INTER CAMPUS UGANDA, AN EXCEPTIONAL SCHOOL

Despite being thousands of miles away from Milan, the most beautiful thing about being in Nagalama is talking to all the smiling children and also feeling right at home there. At a school in Mukono, in the North-East district of the capital Kampala, there are almost 900 children present, in classes made up of 50 to 60 pupils. For us Italians this is a system that may seem not too efficient in terms of schooling, however in reality it is a success. The input of Inter Campus has triggered an increased presence in St Joseph’s state Primary school, a place where children are often encouraged by their parents to work outdoors or at home. 300 boys and 100 girls from the ages of eight to 13 take part in continued physical education with 26 coaches, while the under-8s and over-13s instead complete more recreational activities with our coaches, who do work around their school hours. For this latest trip, the impressive duo of Silvio and Davide also took along photographer Valentina, who is responsible for the images in this article.

This special moment has brought together children, families and teachers, largely thanks to the work put in MP Filtri, a business leader in its sector and one that is fully committed to our CSR project. They will now help finance Inter Campus Uganda for the next five years. We’ve therefore also renewed an agreement in equal measure with school headmistress Josephine Nabuyungo. The day’s activities begin with the National anthem, the school hymn, religious hymns (the Ugandan’s singing spirit never fails), speeches and the register and then the handover of sporting material brought from Italy (the kids understandably enthusiastic about receiving footballs). We then move onto theoretical lessons in the morning, before then moving to the training pitch with the kids. We then evaluate the work done by the coaches and also request them to complete a questionnaire about our input. This is because we want to act in response to their demands and suggestions in the best possible fashion.

At the end we were as usual comforted by the children’s’ prayers for a ‘safe journey’, which is always then followed by “when are you coming back?”. “Soon, soon!”, is a promise we always stick to because we have a great project here, which also has a place in our hearts.

17.11.2017