By Eriah Lule
Walk around the University premises every morning, you won’t fail to take a glance of toddlers smartly dressed in uniforms designed in the Uganda Christian University (UCU) colors heading towards the Technology Park.
Oh yes!!, it’s the Kids Day Care Center UCU , a kindergarten school that was established by the staff (mothers) of the University and parents around the community to take care of their children, running away from house helps who had groomed a habit of psychologically and physically hurting these young children at home.
In 2009, parents organized themselves and talked to the University administration led by the then Vice Chancellor Rev.Professor Stephen Noll to establish a kindergaten .
According to Deborah Mugawe the Principle of the School, as UCU is marking 25-years of its operation, the school will also be making 13 years. “Our first class is currently around senior three, we have also grown and groomed, ’’she said.
She added that parents organized themselves and got care takers (teachers) and ran the school by themselves which indeed proved right, the school still stands.
Because of her motherly love towards young children, the then vice chancellor’s wife Mrs. Peggy Noll established a children’s Library just below the University’s Multi-purpose Hall Nkoyoyo.
It was equipped with children and Christian literature that would help to groom these toddlers in their learning and also on UCU core values of Christ-centeredness, Diligence, Integrity, Servant hood and Stewardship.
Many members from the community took keen interest in the school. They knew the school from former stakeholders, university students or staff members. This was a great opportunity for the school to establish firm roots that have helped to see such a dream spring lively to this day.
Annet Mugisa a mother of 4, a parent from the community (Nabuti Village – Mukono Central Division) heard of the school’s good tidings from her neighbor who was a staff in the Dining Hall, she has educated her children at the school since 2013.
“I couldn’t miss an opportunity for my little children study in a university, this is like grooming them so as to study and join the university,” she said. “With UCU I didn’t think twice due to its values and Christian centeredness, I was sure my babies were in the right hands.”
According to Mrs. Mugawe the school admits toddlers from one year to five years; children are taught classroom and outside classroom activities like prayer, bible study, culture and many more.
Like its mother institution and other schools country wide, the school was hit and affected by the covid-19 pandemic. “Due to the pandemic many parents were laid off from work, more especially those working at UCU and were the school’s largest customers,” Mrs. Mugawe said. “Many of our students have not returned since their parents were laid off from work.”
The school currently has 33 children compared to the over 50 children it used to have before the pandemic hit.
