From The Heart Of Uganda: Gafayo Memorial Orphanage School

On Saturday we went on an adventure following a long and scenic road…

…and met a fascinating man named Gafayo. Three years ago he donated 4 acres of land to his community to start a Christian primary school for orphans in his home village of Endiizi in Isingiro District. The school is located over 2 hours from the Timothy Centre.

The land he donated had a simple wooden building on it that had previously been used as a secondary school.

Land is highly prized here as part of a family’s inheritance, so it was an amazing gift to this community to receive this land which normally would have been left to his sons after his death. The school committee members who met with us quoted a Ugandan proverb that says “A man is thanked after he dies,” but told us that in this case they wanted to express their appreciation to him by honoring him while he was still living—hence the name “Gafayo Memorial Orphanage School”.

The reason we visited this school was to help conduct a seminar for teachers and parents. We were invited by the head teacher, Bernard, who is a former teacher from Kibaale Community Primary School.

After receiving basic training in Christian schooling and biblical integration, he returned to his home area and began heading this orphanage school, applying the ideas he learned in Kibaale. He is working to mobilize other small Christian schools in the district to come together for training and encouragement. There were six other schools represented on Saturday in the seminar, and they were all keen to learn how to teach from a Christian perspective, inspire hope, and instill the values of integrity and love for God in this new generation of students.

The team that I traveled with included David and Ruth Frith (visiting from our church in Vancouver, Canada) and two teachers from Kibaale, Allen (our primary head teacher) and Kenneth (our secondary math/physics teacher). It is great to see our Kibaale teachers willing and able to share their passion for Christian schooling with other schools.