Rydal Penrhos has made a large contribution to another education project in Africa.
The school has donated £1,052 towards plans to construct a second school located within the Batwa region of Uganda, which was made thanks to a series of charity events at Rydal Penrhos’ prep and senior sites during the academic year.
Each charity mission Rydal Penrhos has taken to the country, staff and pupils visit the Batwa region at Rwamahano through links with the Friends of African International Christian Ministry (FAICM).
They have seen first-hand how the community has struggled to adapt to living on top of mountainsides with very little in the way of forest cover.
The school built at Rwamahano, which was finished by pupils from Rydal Penrhos in July 2017, was to replace the original, wood build building that had been swept away during rainstorms.
FAICM are now working at another site in Murubindi, with the initial plans of two classrooms, head teacher’s office and a latrine receiving approval.
Building work on the primary school is now underway, with the second phase consisting of another two classrooms and a staff room within £7,000 of its target thanks to the donation from Rydal Penrhos.
Paul Sanders, Year 9-10 Head of School and Uganda project leader, said: “It is hoped that when we visit again in July 2021, we will see first-hand how we have contributed and more than likely put to work on the build itself.
“The impact our links in Uganda are having, supported by the generosity of parents and pupils of the Rydal Penrhos community, across a range of good causes is something to be proud of and only go to cement our friendships with our partners further.”
The Batwa people are the indigenous pygmy population of central Africa.
For millennia, they have lived in the forests finding all they need to survive be it for shelter, food or medicine.
Conservation efforts to protect mountain gorillas saw the Mgahinga Gorilla National Park in Uganda created in the south of the country and Uganda’s 6,700-strong Batwa community were evicted from the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest where they had lived for centuries.
According to Ugandan law, as a nomadic people who had never settled in one location, the Batwa had no claim to the land, therefore, the Ugandan government had no legal obligation to compensate them.