Sometimes the best way to understand the impact of School for Life is to hear it directly from those who’ve seen it with their own eyes. Recently, the Mackenzie family travelled to Uganda and shared their reflections from their visit. Here’s their story, in their own words.
Uganda is the 54th country we have visited in the past 20 years. Nothing, however, quite prepares you for the magnificent welcome you receive from the children attending School for Life. From the moment we arrived to the moment we left, we felt overwhelming gratitude, from 4-year-olds to the Headmaster. From the SFL driver, Boscoe, to the local farmer who was organising a cooperative of 100 other (peasant) farmers, all were affected in some way by the donors who support School for Life.
In respect to the farmers, the parents were both orphans and now have four beautiful, healthy children. The eldest child wants to be a doctor and set up a local hospital, the next wants to be a farmer like his dad, the next a veterinary surgeon, and the youngest an engineer. All this because SFL is reaching into communities through children. In the junior school, seeing little 4-year-olds wearing socks that would fit an adult makes you both want to laugh and cry at the same time. They didn’t care, they were so happy to have socks.
Seeing Dickson (construction engineer of SFL) organise labourers to manually dig out a metre-wide tree stump using picks and shovels to make way for 100,000-litre water tanks for the new Junior Boarding House facility (at Katuuso) was clear evidence that nobody is wasting donated money to get work done. Labourers are paid $8 per day, and they work hard. The Boarding Houses (to house up to 280 boarders) were started in March and will be finished by September at a cost of around US$500,000. I have no doubt it will be done to a high standard, come in on time and under budget.
When we visited the Senior Boarding Houses, we were shown around by four well-spoken and beautifully dressed senior girl students. The dormitories were clean and organised. The clotheslines were full of clothes washed by each of the boarders. Students took enormous pride in showing us their dormitories, their washing facilities, their toilets, and their classrooms. More impressive were the responses by students about their aspirations. They want to be doctors and engineers, farmers and nurses. When we asked, “When your holidays come, would you prefer to be at home or school?” the answer was instant. They want to be at school.
After school had finished, we walked home with one of the SFL children, Marion. She was about 10–12 years old and very shy. We walked approximately a kilometre through fields to her 70-year-old grandmother’s house. It was pretty appalling. The grandmother had alcohol issues, and Marion and her siblings were left to fend for themselves. I’m sure the only meals they had were at SFL. At school, the kids had excellent meals, which we ate as well, nutritious but bland.
We have been giving to SFL for over 10 years. We have never doubted the work being done and the results being achieved, and we have tried to increase our commitment each year. The commitment of staff, gut-wrenching stories of where children have come from, and the triumphs they have achieved leave us emotional and breathless. I have invested hundreds of millions of dollars for individuals to provide for lavish lifestyles over many years, but I can’t imagine a better use of money than supporting these financially helpless children. What costs $50,000 p.a. for one child in Australia, SFL can use to educate 110 high school students in Uganda. How so? You get a tax deduction for the donation. Yes, 110 for 1.
There are numerous other stories that strike at the heart. Rather than me continuing to bore you with our travels, take a trip to Uganda and see what a difference you can make to others less fortunate to be born where they were born. I will be encouraging each of my children to make the journey… then visit the Masai Mara next door in Kenya for the Great Migration of the wildebeests. One week will change your life forever, for the better.
As the Mackenzies share, a trip to Uganda isn’t just a visit, it’s a life-changing experience. Their journey captures the heart of what School for Life is all about: educating poverty out of existence, creating prosperity, and transforming futures one child at a time.
