By Our Reporter
Busia Senior Secondary School has been given a new lease of life after the MTN foundation refurbished and handed over a 10 classroom block at the school located on the border town of Busia, Uganda.
Established in 1979, the school which is the oldest in the district has been having a dilapidated structure which hasn’t received any facelift since it was first built over 40 years ago.
“Our intention was to provide a conducive learning environment for the students of Busia secondary school. Our intervention involved replacement of the roofing, windows, doors, floor, plastering and giving the school a new coat of paint. Now it’s conducive enough for the students to be able to learn in it again,” Said Bryan Mbasa, the Senior Manager MTN Uganda Foundation.
Renovated at a cost of Ugx75m, Mbasa said that the foundation is very keen on supporting government in achieving its goals of reaching every Ugandan with quality education among other things.
“We are aware that as a developing nation, government tends to be stretched by all the competing needs. As a foundation, we try to come in to supplement government efforts where we can because we know that it’s through collective responsibility that we can attain our development goals as a nation,” Mbasa said.
Busia Secondary School is just one of many schools around the country that have benefitted from the MTN Foundation interventions. To-date, MTN foundation has intervened in over 50 schools in the country where it has either refurbished or built classrooms, or provided ICT support.
Aggrey Mayende the Headteacher Busia SS said the school had become a risk to the students and thanked MT for coming to the rescue.
“These buildings badly needed renovation, but the district had no budget to immediately restore the school. We are very grateful to MTN for standing with the students of this school and the people of Busia to restore the image of our oldest education institution. Now our students can once again enjoy class in a clean and healthy environment,” Mayende said.
The MTN foundation is an arm of MTN Uganda that is mandated to carry out the Corporate Social responsibility functions of the telecom giant. The telecom company supports communities and government efforts in the areas of health, Education and National Priority areas such as emergency situations like floods, COVID19 among others.
In Eastern Uganda alone, the MTN foundation interventions in the education sector include construction of new classroom blocks and sanitary facilities in Malongo Ark PEAS School and Kityerera PEAS High School in Mayuge district, Toroma PEAS High School in Katakwi and Apealeui PEAS High School in Amuria district.
