The Sserinya Primary School
Project (Uganda)
 The
Ssese Islands Chain is comprised of 84 islands in Lake
Victoria off Uganda’s eastern coastline, a beautiful but
very poor area. One island in particular, Sserinya, was
chosen in 2001 to establish a school for the children of
fisherman from the surrounding islands.
Three years later, in 2004, The Sserinya Primary
School opened its doors with 34 students. One year
later, in 2005, a dedication ceremony was held, and just
recently, in 2007, the school honored its first graduating
class! A remarkable achievement and a momentous occasion for
the teachers and parents, donors, and especially the
students!
 Six years later, The Sserinya Primary School Project
houses one clinic, two staff houses, a block of seven
classrooms with a headmaster’s office, one kitchen and
outside shaded dining area, a water tank with two wood
burning stoves for cooking, and one laptop computer! The
staff numbers 10, composed of teachers, cooks and support
staff, and there are presently 153 pupils enrolled.
Today, the school stands as testament to how one individual,
Paul Mujugumbya, changed and improved the
health and welfare of an indigenous people. It is an
uplifting story of donor generosity, the conviction of
teachers under the most basic of circumstances to educate,
and the impressive determination of the children to learn.
Paul Mujugumbya
 Paul
Mujugumbya, today a happily married man, father of
four, and father to three other parentless children,
lives modestly with his extended family in a home
built on a dirt hill in Kampala. He owns his own
Engineering Firm and lectures at the Makerere
University, while overseeing The Sserinya Primary
School Project, his life long dream, and has come a
long way from the young man who left Uganda in 1980
to further his education.
Back then, at the California State University in
Sacramento, a teaching Professor, Wallace Etterbeek
and his wife, Sally, were asked to serve as Paul’s
host parents while he attended University, and they
soon came to look upon him as their ‘unofficial’
adopted son. Paul was a diligent student who
willingly worked endless odd jobs to help pay for
his education, and though life in California was
comfortable compared to life back home, remained
committed to returning to Uganda.
Paul graduated and returned to Uganda in 1987, as he
had planned all along, with a Masters Degree in
Civil Engineering, and a fervent desire to use his
education and talents to build the school he’d
dreamed of starting for the children of the
surrounding islands that comprise The Ssese Islands
Chain. As a child, Paul himself boarded at one of
the only two schools available at the time and the
school still stands today - two or three rooms
without adequate desks, supplies or writing
materials currently housing 500 students taught by
one headmaster.
With amazing determination and continued funding
from his host parents and their close friends, Dr.
Philip Curtis, a math teacher at UCLA, and his wife,
Dorothy, also a teacher, Paul’s dream became a
reality and construction of The Sserinya Primary
School officially started up in 2001.
The Sserinya Primary School Project
Supporters
 Professor
Wallace Etterbeek and his wife, Sally, along with
Professor Philip Curtis and his wife, Dorothy, and
just a few close family friends, have generously
supported The Sserinya Primary School Project for
the entire six years since its inception in 2001.
Back in 1980, the Etterbeek’s graciously opened
their home to Paul as host parents while he pursued
a degree in civil engineering at the California
State University at Sacramento where Professor
Etterbeek taught. On that first Sunday when they
invited Paul to dinner, they learned of his
commitment to ultimately return home and use his
education to improve the lives of those living on
Sserinya, where he was born and raised, as well as
the surrounding islands that make up The Ssese
Islands chain in Lake Victoria. Paul spent four
years with the Etterbeeks, returning for an
additional two years to complete his Masters, and by
then, both he and the Etterbeeks had come to regard
him as one of the family.
Years after Paul returned home, the Etterbeek’s and
the Curtis’ traveled to Uganda, and were quite
astonished at the rampant, chronic poverty apparent
even in the short drive from the Entebe Airport.
Many areas are still extremely primitive by Western
standards; no electricity, just solar powered
generators, and only outdoor facilities for personal
hygiene. Up until then, they never truly realized,
nor fully understood, even while continuing to
contribute funds and supplies, the insurmountable
obstacles Paul had faced during construction of the
school and the additional facilities.
 After a three hour boat ride to visit Paul’s
birthplace, Sserinya, they were met by the Chief
(Clan Leader) and the villagers who surprised them
with a welcoming ceremony to thank them for helping
Paul acquire an education. On their last evening
back in Kampala, as they sat comfortably on the
front porch of Paul’s modest home, many of the forty
or fifty relatives and friends sitting further down
the hill took time to approach to personally thank
them for giving Paul the opportunity to better
himself, and subsequently their community. It was a
very moving display of gratitude from a people who
had really come to understand and appreciate the
difference Paul and this project has made to their
lives, and the lives of their children.
Because of the Etterbeeks and the Curtis’ and a few
other family members, the children of Paul’s
homeland are getting the benefit of a good education
and a regular health care program that they would
never have received otherwise. They would like to
encourage others to join them in supporting this
very unique project where much still remains to be
accomplished.
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