and find out what Juliette’s and the other children’s lives were like. We brought with us letters, photos and hand made gifts from students at both our children’s schools. Along with this, we brought suitcases full of paper, crayons, pencils, and markers, toothbrushes and shoes.
From this initial visit, friendships were born. We did not want to leave our friends- we wanted to remain part of their lives. But how?
 Tell us more about the Rock Foundation School: Rock Foundation School is a private school located in the Banda area of Kampala. Approximately 500 children are enrolled at the school, kindergarten through 7th grade. There are 40 to 45 children per class. Children take an exam each year to proceed to the next grade. 7th graders take an exam that permits them to continue on to high school if parents have the resources to pay school fees. Rock Foundation School fees are $45 a term or $135/year. For parents often earning only $1/day, school fees can be prohibitively high. Children whose parents are unable to pay school fees usually are not able to attend school.
The school has two permanent structures and a number of wooden temporary structures for classrooms. Classrooms have a dirt floor, with long wooden benches for the children to sit on. Windows and doorways are open to the outside. There is no electricity or running water at the school. There are no materials, no books, no blackboards and nothing on the walls in these classrooms. Outside the classrooms, there is a packed dirt area for children to play. There is no playground equipment and no sports equipment. A small percentage of the children whose parents can afford it receive school lunch that is cooked outside the classrooms on small charcoal burners. Lunch is usually beans, rice, posha or matoke (cooked bananas).
Harbert Ganyana sends us an email every week. To read his very first email, click here.
 
Another e-mail message from Harbert
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