ETRA – The Story

The story begins with Victoria, a dedicated, newly qualified teacher at Mityana Junior School in Uganda. She had a vision that she should build a school in the rural village where she and her husband Stephen lived. She started to save every penny she could from her salary to buy a pile of bricks each month and they started to construct the first classroom.

In 1993 Rev Alan Bain, vicar of St Philip and St James’ Church in Bath, visited Uganda to see the work of the Send A Cow project, and a pregnant cow was delivered to Victoria and Stephen’s village. Alan returned to his church to share Victoria’s story and very soon the money was given for the first classroom block to be completed and the school was established - Glenburnie Butega School.

The children arrived.
Many were malnourished with only had the clothes on their backs. Many were orphans. Victoria worked on the principle that no child who came to the school seeking education was ever turned away - and this has continued to this day. A mural on the side of the building portrays two children holding hands with the words of Jesus “Let the children come to Me”. Victoria and Stephen knew that education was the only route out of the devastating poverty they saw around them.

Rev Alan Bain arranged for the young people and their youth leaders from his church to visit the school and for Victoria to come to Bath on a teacher exchange with St Philip’s School. This was just the beginning.... St Philip’s School and Monkton Pre Prep School, along with friends and church members started fundraising. This was a project everyone wanted to support! Over the years we have brought Victoria, Stephen and their son Joshua to England on visits, and our supporters have been able to meet them and hear their story firsthand.

Victoria realised very soon that hungry or sick children cannot excel in school. The majority of the children only had a meagre meal at home in the evening so were hungry during the day. She started by providing a mug of milky porridge to every child to start the day. Her first cow was making this possible. As soon as funds allowed she then provided a school lunch. The health of the children quickly improved.

Some of the children had lost parents to the HIV/AIDS epidemic as well as to tropical diseases such as malaria. The prevalence of malnutrition in this community has historically added a massive burden of disease, as it still does in many similar rural communities to this day in Uganda. This project stands as a beacon of hope due to the perseverance of Victoria and Stephen, their friends and supporters. It was a thrilling moment when two supporters from England offered to pay for a nurse to visit regularly, provide medicines and pay for a doctor or hospital visit when needed.

It is a struggle for parents or guardians to feed the children in the school holidays. Victoria and the nurse check each child carefully on their return to school and give extra milk to any who have lost weight or been sick. An increasing number of children stay with Victoria through the holiday as there is no one to care for them in the community.

Money was raised separately by a few people to ensure that Victoria and Stephen’s children were given a good education. Each child then went on to train and develop skills that would enhance the project and enable it to be sustainable. Ananias is trained in tourism, Joshua has a Masters degree in Leadership and Management and a BA in Communication. Tom has a Masters degree in civil engineering and looks after and helps to further develop the buildings. Gertrude is a qualified teacher and assists her mother in developing the school curriculum. Erinah has a degree in business studies.

When a supporter provided the finance to buy a large plot of additional land, Victoria and Stephen were able to create an organic vegetable garden and begin to develop the farm. This has provided a small income, which is used to pay a gardener and maintain the livestock. There are cows, pigs and chickens. As well as the extra food provided, this has invaluable educational benefit...every child leaves school with the knowledge of how to grow vegetables and look after livestock.

Over the years many visitors from England and other countries have been warmly welcomed with wonderful African hospitality. They have brought skills and helped to advance the work as well as giving love and encouragement.   Steve Barrett, director of SolarSense in Bristol, brought solar panels that were installed to provide electricity from the plentiful sunlight available locally. He also has expertise in development and he made sure that there were water tanks collecting rainwater from guttering on the buildings. With some local people he found a source of water that was then pumped using solar energy to the school. He also oversaw the installation of a standpipe at the edge of the site for local people to collect water.

Czech pastor, Daniel Hejzlar, his father and friends from Prague have explored ways they can help in Uganda and made several visits, using their skills to work on the buildings, boost the water supply and Solar power. Young people from the Czech Republic have also visited, helping in school activities and teaching and enjoying being tourists in the national park.

Rev Alan Bain has visited many times, bringing groups over from England and elsewhere. Young people have enjoyed helping with the children, bringing with them supplies of clothes, toys, scholastic materials and sports equipment.

In 2008 the new nursery was built. This was funded by donations given in Anna’s memory from family, friends and staff at the RUH in Bath. Anna had loved her visit to Uganda and ‘Anna’s Nursery’ will always be a very special place. Visitors from England have decorated it and filled it with toys and play equipment, which delight the little ones.

In 2013 we celebrated the opening of our Guest House, funded so generously by John Cumberland. Our Czech friends plastered the walls to a high standard.  We are now able to host visitors very comfortably with en-suite double rooms as well as dormitory style rooms. We are still hoping this will provide income, which will help to pay teachers’ salaries, although at present the pandemic prevents travel. In the meantime the building is being well used as senior girls dormitories, accommodation for the family and a meeting room for church gatherings and local meetings.

In 2017 we were granted charity status. We were so thankful to Andy and Graham for battling through the process. ‘Experience the Real Africa’ ( ETRA) was chosen as our new umbrella name to reflect all aspects of the project and to allow for future growth, but the children will always remain at  the heart of all we do.

In 2020 work has begun on a new classroom block which has taken off really fast thanks to some recent fundraising in the UK (see below for details).  

It is also hoped in the long term that the school will become more self sustaining.

If anyone were to question whether all the work we do is really worth it, we can point them to the hundreds of children who over the years have benefited from their education and the love and nurture they received at Glenburnie Butega School and the contribution they now make to society.

A second school opened!

In 2018, visiting Uganda again, Rev Alan Bain met up with Dorothy Nakalembe and was amazed at her school of over 400 children. Dorothy’s education began at Glenburnie Butega when Victoria took her in as an orphan and her life is now dedicated to educating children and giving them the opportunity that she had, which changed her life.  The school is now thriving and runs on the same principles as Glenburnie with no child ever turned away. 

This school is self-supporting via fees enabling those who are unable to pay to also receive an education. Other ex-pupils that Alan met on his visit are Andrew who is an engineer and Matovu Abass, an electrician. Many of the ex-pupils want to help Victoria to build up Glenburnie Butega as a way of saying thank you for being given such a wonderful start in life and finding faith in God.