St. Denis Secondary School

Makondo, Masaka, Uganda
In partnership with Teach a Man to Fish

If you travel an hour out of Masaka in South East Uganda, along a dusty road lined with banana plantations, you will find St Denis Senior Secondary School. Situated in Makondo, a rural area of Uganda, St Denis is a school of 250 students and a team of 15 teachers.

Taking advantage of all the natural resources they have around them, St Denis is working hard to become the first Self-Sufficient School in Uganda. Being one step ahead of the game, the school already has a banana plantation and 4 cows, which will be the start of the dairy. In developing both these projects, along with 5 others over the next 3 years, St Denis will have the opportunity to become financially self-sufficient.

In becoming a Self-Sufficient School, the students will have the opportunity to be involved in all the practical aspects of running the businesses and equip themselves with all important entrepreneurial and agriculture skills to take with them through school and beyond, passing on their expertise along the way.

In class teachers will be able to take advantage of using the businesses for practical activities and examples in the teaching of their subjects. These teachers mean business! In one of the first meetings the teachers declared that they wanted to be the kind of teachers who can change the future of the children of Uganda.

Teach a Man to Fish (TAMTF) have partnered with IYH, an American charity, to work towards creating a school which no longer has to rely on outside funding, but can generate enough income to cover all their operational costs.

One of the projects at St Denis will be the banana plantation, known locally as matoke, and served as a staple part of a Ugandan diet. At the moment there are about 300 plants which will start producing good yields by the end of the year. This will be sold to the school canteen and used for school dinners for staff and students.

Another project already established is the Send a Piglet Home Project, led by the business teacher Godfrey. Thirty of the poorest students were each given a piglet to take home and look after. After 8 months or so the now grown up piglet will be able to have up to 10 piglets of her own, one of which will be given back to the school and the rest being kept or sold by the student.

Teach a Man to Fish

TAMTF believes self-sufficiency is vital to providing a quality vocational education that opens up prospects for graduates to earn a decent living, and create jobs for others. Another valuable benefit of maintaining self-sufficiency as a goal is institutional fitness. Self-sufficient schools are denied the complacency of institutions which can rely on regular funding irrespective of performance.

Like regular businesses they must adapt, innovate, and constantly renew themselves just to stand still. The discipline this requires serves as an inspiration to students, and ensures of necessity that the education they receive is focussed on skills from which they can earn a livelihood.

To find out more about TAMTF's amazing work please click here

Registered UK charity no. 1112699