Our Dowine Hub

Kwame Imabong, a severely disabled SNAP member in his early 30s, sits everyday under a mango tree by the road to beg. His mother, Kaale, who sells rice at the market, remarks, “there have been many times where Kwame has almost been hit. But there’s nothing he can do because he cannot move out of the way. The road has to be fixed.” A makeshift speed bump, made by concerned villagers has succeeded only in sending motorbikes and minibuses (known as trotros) skywards as they fly past. Kwame’s wheelchair is unmotorised which means getting into town is another uphill struggle. He has to find someone to take him on a trip that can take hours, which then comes at a price to him and his mother. While we’re taking steps to secure Kwame a wheelchair that will afford him greater independence, there’s little we can do about the road he travels on. Over the years, the crossroads at Dowine has come to reflect its difficult position as a community; itself at an intersection between the old world and the new, it needs support to pave a steady way forward and realise its potential.

Dowine JHS is doing everything to turn this around and headteacher, John Bosco, is creating a learning environment that is inclusive and engaging. But nothing is ever easy. He built a computer room to prepare for the delivery of laptops, only for the dimensions of the room to be rejected by the authorities and the availability of PCs dry up. Then, he secured textbooks for the new curriculum, only to receive no training or explanation on its content. Laughing, Bosco says, “some of the students know more about the topics than the teachers! The opposite happened at the primary school; teachers received the training, but not the textbooks!”

Where it can be, however, the school leadership is proactive and driving change. Students recently produced their own-brand ‘Dowine JHS Liquid Soap’, tying together chemistry and hygiene-awareness. They can take up an instrument thanks to a music room equipped with a traditional xylophone and trumpets. The teachers are holding an end-of-year awards ceremony for pupils’ achievements and the leadership is even applying for funding for an on-site clinic to fill a former school building next door. Headteacher, local assemblyman, and most importantly, a role model in the community, John Bosco lives up to his saintly namesake as a patron for local schoolchildren. Yet by his own admission, there’s only so much one individual can do: “at the end of the day”, he says, “it’s the parents who sleep in a house with the students, not the teachers.”