Kibuye Project overview




AASU’s first community project is focusing on the village of Kibuye in North Eastern Kamuli, on the shores of the Victoria Nile. Kibuye has an estimated population of 60,000 people and is spread over 27 by 35km. The majority of the population is highly dependent on subsistence farming and barter trade within village in order to survive.

Before the project began, Kibuye was dependent upon one borehole for safe drinking water. Due to long lines when collecting water many have been choosing to fetch water from the river, which has caused illness through water born diseases. The village also only has one school, consisting of two classrooms accommodating roughly 600 children. The children that can’t walk the distance to the school simply don’t attend. The majority of children do not attend school, either due to distance or family circumstance, consequentially 80% of Ugandans over the age of 15 are illiterate.

So far within the Kibuye project AASU has been able to buy four acres of land at the East end of the village on which we have built a bore hole and are currently building classrooms for the Arise and Shine Nursery and Primary School which is due to open for the start of the school year in February 2011.

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Kibuye? Where's that?

Bernice Lin, a kind and hard-working volunteer from Singapore with us here in Uganda for 6 weeks, tells us about her time with Arise and Shine.

How did I end up here?
Three weeks have passed since I’ve arrived in Uganda. Understandably, my primary purpose is to work with Arise and Shine Uganda. More specifically, I have decided to work with its Community Outreach projects in Kibuye village.

Where we stayed in Kibuye village



What am I doing here?

Due to a lack of volunteers/manpower at this point in time, we had to work on several projects cooperatively. We mobilized for and conducted HIV education cum family planning sessions, adult literacy classes and beads- and necklaces-making sessions. We will also begin working on a new project to sensitize villagers about the importance of education in both boys and girls.

Kibuye is a sparsely distributed village, so mobilization by foot really takes time! Still, my experience at the village has been great. We could pick mangoes off trees any time and we made friends with hospitable villagers. Children waved frantically and screamed “Jambo” so much that it could bring smiles to our faces regardless of how exhausted we felt.

Funny faces from the children in Kibuye

And when I'm not in Kibuye?

When I’m not in the village, I visit the Babies’ Home. The babies here are really cute and huggable! Sweet boys like John, Joshua and Reagan. Lovely girls like Stella. I must say I’m not good with kids, but these babies here are really an independent and amazing lot!


All plain sailing?

Admittedly, it was not easy to assimilate initially as I had to figure out which of the differences are due to culture and which are due to individual personalities. Nonetheless, the challenge and experience made it all worthwhile so far. I guess this is also common to working in a country so different from your own.
The Arise and Shine school in Kibuye


What will I take away?

Overall, although I understand that my time with Arise and Shine will be too short to witness substantial changes in the programmes I’m working with (as sustainable development by its very definition takes time to achieve!), I hope that I can make at least a little difference before departing this beautiful country.


P.S. Ugandan food is awesome! :P
Posted by Arise and Shine Uganda at 8:27 AM
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