Last month, after more than 40 years as liaison officer for Terre Sans Frontières (TSF) in Uganda, Brother Francis Byarugaba retired. He leaves behind an important legacy: the continuity of TSF in education in the country.

The origins of intervention

In the early 1980s, TSF began its operations on the African continent, in the region north of Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

At the time, many missionaries made the regular Canada-Zaire trip to a region that was not easily accessible.

After the creation of Avions Sans Frontières by TSF, it turned out that going via Uganda was simpler.

Added to this was the opportunity to support the Brothers of Christian Instruction (FIC) in Uganda.

It was at this point that TSF made its presence in the country official.

The first TSF agent was hired in Uganda in 1985. Brother Francis Byarugaba became the contact person in the country.

Having retired last March, Brother Francis Byarugaba leaves behind an association of schools that is now autonomous, and which has succeeded in improving the quality of education in the region.

To the rescue of education

A decade after their arrival in the country, in 1995, the FIC, the Daughters of Mary and TSF founded the Uganda Association of Private and Integrated Schools (UPISA).
 
Brother Francis was the driving force behind the creation of UPISA, an association of 8 schools enabling parents to send children who could not attend state schools to school by giving them access to quality education.

In 1997, universal primary education was not available to everyone. Many young children of school age were therefore unable to attend school.

With financial assistance from sources such as TSF, the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the Roncalli Foundation and local contributions, the schools that were members of the association were able to considerably improve the quality of teaching and the performance of their schools.
 
In this project, as elsewhere, TSF has established a vision of sharing.
 
This association enables teachers to be distributed and organised, material to be shared between member establishments and joint examinations to be set in order to fill existing gaps.

According to Brother Francis: “Of all the projects supported by TSF in Uganda, UPISA is the liveliest and most active with 12 schools and a large number of students” today.

Indeed, even though TSF has not been actively involved in Uganda since 2011, this network is still alive and has finally become autonomous.
 
UPISA continues to work with local partners. Built on an exchange committee model, decisions taken by the association include all partners and member schools.

Sound governance has been established through Brother Francis, who was the executive secretary of the committee during his time as TSF agent.

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TSF is very grateful for the work of Brother Francis Byarugaba in the country during his last 39 years as an agent of our organisation.