Pabo Secondary School was founded in 1980 by the Ugandan government and was displaced because of the war in 1996. In 1998, Pabo’s 561 students and 23 staff members were able to return to the original site. Regrettably, there have been student abductions since the school was opened. The largest IDP camp in northern Uganda, Pabo IDP camp, is near the school and is home to 64,000 people. All of Pabo’s students live in that camp and walk two miles to class daily. Prior to the conflict, Pabo was a boarding school but now the school is unable to allow students to live on campus. Many of the students are formerly abducted LRA soldiers, orphans, child mothers, and several suffer from HIV/ skin diseases. AIDS. The average class size is 65, yet the existing classrooms are only built to hold 44. Malaria is growing more and more common among Pabo students and many already have it.

For its 561 students, Pabo had only seven classrooms, all of which were in ill repair with one borehole and three latrines. We have been able to construct three furnished dual classroom blocks with rainwater harvesting systems integrated into the roof structures. A new six-stance latrine for the female students has been completed, along with hand washing facilities. As Pabo is not on the national power grid, we added a generator that powers every building on the campus.

We have supplied a limited quantity of core texts in the main compulsory subjects and are pleased to continue to assist in teacher training and support by providing leadership, school development planning, monitoring and evaluation, psychosocial support, financial management and planning, record keeping, and computer literacy trainings.

Plans for the near future include a fully furnished laboratory block. Due to the large financial commitment, this project will be phased using Round III money to complete the core structure of the building and pending Round IV funds to complete and furnish it. We plan to break ground soon, completing Phase 1 before the end of the year. Pabo will also continue to benefit from the support of teacher training, supply of scholastic materials and sport equipment and the new emotional literacy program being implemented on a pilot basis in select S4S partner schools.