[July 18, 2011] Schools Get Desks for Refugee Pupils Tweet Jul 18, 2011 (The Monitor/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) -- Two Kampala schools have received 140 desks from a humanitarian organisation, after an influx of refugee learners Inter-Aid Uganda, which is involved in projects geared towards the improvement of livelihoods of disadvantaged people in rural and urban areas, offered the desks to Old Kampala Primary School and Nakivubo Blue Primary School on July 14. Inter-Aid's programme assistant, Mr Patrick Arinaitwe, said the desks were given in appreciation of schools that have accepted refugees as part of their community. Nakivubo Blue accommodates over 250 refugee pupils from Somalia, DR Congo, Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Rwanda. Head teacher, Mr Kizza Lwanga, while accepting the donation, said furniture is a major challenge in his school, which had only 300 weak desks made from builders timber remains. They were given to the school by the neighbouring community, but he says they have been of poor quality and not enough for 1,500 pupils. Mr Arinaitwe said Inter-Aid chose furniture because of increased enrollment of students in government-sponsored schools. Furniture in Kampala schools was initially provided by Kampala City Council, but according to Mr Lwanga, ever since education taxes were scrapped, the school has found it difficult to get furniture. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]