About Bududa Vocational Institute

Bududa Vocational Institute aims to produce quality students that possess all around skills who can favorably compete in the national job market or start their own businesses.

We first came here in 2003 with and AGLI workshop for building a vocational skills school for AIDS orphans. It was a thrilling experience for all of us and most of the people who worked at that workshop remain involved with this project. There have been work camps every summer since then and August of 2006 the school began. It struggled for a bit, but it had great students and faculty. In 2008 it changed venue and came under my management and has been going from strength to strength since then.

Staff:

BVI has a paid staff of nine – five teachers, a secretary, two cooks and a night watchman. The institute also gets help with teaching and administration from two Peace Corps Volunteers, members of the community and Barbara Wybar.

Barbara Wybar, from Canada and Philadelphia, is the AGLI representative for Bududa and has worked tirelessly to fund and organize all the work that needs to be done around the institute.

Kutosi George is the headmaster and the newest member of BVI. He has been teaching in the Mbale and Bududa Districts for 31 years. He works with us part time while continuing to teach technical drawing at Bududa Secondary School. He has been married for nineteen years and has eight children.

Ikilai Margaret is our head teacher of our nursery teacher training department. She came to BVI from Nile Vocational Institute in Jinja, one of the best vocational institutes in Uganda. She lives now in the house next to the school with two of our boarding students.

Kotaki Robert is one of the holdover teachers from the former Bududa Hope Technical Institute. He teaches the BCP class while simultaneously working on getting his own diploma. He also works as the bursar, buyer and principle advisor to Barbara at the institute.

Nambulwala Annet is the second nursery teacher training teacher and is also from the former institute.

Apio Anna, our tailoring teacher, also came to Bududa Vocational Institute from the Nile Vocational Institute. She is a diploma holder with years of experience and stays close to school with her two twins and a babysitter.

Nabulwala Robinah is the institute’s secretary and helps both with BVI and the Children of Hope. She is also in charge of the computer classes. She has one child, but also uses part of her salary to pay the school fees for one of the nursery teacher training students, her sister Susan

Wataka Robinah and Makuma Peter are the cooks for BVI. They are the first ones to come in the morning and prepare the break tea and lunch. They make excellent food and are genuinely grateful every time they get their salaries and we are grateful to them for the great work they do.

Mupuyia Samuel is the institute’s night watchman. He was the groundskeeper at the old institute. He is in his mid-sixties and sleeps most of the night with his flashlight and phone. BVI is a strong advocate of peace and refuses to arm the watchman, preferring instead to call the police in case of any incidents.

The Peace Corps Volunteers that help out around the school are Amanda Lowry from New Jersey and Lisandro Torre from Virginia.