As the sun set on Kimmi island on Lake Victoria, on International Women’s day, there were smiles of joy and gratitude from the largely impoverished natives.
A group of women had come together to give the island hope by securing land set aside for a school. Kimmi nursery and primary school was first set up by the then area MP, Rev Peter Bakaluba Mukasa (Mukono South) in 2013.
But before Bakaluba could set up the school, two area women had to surrender the nearly one acre of land for the institution to be built. Later, the MP would set up the school with support from the Anglican Church.
Many years later, some unscrupulous businessmen approached one of the original two women who donated the land for use as a school for a business deal. Word has it that this woman may have signed on a 45-year lease for the land, to be used to set up a fish processing plant, eventually evicting the school.
Now enter the women activists, mobilised by filmmaker Sarah Nsigaye, who got wind of the story, while filming at the nearby Ngamba Island wildlife sanctuary.
The women, now led by Ngamba Island wildlife sanctuary’s executive director Lilly Ajarova, raised some money to complete the roofing of one of the wooden structures that make the school.
The school, which will field its first P7 candidate class later this year with five pupils, is looking to the future with hope. But as the head teacher, Godfrey Kavuma, indicated, if it was not for the generosity of women, who took advantage of their humanity to give the islanders a chance, there would be no hope there.
Instead, Kimmi would be another island on Lake Victoria, characterized by a high school dropout rate, disease and poverty.
school@observer.ug