In my previous blog post on this topic I had planned for just one part but it ended up taking a turn and I felt I needed to start with talking about influencing the school kids to adopt a discipleship culture. These blog posts came partly as a response to the Twitter posts by Tracy Rubondo that trended June 20th in regards to the mistreatment of the She Budonian. In the previous blog I discussed the issue raised and how the involvement of Old Budonians in the school can make a difference, so in today’s blog post I discuss other ways in which an Old Budonian can be part of the culture of progress already ongoing at the school.
If you are still in University, join the Old Budonians University Chapter. See their Facebook page here (https://www.facebook.com/OldBudoniansUniversityChapter).
Attend the Old Budonian Club (OBC) Annual General Meetings. The next one is August 1st 2020 between 10a – 12p on Zoom. These meetings are essentially the Alumni meetings and provide for a collective effort by former students to contribute positively to the school. One of the objectives of OBC is “To render material, financial, spiritual and other assistance to the school”. These meetings highlight the various activities that the OBC is undertaking at the school. They also provide for accountability of club finances. They are also networking events as the club strives to also organize family oriented activities. The AGMs are attended by both male and female OBs and are a good place to start your ideas for improvements of the school.
Join the OB Club. Once you come to the OB AGMs you can easily join the club as a paying member by paying an annual subscription of UGX 50,000 or a lifetime subscription of UGX 1,000,000. This will go towards supporting various club activities that involve working with the school administration to bring improvements.
The OB Club is involved in various activities with the school administration that include supporting students through scholarships and construction projects among many others. An example of a construction project that it undertook was the construction of the swimming pool.
The OB Club is located at its club house located in Kisaasi and can be contacted using the contacts at https://budonian.com/contact/.
Pay a visit to the school to see how far it has come since you were last there. I remember having been away from Budo for over 10 years and so the picture of Budo that was in my head was different from the one that I found on the ground when I visited. A whole lot of progress had been made thanks to the great stewardship of the school administration headed by Mr Bakka Male. Carrying water for long distances seemed to no longer be an issue due to the presence of piped water closer to the dormitories. The number of dark spots had reduced due to the presence of several solar powered security lights. Several park benches graced the school grounds as points for easy relaxation.
Rally your classmates towards a cause. With this you can set up an appointment with the school administration. The current headmaster Mr. Bakka Male is always welcoming to former students who would like to make a contribution. The cause could be non-monetary whereby your classmates can be involved in talks at the school. In the case of the Tracy’s year, they can seek to help the school boys through talks geared to the topic of communicating with girls. They can also be monetary whereby you and your classmates see an issue, discuss it with the administration, assess the funds required and then ask your classmates to fundraise and implement this project. A neighbor of mine has been very active in rallying her former classmates to work on the Sabaganzi showers and is now involved in the Ghana dormitory renovations.
In case your classmates have not yet come up with a project to rally around, they can always top up to the various OB Club school projects.
Participate in Career Day. Career day is an event in Budo that happens once a year around International Labour day in which companies and individuals are invited to setup booths and talk to the students about various careers that they can aspire to take on. I have personally been involved in setting up a exhibition booth at the school with a computer monitor and a laptop and answered questions from the amazingly curious kids that kept coming to my exhibition table to ask about Software Development.
Hangout at the various Budo Kafundas. OB Kafundas are non formal gatherings held every quarter normally at restaurants around the Greater Kampala region where by OBs can network with other OBs from other years.
For career day, kindly reach out to the OBC or the career master. For the AGMs kindly reach out to the OB Club. For ideas on how your classmates can contribute, kindly set an appointment and visit the headmaster and ask him on how you can help.
With your presence felt in various activities it will be easier to gradually influence the changes you would like to see in the school. I look forward to seeing you at a career day, an AGM or a Kafunda event.
Zero to One 