The project takes place in the rural district of Nwoya, in northern Uganda, an area still marked by the lasting effects of the LRA conflict. Public schools here are often overcrowded, and many children have to walk long distances just to reach one. The Jackfruit Community School Hub in Koch Goma currently serves 180 students from vulnerable families, with room to grow to around 400.
Long distances between home and school, a lack of transport, and difficult road conditions, especially during the rainy season, all get in the way of regular attendance. Children from the most remote villages, or from the most fragile family situations, face the highest risk of repeated absence, falling behind and eventually dropping out altogether.
The project
The project gives the Community School Hub a 60-bed residential dormitory, offering continuous, safe access to education for children who would otherwise face the longest and hardest journeys to get there. Reducing educational inequality and strengthening child protection sit at the centre of the design, alongside real support for these children's future opportunities.
The dormitory is fully integrated into the school's day-to-day operating model, run under a proper child safeguarding policy, with trained staff and daily supervision. Built around inclusion, child protection, sustainability and the involvement of the local community, it draws on local resources with an eye to keeping the service running well beyond the initial funding period.
Who the project is for
The project's direct beneficiaries are 60 children, 30 girls and 30 boys, selected based on their distance from school and socioeconomic or family vulnerability.
Its impact reaches further, to their families, the wider community of Koch Goma, home to around 2,500 people, and the whole Jackfruit Community School Hub, which will be able to offer a more inclusive, safe and accessible education to all its students.
Project name: Più vicini alla scuola, più vicini al futuro. Dormitorio sicuro per 60 studenti vulnerabili del Jackfruit Community School Hub
Proposing organisation: Jackfruit
Area of intervention: Inclusion & Social Development
Country: Italy