How a Community-Powered Approach is Closing the Gap for Learners in Eastern Uganda

Rayan’s Story

Rayan Ngobi is a twelve-year-old from Bugweri District, a district new to Building Tomorrow (BT)’s Roots to Rise (R2R) foundational learning program in 2024. When Rayan’s teacher at Bulyansime Primary School, Gerard, noticed a troubling decline in Rayan’s performance, he grew concerned about the student’s academic future. Rayan struggled with spelling, sentence construction, multiplication, and division. Recognizing the challenges and inspired by Rayan’s love for learning, Gerard, an R2R-trained teacher, collaborated with BT Fellow Ronald to enroll him in an R2R school camp.

Ronald was one of 200 BT Fellows in 2024, and one of 25 Fellows supported by the Hempel Foundation as part of a project covering the five Eastern Ugandan districts of Bugiri, Bugweri, Kaliro, Jinja, and Kamuli. The Hempel Foundation’s support enabled the work of five Fellows in each district in 2024, with those in Jinja and Kamuli completing their terms at the end of 2024, while those in Bugiri, Bugweri, and Kaliro helped kick off Building Tomorrow programming in these areas for the first time and will remain through 2025. In this way, the project helped BT increase its geographic footprint while contributing to a record-breaking year of reach, with 283,862 learners like Rayan impacted across BT’s 22 total districts of operation.

For Rayan, his experience in R2R increased his motivation to attend school and has benefited his performance in class. After 40 hours of R2R instruction, he was able to advance from the lowest level of literacy to being able to read words and paragraphs, and in terms of numeracy, he can now solve double-digit math problems with ease. Such is the goal for all BT learners, to enhance their literacy and numeracy skills, reaching a level where they can thrive academically. In achieving these goals, BT’s comprehensive, community-powered approach to education enables children like Rayan to dream bigger, enhancing the possibility of fulfilling careers and healthier lives.

The Hempel Foundation’s Impact

Through the Hempel Foundation project, 37,052 learners participated in R2R programming in 2024. Among those completing a camp, 90% advanced at least one level in literacy or numeracy, like Rayan. Furthermore, 63% of learners achieved at least the minimum proficiency level for their grade in literacy and numeracy by the end of their camp, remarkable gains compared to only 6-7% at baseline.

These feats were achieved by Community Education Teams of BT Fellows, trained teachers, and trained Community Education Volunteers (CEVs) across 100 schools and around 400 communities in rural Uganda. CEVs are passionate community members recruited and trained by Fellows to support education, and it was CEV-led community-based camps that reached about 70% of project participants in 2024.

Buy-in from Local Government

Beyond the numbers, the BT-Hempel Foundation project has expanded R2R to meet the growing need for remedial education across Uganda and represents a commitment by BT to grow its work in the Eastern and Northern regions of the country, where foundational learning rates remain comparatively low. In Bugiri, Bugweri, and Kaliro, where BT came for the first time in 2024, officials have embraced BT’s mission and become strong advocates for R2R. Nkwanga Meddie, the District Inspector of Schools in Bugiri, shared his enthusiasm: “As a local government, we are very happy with the Roots to Rise program. We hope more children will improve their reading, writing, and basic math skills. The teachers trained by Building Tomorrow and the Community Education Volunteers have been instrumental in teaching and encouraging parents to send their children back to school.”

The BT-Hempel Foundation project will continue through 2027, reaching more learners like Rayan through R2R while contributing to BT’s organizational goal of reaching over 350,000 learners in 2025! In addition to this direct implementation, the project aims to bolster education systems as well, supporting officials like Meddie in the hopes that the government can ultimately pick up BT’s CEV and R2R programs themselves.