Profile
The Community of Mother Maria Regina in Micindo Village, Kahunge Parish, Kamwenge District, Fort-Portal Diocese in Uganda, founded Micindo Mistelbach Millennium School in the year 2000. Fr. Augustine Mugarura is the facilitator. The school serves a population of over thirty thousand (30,500) people. It sits on about fifty acres of land.
In 2017, Father Augustine began serving a two-year assignment to the diocese of Fort Wayne and South Bend, Indiana. He initially served at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Fort Wayne and was then assigned as a visiting associate pastor at Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church in Fort Wayne where he was able to address the congregation for the annual missionary appeal Sunday. The outpouring of support for Father Augustine's Micindo Mistelbach Millennium School in Uganda was inspirational. Then in the summer of 2018 a pair of nuns who helped to run the school came to the U.S. to attend religious education classes at Notre Dame and then stayed for 4 weeks in Fort Wayne to assess the ability for a rotational program between their religious order and the diocese of Fort Wayne - South Bend. While in Fort Wayne, the nuns stayed a week at each of 4 sponsors homes and were entertained daily by a multitude of parishoners from around the Fort Wayne area. Everyone who had contact with the sisters fell in love with their kindness, their humility, and their desire to teach children about God. Later that year, Father Augustine helped to set up the Holy Trinity Association as a U.S. based non-profit to help garner financial support for the Micindo Mistelbach Millenium school in rural Uganda. The Holy Trinity association got off to a slow start due to the loss of several key members and then Covid hit. But in summer of 2021 Father Augustine returned to Fort Wayne for a 2 month visit and reenergized the Holy Trinity Association. This now allows our small non-profit to provide additional financial assistance to the school in Uganda as our way to remotely help evangelize the students attending the Micindo Mistelbach Millenium School.
School Update
Enrollment 2024: Enrollment has increased from 477 students in 2023 to 622 students thanks to donations we have received that have allowed us to build actual classrooms, have an onsite dormitory for distant students, and to hire better qualified teachers from further away. These were some of the factors that had caused our attendance to decline in the past, but we were able to address these problems and our attendance has rebounded thanks to the kindness of people from the United States through the Holy Trinity Association. And more importantly, thanks to these improved conditions, our High School national test scores moved us into fourth place among 20 high schools in our region! This would not have been possible without your help and we are so appreciative of everything you do to help us.
Your kind and generous contributions have allowed us to build a dormitory for younger children with several more planned. We are finishing a small teacher's housing building with separate kitchen so our teachers who come from far away have a place to stay during the week on the school grounds. We occasionally supplement the teachers' salaries when school tuition does not cover the costs for the teachers. We impart higher moral teachings on the children to help reduce early pregnancies (a problem in poor rural areas) as well as encourage a better life through education so that the children and families have hope and do not become stuck in a poverty-based cycle of despair. We pray that at some point we could subsidize tuition costs through a family of support from the U. S. that would encourage more children to attend school with less of a financial burden.
This year we have 145 pupils in the Nursery school; 360 pupils in the Primary school; and 117 pupils in the Secondary, together 622 students. We continue to be determined, hardworking and prayerful. We currently have four nuns at the school as well as lay teachers. Sister Jacinta Ocama Alum is the head of the school. Sister Lydia Nyongesa works in the secondary school; Sister Ann Martine Moraa works in the primary school; and Sister Glory Amana leads the nursery/preprimary school. The sisters and the lay teachers send you prayers and thanks for all you have done for us.
In 2017, Father Augustine began serving a two-year assignment to the diocese of Fort Wayne and South Bend, Indiana. He initially served at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Fort Wayne and was then assigned as a visiting associate pastor at Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church in Fort Wayne where he was able to address the congregation for the annual missionary appeal Sunday. The outpouring of support for Father Augustine's Micindo Mistelbach Millennium School in Uganda was inspirational. Then in the summer of 2018 a pair of nuns who helped to run the school came to the U.S. to attend religious education classes at Notre Dame and then stayed for 4 weeks in Fort Wayne to assess the ability for a rotational program between their religious order and the diocese of Fort Wayne - South Bend. While in Fort Wayne, the nuns stayed a week at each of 4 sponsors homes and were entertained daily by a multitude of parishoners from around the Fort Wayne area. Everyone who had contact with the sisters fell in love with their kindness, their humility, and their desire to teach children about God. Later that year, Father Augustine helped to set up the Holy Trinity Association as a U.S. based non-profit to help garner financial support for the Micindo Mistelbach Millenium school in rural Uganda. The Holy Trinity association got off to a slow start due to the loss of several key members and then Covid hit. But in summer of 2021 Father Augustine returned to Fort Wayne for a 2 month visit and reenergized the Holy Trinity Association. This now allows our small non-profit to provide additional financial assistance to the school in Uganda as our way to remotely help evangelize the students attending the Micindo Mistelbach Millenium School.
School Update
Enrollment 2024: Enrollment has increased from 477 students in 2023 to 622 students thanks to donations we have received that have allowed us to build actual classrooms, have an onsite dormitory for distant students, and to hire better qualified teachers from further away. These were some of the factors that had caused our attendance to decline in the past, but we were able to address these problems and our attendance has rebounded thanks to the kindness of people from the United States through the Holy Trinity Association. And more importantly, thanks to these improved conditions, our High School national test scores moved us into fourth place among 20 high schools in our region! This would not have been possible without your help and we are so appreciative of everything you do to help us.
Your kind and generous contributions have allowed us to build a dormitory for younger children with several more planned. We are finishing a small teacher's housing building with separate kitchen so our teachers who come from far away have a place to stay during the week on the school grounds. We occasionally supplement the teachers' salaries when school tuition does not cover the costs for the teachers. We impart higher moral teachings on the children to help reduce early pregnancies (a problem in poor rural areas) as well as encourage a better life through education so that the children and families have hope and do not become stuck in a poverty-based cycle of despair. We pray that at some point we could subsidize tuition costs through a family of support from the U. S. that would encourage more children to attend school with less of a financial burden.
This year we have 145 pupils in the Nursery school; 360 pupils in the Primary school; and 117 pupils in the Secondary, together 622 students. We continue to be determined, hardworking and prayerful. We currently have four nuns at the school as well as lay teachers. Sister Jacinta Ocama Alum is the head of the school. Sister Lydia Nyongesa works in the secondary school; Sister Ann Martine Moraa works in the primary school; and Sister Glory Amana leads the nursery/preprimary school. The sisters and the lay teachers send you prayers and thanks for all you have done for us.
SCHOOL NEEDS
Our needs are many and range from constructing a multipurpose hall and concrete floors in our buildings to help with tuition, desks, chairs, schoolbooks, electricity, a small 4x4 vehicle for daily supply trips and even teacher salaries. Previously our prayers were answered as we now have a well providing clean drinking water and a driveable minivan thanks to our many kind friends in the U.S. Our families give what they can, but that usually means primarily labor as the funds to purchase needed items are hard to come by. We, together with the children, are very grateful for what you do for us.
Micindo Mistelbach Millennium School continues to be a seedbed of Catholic faith. We graciously ask for your help to provide us with the means to evangelize these joyful children through your kind donations and we welcome anyone wanting to visit us in the future so you can see how far your generosity has gone.
Here are just some of the needs and dreams that we have:
NEEDS
1. Bringing Electricity to School - The closest main power lines are 2 miles from the school. Currently we have very limited solar power in one or two buildings. Electricity would help our cause so much since we could light our dark classrooms and teacher housing, charge teacher cell phones, and make better technology available such as laptop computers. The cost to bring the electric lines to our school is about $6,000.
UPDATE 2025: We have received generous donations from our Ft. Wayne area benefactors through the Holy Trinity Association to help pay for electricity to be brought to the school. As good stewards of these kind donations we are also working with the Uganda government and national electric company to try and receive a grant under the rural electrification project so that our costs to obtain electricity might be significantly reduced. We are happy to report that we now have an electrification plan from the Ministry of Energy that can be viewed in the "pictures" section of this website. What a blessing this will be for us! Exactly when the plan will be put in place we do not know, but we have been told by our regional elected officials that the school electrification project has been put into the governmental budget for 2025 and an electrical survey engineer has been looking around on the school grounds. Praise God!
2. Purchase a Toyota 4x4 SUV - We are in great need for a small high-clearance 4-wheel drive vehicle for day-to-day trips. Our current minivan is good for bringing students and teachers from far away a couple times a week. When we use the minivan for day-to-day trips to pick up local children, visit the parish 12 miles away, or to get food and supplies we incur high maintenance and fuel costs because our roads are very bad with potholes, rocks, and deep ridges. Therefore a small used Toyota 4x4 with extra-high ground clearance and 4-wheel drive would be a great improvement for our day-to-day trip requirements. The cost in Uganda for a reliable used Toyota Rav4 is $20,000 - $30,000. Any help to allow us to secure such a vehicle would be greatly appreciated.
UPDATE 2025: Our original minivan has become less useable and in high demand for transportation of students, supplies and teachers. As such we had to purchase another minivan to address the growing demand and lack of reliability of the older minivan. This was only possible through the kind donations from our stateside benefactors. Ideally of course we would still need a Toyota 4x4 to reduce the wear and tear on our minivans from the unimproved roads.
3. Constructing a Multipurpose Hall - The current examination room cannot accommodate the number of students we have. The standards set by the Uganda National Examination Board require a bigger hall. This has sometimes caused low admission of students since they cannot all be accommodated. For the practical science examinations, one class must do the same examination in shifts with the many risks that accompany such an arrangement. A larger multi-purpose room would give us more testing space, allow us to increase enrollment, do examinations in the proper time and carry out other activities in the hall outside the examination timetable; like conferences, meals, and recreation. We will make the building blocks. We just need help constructing the building safely. The cost to build this Multipurpose Hall is $14,000.
4. School Furniture and Supplies - We have the need for desks and chairs so the children do not have to sit on the floor. Teacher lesson books are sorely needed as are schoolbooks, supplies, and even toys for our preschool children. We thought we could ship donated items from the U.S. but the shipping costs were prohibitive so we must purchase these items locally.
5. Assistance with Teacher Salaries - Since we live in a rural area, the availability of qualified teachers is limited. We have to get teachers who live far away and who have to stay on the school grounds during the week away from their families. These dedicated teachers received very little compensation for their sacrifice of love for these children. If we are to keep these teachers we must be able to pay them more, but still much below the going rate for teachers. Having the ability to pay these teachers a little more to teach our 622 students is a pressing need and would require $27,800 dollars per year.
6. Completing Classrooms - We made bricks, collected stones, raised the walls and roofed them. We are unable to plaster and put a concrete floor in all of them as you can see in pictures below. The floors in some of our classrooms are soil/dust and walls are rough plain bricks. Despite all that the children happily use them to learn something about nature and God. Any amount received to help us complete these buildings is greatly appreciated.
7. Adding Elementary Classrooms - Many of our elementary aged school children have classes outside on the ground as we do not have enough buildings for everyone. We really need to add classrooms for these children so that they can have a better learning environment. Please note that thanks to your generous donations and support we have now completed three new classrooms in the Summer of 2022. Pictures and video are in the "Pictures" section of the website. All that remains is to complete the floors and walls on the inside and to get some chairs and desks for the students in these new buildings.
UPDATE 2023: Thanks to your kind and generous donations we have been able to build another 3 classrooms for our students. We make our own bricks from the dirt/clay soil and get help from parents to construct new buildings (see pictures in "Pictures" section of this website.) We can't thank you enough for this blessing!
DREAMS
1. Dormitories for Students - Here in rural Uganda, many children wanting to attend our school come from far away or do not have a conducive study environment at home. We dream of having 2 dormitories for boys and 2 dormitories for girls to aid in the learning opportunities for these children. Thanks to your generosity we have completed 1 dormitory in early 2023! Each remaining complete dormitory (kitchenette, latrine, beds, water tanks, etc.) would cost $25,000 for a total of $75,000.
UPDATE 2024: We have one operational dormitory and as a result our attendance has increased. We pray for the ability to build three more so that we can reach more children and offer them the ability to learn more and to grow closer to God.
2. Resident Staff Housing - The residences of the teachers are inadequate. Our teachers come from very far away because we are in a rural area and there are no qualified teachers nearby. That means the teachers live at the school and we need to provide a conducive place for them to live during the week and to prepare their lessons. This includes electricity for lights and charging cell phones and laptops. One group residence or five individual residences are needed. The cost for each residence is $13,000, for a total of $65,000.
UPDATE 2024: Thanks to your kind generosity we are almost done with the teachers' residence. This will provide a 14x12 foot room for four teachers to stay in during the week and a separate kitchen for them to use. Completion of the first staff housing is planned for January 2025.
3. Toyota 17 passenger Mini-Bus to Transport Students and Teachers - Our one school minivan is greatly appreciated, but has become less useable and we need to pick up children and teachers from far away to bring them to the school. This minibus would be used for picking up students and teachers, who come from far away and live at the school during the week, while the minivan can be used for smaller local commutes and picking up supplies. The cost for a Toyota minibus is $112,000.
4. Modern Classrooms - It is our dream to provide a modern classroom to our students to give them a better opportunity to succeed and to be productive in the modern world. Each modern equipped classroom would cost $16,000 and 20 classrooms are needed for a total of $320,000. Yes, this is a huge dream!
5. Student Desks - Our dream is to have our students sitting at a desk rather than on the ground or on rickety benches. A good long-lasting desk costs $140 and 700 desks would be $98,000. However, we realize that maybe sturdy tables and good chairs are good enough and so $48,000 for tables and chairs are a more realistic dream for us.
We are so appreciative of anything we can get, whether as material donations or the money to buy things we need. Our goal is to provide the best Catholic education we can to an increasing number of students. Your help allows this evangelization to occur. As we mentioned above, we will provide the people, we just need your donation help to enable us to do God's work in rural Uganda. God bless you.
Micindo Mistelbach Millennium School continues to be a seedbed of Catholic faith. We graciously ask for your help to provide us with the means to evangelize these joyful children through your kind donations and we welcome anyone wanting to visit us in the future so you can see how far your generosity has gone.
Here are just some of the needs and dreams that we have:
NEEDS
1. Bringing Electricity to School - The closest main power lines are 2 miles from the school. Currently we have very limited solar power in one or two buildings. Electricity would help our cause so much since we could light our dark classrooms and teacher housing, charge teacher cell phones, and make better technology available such as laptop computers. The cost to bring the electric lines to our school is about $6,000.
UPDATE 2025: We have received generous donations from our Ft. Wayne area benefactors through the Holy Trinity Association to help pay for electricity to be brought to the school. As good stewards of these kind donations we are also working with the Uganda government and national electric company to try and receive a grant under the rural electrification project so that our costs to obtain electricity might be significantly reduced. We are happy to report that we now have an electrification plan from the Ministry of Energy that can be viewed in the "pictures" section of this website. What a blessing this will be for us! Exactly when the plan will be put in place we do not know, but we have been told by our regional elected officials that the school electrification project has been put into the governmental budget for 2025 and an electrical survey engineer has been looking around on the school grounds. Praise God!
2. Purchase a Toyota 4x4 SUV - We are in great need for a small high-clearance 4-wheel drive vehicle for day-to-day trips. Our current minivan is good for bringing students and teachers from far away a couple times a week. When we use the minivan for day-to-day trips to pick up local children, visit the parish 12 miles away, or to get food and supplies we incur high maintenance and fuel costs because our roads are very bad with potholes, rocks, and deep ridges. Therefore a small used Toyota 4x4 with extra-high ground clearance and 4-wheel drive would be a great improvement for our day-to-day trip requirements. The cost in Uganda for a reliable used Toyota Rav4 is $20,000 - $30,000. Any help to allow us to secure such a vehicle would be greatly appreciated.
UPDATE 2025: Our original minivan has become less useable and in high demand for transportation of students, supplies and teachers. As such we had to purchase another minivan to address the growing demand and lack of reliability of the older minivan. This was only possible through the kind donations from our stateside benefactors. Ideally of course we would still need a Toyota 4x4 to reduce the wear and tear on our minivans from the unimproved roads.
3. Constructing a Multipurpose Hall - The current examination room cannot accommodate the number of students we have. The standards set by the Uganda National Examination Board require a bigger hall. This has sometimes caused low admission of students since they cannot all be accommodated. For the practical science examinations, one class must do the same examination in shifts with the many risks that accompany such an arrangement. A larger multi-purpose room would give us more testing space, allow us to increase enrollment, do examinations in the proper time and carry out other activities in the hall outside the examination timetable; like conferences, meals, and recreation. We will make the building blocks. We just need help constructing the building safely. The cost to build this Multipurpose Hall is $14,000.
4. School Furniture and Supplies - We have the need for desks and chairs so the children do not have to sit on the floor. Teacher lesson books are sorely needed as are schoolbooks, supplies, and even toys for our preschool children. We thought we could ship donated items from the U.S. but the shipping costs were prohibitive so we must purchase these items locally.
5. Assistance with Teacher Salaries - Since we live in a rural area, the availability of qualified teachers is limited. We have to get teachers who live far away and who have to stay on the school grounds during the week away from their families. These dedicated teachers received very little compensation for their sacrifice of love for these children. If we are to keep these teachers we must be able to pay them more, but still much below the going rate for teachers. Having the ability to pay these teachers a little more to teach our 622 students is a pressing need and would require $27,800 dollars per year.
6. Completing Classrooms - We made bricks, collected stones, raised the walls and roofed them. We are unable to plaster and put a concrete floor in all of them as you can see in pictures below. The floors in some of our classrooms are soil/dust and walls are rough plain bricks. Despite all that the children happily use them to learn something about nature and God. Any amount received to help us complete these buildings is greatly appreciated.
7. Adding Elementary Classrooms - Many of our elementary aged school children have classes outside on the ground as we do not have enough buildings for everyone. We really need to add classrooms for these children so that they can have a better learning environment. Please note that thanks to your generous donations and support we have now completed three new classrooms in the Summer of 2022. Pictures and video are in the "Pictures" section of the website. All that remains is to complete the floors and walls on the inside and to get some chairs and desks for the students in these new buildings.
UPDATE 2023: Thanks to your kind and generous donations we have been able to build another 3 classrooms for our students. We make our own bricks from the dirt/clay soil and get help from parents to construct new buildings (see pictures in "Pictures" section of this website.) We can't thank you enough for this blessing!
DREAMS
1. Dormitories for Students - Here in rural Uganda, many children wanting to attend our school come from far away or do not have a conducive study environment at home. We dream of having 2 dormitories for boys and 2 dormitories for girls to aid in the learning opportunities for these children. Thanks to your generosity we have completed 1 dormitory in early 2023! Each remaining complete dormitory (kitchenette, latrine, beds, water tanks, etc.) would cost $25,000 for a total of $75,000.
UPDATE 2024: We have one operational dormitory and as a result our attendance has increased. We pray for the ability to build three more so that we can reach more children and offer them the ability to learn more and to grow closer to God.
2. Resident Staff Housing - The residences of the teachers are inadequate. Our teachers come from very far away because we are in a rural area and there are no qualified teachers nearby. That means the teachers live at the school and we need to provide a conducive place for them to live during the week and to prepare their lessons. This includes electricity for lights and charging cell phones and laptops. One group residence or five individual residences are needed. The cost for each residence is $13,000, for a total of $65,000.
UPDATE 2024: Thanks to your kind generosity we are almost done with the teachers' residence. This will provide a 14x12 foot room for four teachers to stay in during the week and a separate kitchen for them to use. Completion of the first staff housing is planned for January 2025.
3. Toyota 17 passenger Mini-Bus to Transport Students and Teachers - Our one school minivan is greatly appreciated, but has become less useable and we need to pick up children and teachers from far away to bring them to the school. This minibus would be used for picking up students and teachers, who come from far away and live at the school during the week, while the minivan can be used for smaller local commutes and picking up supplies. The cost for a Toyota minibus is $112,000.
4. Modern Classrooms - It is our dream to provide a modern classroom to our students to give them a better opportunity to succeed and to be productive in the modern world. Each modern equipped classroom would cost $16,000 and 20 classrooms are needed for a total of $320,000. Yes, this is a huge dream!
5. Student Desks - Our dream is to have our students sitting at a desk rather than on the ground or on rickety benches. A good long-lasting desk costs $140 and 700 desks would be $98,000. However, we realize that maybe sturdy tables and good chairs are good enough and so $48,000 for tables and chairs are a more realistic dream for us.
We are so appreciative of anything we can get, whether as material donations or the money to buy things we need. Our goal is to provide the best Catholic education we can to an increasing number of students. Your help allows this evangelization to occur. As we mentioned above, we will provide the people, we just need your donation help to enable us to do God's work in rural Uganda. God bless you.
|
|
|
|
|
|