A secondary school for Kisawayi

In early July 2025 the buildings and their furniture were handed over to the school's Board of Governors. The head teacher, representatives from Butiru and the school board received them with great gratitude. All the rooms have been in use ever since.

The first pupils of Senior One and Senior Two are already learning here. Next to the head teacher's door hangs a sign of the BINGO Environmental Foundation – a reminder of who made it possible.

The four-classroom block is furnished with desks. The administration building has a library, a laboratory, stores, three offices and a staff room – the head teacher, the office and the teachers now have enough weatherproof rooms. On opening day, pupils and teachers were already exploring the library and the lab.

The hall is used for assemblies, as a dining room and as the exam room for the annual national exams of the secondary school and the primary school next door. The kitchen and store built onto it have two energy-saving stoves: pupils and teachers regularly get breakfast porridge and a good lunch. There is also a latrine block with four doors.

From next year, 100 to 120 new pupils are expected every year. They come from the three surrounding primary schools and have qualified for secondary school with their Primary Leaving Exam.

Most parents here are smallholders living from hand to mouth. They cannot pay for expensive boarding schools far away. The fees in Kisawayi are affordable, include porridge and lunch, and can be paid in instalments or in kind.

As soon as the grant was confirmed, the school board, the church and the foremen from Butiru met on the empty plot right next to Kisawayi Primary School. A local lorry delivered bricks, sand and aggregate; an experienced guard managed and secured the building materials on site.

First came the foundations for the classroom block, the administration building with library and laboratory, and the hall with its kitchen. By mid-May all the ring beams and gables were finished and the roofers could start. At the same time the latrine pit was dug, covered with a concrete slab and the walls built on top.

There were no significant problems or delays during the whole build. The money was spent carefully: neighbours had already fired bricks, for example, which saved on transport.

Sand, aggregate and bricks come from local suppliers who often have no receipts of their own and sign with an initial or a fingerprint. Prices change with the seasons: bricks cost more in the rainy season, river sand in the dry season.

On behalf of the school board, the church, the village community of Kisawayi and the surrounding primary schools, we warmly thank the BINGO Environmental Foundation Lower Saxony and everyone who made this school possible. Young people who have finished primary school can now go on to secondary school – in weatherproof buildings, with a library and a laboratory.