Monday, 4 May 2009
Rushmere Shopping Centre held an Africa Day on Saturday, 25th April 2009. All donations are being utilised to boost the centre's African Schools Project. The day was comprised of authentic African music, a barbeque and an African crafts sale to promote the advertisement and funding for the project.
The Centre has invested £200,000 to fund the construction of a primary school in Kibaale. All donations made by shoppers will be spent directly on educational supplies such as uniforms, classroom materials, teaching equipment and learning resources. Donations from the public will be matched by Rushmere. As well as the financial input from the shopping centre, over 25 volunteers from among management and retailers at Rushmere will travel to Uganda for a week at the beginning of June, donating in total well over 1,500 volunteer hours.
The Rushmere volunteers will make the 10,000 mile round trip to lead a week-long building blitz. Their goal will be to help the local community set up a strong support structure for the school, as well as to promote sustainable development in aspects of village life such as sanitation, farming and selling locally grown produce. Once complete, the school will teach up to 400 pupils and will have a support structure in place staffed by trained teachers and a principal who (for the first time in the local area) will oversee the delivery of an official curriculum. A Parent Teacher Association scheme is also planned and an education programme will be put in place to monitor educational standards.