HISTORY​​​

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Fr. Peter Walusimbi, a Ugandan priest who studied in the Chicago area, introduced parishioners at Sts. Faith, Hope, and Charity Church in Winnetka, to his hometown of Kyojjomanyi, a rural village in central Uganda. The village sits in a dry region which makes farming difficult for the population that is primarily smallholder, subsistence farmers. With high illiteracy, no job skills, and extremely limited employment opportunities, the people are impoverished,  leaving them with little hope for a better future.

In this grim setting, Mrs. Nalumansi Mary founded a primary school, St. Maria Gorretti (SMG) in 2013. The school has become a beacon of hope for the people of the area. With Mary’s and Fr. Peter’s leadership, in conjunction with the SMG School Board and the community, the school expanded dramatically until 2021 when it reached 300 students. As a testament to the community’s support of the school, residents made the mud bricks that were used to build the first two school buildings. The land on which the school sits was generously donated by a member of the community.

 

In 2021, the first students took the critical, government-required Primary Leaving Examination (PLE) at the conclusion of seventh grade. All graduated with excellent results that qualified them to enter high school. With this successful result, word spread rapidly in the area, and parents enthusiastically sought to place their children in the school. Parents living farther away with more financial resources, also sought enrollment of their children as boarding students. At the same time, Fr. Peter became aware that 50 children in the village were orphans, with no one able to provide for their daily needs or the $75 per year tuition that represents a huge expense for these desperately poor families. So, between taking in. more day students and the new boarding students, with both groups drawn by the excellent academic results, as well as creating an orphanage on site for the orphans, the school’s population doubled by 2023 to 600. A generous grant from a religious order of nuns underwrote the construction of a third, larger school building during this recent period.

Remarkably, Fr. Peter, Mary, and SMG’s School Board, have been able to operate the school and orphanage on a breakeven basis, with outside donations providing the funds for capital expenditures. The leadership team has kept expenses under tight control, enabling. tuition to stay low enough to be affordable for most of the day students, with some other day students getting scholarships because their parents could not afford the tuition. The boarding students’ fees cover not only their own costs, but also those of the orphans. And the academic excellence has continued, with all the students graduating over the last three years scoring in the top levels and qualifying for high school. Furthermore, thanks to the tremendous efforts by Mary and Fr. Peter, all the graduates are currently attending high school, with many on scholarships provided by those schools. Annual costs are about $1,500 for boarding at high schools. This is an extraordinary achievement and incredible benefit provided to these students and their families.

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IMMEDIATE AND NEAR-TERM NEEDS

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With 168 students, both boarding students and orphans, now living on campus in converted classrooms, there is an urgent need for more classrooms and dormitory space to alleviate the serious overcrowding. Recent government regulations dictate that the current dormitory space must be expanded by 50%. Because of this pressing situation, the School Board has capped the student population at 600, despite the continuing very strong demand for enrollment. With a rapidly soaring number of students graduating, there is also a significant and escalating need for scholarship funds for students entering high school. Furthermore, in line with a commitment to self-sufficiency, there is a growing need for investment in solar energy to address the current high cost but unreliable government-sourced power. We need to invest in a farm to feed the students, generate income to support the school and orphanage, and provide a training ground for instruction in best farming practices for the local farmers to improve their incomes.

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THE FOUR-YEAR PLAN TO ADDRESS THESE NEEDS​

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Based on these needs, T.H.R.I.V.E. Foundation, which was created by parishioners of Sts.
Faith, Hope, and Charity Church to help Fr. Peter, Mary, and the SMG School Board operate the school and orphanage, is launching a $1 million capital campaign tied to a two-phase plan spread over the next four years.

 

The first phase, of $600,000, is focused on construction of a building to house two dormitories for the boarding students and orphans, additional classrooms and meeting spaces, a library, two kitchens, and a large multipurpose room with a stage. Two outdoor
playgrounds, a large playfield, and sports courts will be added, along with government- required security fencing around the perimeter of the campus. Investment will also be made in both solar power and water catchment and processing.

The second phase, of $400,000, is focused on purchase of land for a farm, the related buildings and equipment for its operation, and the establishment of an endowment fund for scholarships for graduates from the school. Residual funds would be deployed for teacher housing.

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BUILDING ON STRENGTHS FOR A BRIGHTER FUTURE​

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While this is an ambitious plan, it is built on a solid foundation.

First and foremost, excellent leadership and staff performance as well as execution in
Uganda, undergird this entire endeavor.

Second, the school and village communities have been outstanding contributors and partners. They are committed to the hard work it will take to improve the quality of their lives. For example, there is a solid group of adults in the literacy program sponsored by the Foundation and provided in the evenings and weekends.

And third, donors have provided the Foundation with a challenge grant commitment for
a dollar-for-dollar match of donations, up to $500,000. The Foundation hopes that with all these key pieces in place, donors and supporters of SMG will respond enthusiastically and generously. This investment will build on the transformative work that has been underway in SMG and its service to the children and adults of central Uganda for over a decade now.​​

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