The Bunyonyi Community School Project Supporting Education and Construction in Uganda

Bricklaying at Bunyonyi Community School

The Bunyonyi Community School Project aimed to provide a further classroom for the school, reduce site erosion, and increase access to cleaner water.

The Bunyonyi Community School was set up in 2006 by the Lake Bunyonyi Development Company.  In addition to a typical secondary school curriculum, the school offers vocational training courses which are tailored to meet local employment opportunities. Courses include agriculture, brick laying, and tailoring. Most pupils board, and many are orphans.

The Happold Trust, along with the Richard Feilden Foundation (www.richardfeildenfoundation.org.uk), was a major sponsor of the Bunyonyi Project. 

Phase 1 funding from the Trust were used for materials and capital costs of improving circulation around the school, and reducing bank erosion on a steep and challenging site.  A drainage system has been implemented, and four rainwater harvesting tanks have been installed.  Nearly 100 steps were also created on site, which have proudly been painted by pupils from the school.

Phase 2 funding helped towards the construction of a much needed new lecture area and dining hall.  Utilising locally sourced round pole eucalyptus timber, the structure adopts a 'reciprocal' form of construction for the back to basics design for the roof.  The roof was constructed utilising the expert advice of ex Carpenter Oak and Woodland owner Charley Brentnall.

Download Neil Harvey's final report to read more about this challenging and rewarding project.

Click on the image to move through the slides

The project also served as an invaluable means of skills transfer:  Pupils from the school on bricklaying and concrete courses worked on the project as assistant masons, and the foreman, Howard, worked alongside Neil Harvey and Bethan Davies,  secondees from Buro Happold.

I am thoroughly enjoying myself and am so grateful that I have managed to be involved in such a great project, and in such a fantastic place. So thanks everyone to your support - both financial and technical - and I look forward to the next phase of the works. I hope to see the dining hall finished before I head to New Zealand at the start of Feb, but when I reach there I will be sure to write a more comprehensive report on my whole stay here in Uganda.

Neil Harvey