Meet Our First Students at PHS!

We are finishing the 2nd week of verifying students for our first class at PHS and discovering that the process is really difficult! Many many applications were not truthful about a child's orphan status (with the problems not just from the families, but also from the village pastors or leaders), other families try to convince us that the child is far worse off than we're inclined to believe. Others have started school recently in the second selection (students are selected for secondary school based on their primary school exams. Those with high scores are chosen first; then, when the schools see how many actually show up, they do a second or even third selection as the year goes on).

One of our conditions is that students must be unable to afford school, so we have to try to determine if the family is "poor enough" or if circumstances really warrant a child attending. There are no official criteria, no guidelines, no real way to determine a family's status. It can be difficult standing in someone's home trying to decide if they are needy enough. Every day we refine our criteria in hopes of being able to make the most objective decision we can. We have about 560 students on our list and we need to choose 120.

We are finding that even those that may have started school really can't afford to be there. The government has recently dropped school fees to 20,000 Tshillings ($16.00) per year to encourage more students to attend. Sounds cheap? It is. But there's more. Schools charge a fee to build a desk and chair (38,000), uniform fees (32,000--each student needs 2), a "cushion" fee (6,000) for whatever miscellaneous needs crop up, and a food fee (50,000). That brings the total up to about 150,000 Tshillngs for the year, in a country where the average income isn't much more than $200 a year. If a school is building more classrooms or requires a guard to watch construction materials additional fees are added in those years (one school added 50,000). These are day schools--boarding schools would be much more. And they are the government schools, which are the cheap ones. Private schools can run up to $1,000 per year. Families scrape up the minimum (borrow a uniform, pay a partial year for food, get someone to build a desk) and wait until they are chased out for lack of payment. Sometimes they can come back, sometimes not. They try to stay as long as they can by paying as little as they need to.

That being said, we are proud to introduce the first 2 students to be accepted into Peace House Secondary School! Meet Johnson Lukumay. We were so impressed by his desire to take advantage of this opportunity. His pastor had arranged for transport to the testing site, but Johnson did not make it on the bus. He went from door to door in his village until he had collected enough money to ride a dalla-dalla (less than 50 cents). Once he arrived at the testing site he was too late to begin testing. His pastor had waited at the site for over 2 hours to see if he could take the test. We told him he would have to come back the next day (luckily we had an extra day scheduled to accommodate the high number of students that had come that day). He arrived the next day on time and ready.

When we visited Johnson's house last week, we learned that he lives with his father and mother. His father is disabled and not able to work. Jouhnson has several younger siblings. They have no farm or animals or work for income. His mother collects greens growing by the side of the road and sells them as best as she can. With younger siblings the cost of living will only increase for this family with no hope for much improvement and no possible way for Johnson to continue his education.

When we visited Happy Joseph's home, things looked different. Her school affirmed that they had paid some funds for food and a desk but nothing more. They were puzzled because they had heard her family had money. Happy told us she was able to borrow her uniform from a friend. We went to her house with her. The house was in a compound with a concrete wall and nice gate. The house was large and clearly indicated that the family had money. Happy's father had disappeared long ago and her mother and younger siblings had died of AIDs. She was living with her "grandmother" (actually probably a sister of her grandmother) who works in a government office. Clearly the family has resources. Except they don't use them for Happy. Other than a place to sleep, she receives nothing, including love or support. Often the only meal is the one she gets at school. She is told often by her "family" that there is no point in spending any money on her as she is no good and will probably die soon anyway. It was difficult to verify her story--if she is caught telling things, she could be kicked out, and the walled yard prevents neighbors from knowing the family well. One large factor that led us to believe her was that the family members all said they did not have a housegirl. A home of that size should have had one or two by custom here. Happy is the housegirl. Although the family does have the means to pay for her education, she is clearly at-risk for not completing school, among other things.

I hesitated to tell these students' stories. One one hand I want people to know the conditions that face so many children here and why PHS can fill such a big void. On the other hand, I worry that by putting forth these children's stories, we are exploiting them, focusing on their desperate situations, a sort of "poverty pornography" that reinforces the image of Africa that is so prevelant in the Western media. The truth is that these students are children of God, as we all are. They are blessed with gifts and talents and have hopes and dreams the way that all students have. Like every other person, they are far more than the poverty and circumstances they are in. We will do well to remember that when we meet them and welcome them to PHS and see them as the blessings and opportunities they are, and be open to all the ways they will enrich our lives.