On 10th February 2014, Empowered Leaders Academy opened its doors to the community of Zirobwe. Exactly 429 eager students flooded the compound anxiously waiting for the first day at their new school.
For over 6 years a primary school operated in the village of Nawanbago in Zirobwe. Many students attended school in this rural village. However, over the past year, management of the school began to deteriorate. School fees payments were mismanaged and teachers went months without being paid. Eventually, teachers stopped coming to class and students would just come to play in the schoolyard or sit in class and chat.
We said enough was enough and pulled all the children we sponsored in that school out and sent them to another neighboring school, though not close to their homes.
In November of last year, the owner of the school approached us offering to sell the school. He knew he could not manage the school properly.
We had a vision to build a quality primary school on the Empower a Child center’s land in Zirobwe and now we had an opportunity to buy a complete primary school adjacent to our land.
God’s favor was upon us as we raised $42,000, 60% of the purchase price, in only 3 weeks.
In December at the “Hand Over Ceremony”, Wilson Kabeera announced the community children could come back to their school. Parents and children were overjoyed to have a fully functioning primary school back in their community.
This month we completed the balance owed on the school, thanks to your generous donations. Students from Nursery school to primary 7 have been attending classes with a qualified teacher in each classroom every day for a little over a month.
Students are so eager to learn and proud of their new school, they start coming into the compound an hour before class even begins.
We look forward to touching the lives of the children, families, teachers, and staff with the love of Christ at Empowered Leaders Academy over the next year.