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Building Change in Uganda: An HYT Update
This Giving Tuesday (and the always), Haileybury is raising funds and awareness for our primary charitable initiatives. One such cause is Haileybury Youth Trust (HYT), a longstanding and celebrated charity that trains Africa’s most marginalised people in climate-friendly construction and builds schools, homes and water tanks.
Last summer, Deputy Head (Cocurricular) Angus Head travelled to Uganda to learn more about HYT and to see the impact of the charity’s work in the village communities both in the north and the south of the country.
After a short stop in Jinja—where the charity’s HQ is based and where the first HYT schools were built—Mr Head made the journey north to Bidibidi Refugee settlement, among the largest settlements of its type in Africa. It is in Bidibidi where the majority of the charity’s work now takes place. Using a sustainable interlocking brick made from compressed earth, HYT builds schools, rainwater tanks and latrines in one of the poorest parts of Africa. The charity also trains young men and women, providing them with employment, skills and qualifications in construction.
Mr Head explained that the visit had opened his eyes to the tremendous need for water, sanitation, education and jobs in the country, and to the enormous impact that providing them has on the lives of so many Ugandan families.
Haileybury is continuing to raise the profile of HYT, partnering with the Charity Prefects on fundraising initiatives, while also developing links between school activities and the charity’s work in Uganda. For instance, the Engineering Society, the Community Action Group and the Sustainability Group are all developing ideas for collaborative projects with HYT schools.
17 pupils will be able to learn more about the charity’s work first hand and visit the beautiful country of Uganda next summer on the first HYT trip to Africa in five years.