The school is located very close to the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, between Nkuringo and Rushaga visitor centres, about 1 km to Nyabaremura briefing point for mountain gorilla tracking. One of the main goals is to offer the Batwa and their children education, including them in the local community. Before it became a national park, the Batwa used to live within Bwindi, and were known as “the
keepers for the forest.” They survived by hunting small game and gathering of plants and fruits in the rain forest. When Bwindi became a national park in 1992, the Batwa were evicted from the forest. Today they live a begging life and spend most of their time working for very low pay, and spend their money on sackets of local gin, even bringing their children to local bars. The idea of the school is to offer the children a formal education, hopefully breaking the cycle. We also want to help educate children of poor families in the community who are unable to pay school-fees to the local private schools. Unfortunately, the public schools in this area are located some distance away, making it difficult for the children to attend, especially during the rainy season when the roads overflow making them impassable for the young children. In the future we hope to add a boarding section. We also wish to offer educational lessons to adults, mainly elderly in the Batwa community.
