Greenacres Education Trust

Bombo

Bombo is a rural town located 21 miles north of Kampala on Kampala/Masindi highway towards Southern Sudan and North East Congo.

The town is formerly HQ's for the 4th Kings African Rifle during the world war. The inhabitants predominantly descendants of retired world war veterans of the 4th Kings African Rifle regiment after the world war ended.

The veterans were resettled on the outskirts of their former barracks. Given the nature of previous employment, failure to train them for public life and reintegration to civilian life, they lacked professional skills, thus, encountering low and unsustainable employment after service and resorting to new trades of self employment, small-scale businesses and subsistence farming that did not provide sustainable income and a quality of life.

Civil strife and political conflicts in the 70’s - 80’s destroyed the few existing physical infrastructures, human resource and income generating establishments that were active. The effects of HIV/Aids prevalence in the region took its toll and did not spare the most active and productive members in almost every family and leaving behind dependents without adults to provide.

The above factors and shortage of sustainable income, caused rural - urban immigration of good teachers and children lacking firm foundation to develop their abilities to attaining reasonable education standards for gaining admission to higher learning and vocational skills institutions. This unstable beginning led to problems that influence chances of continuity to higher levels of education and consequently through generations in their life.

The failure to secure admission would lead to  dropping out of the education system, idleness among the youths, consequently contributing to an alarming level of school dropout and various anti-social as well criminal behaviors,  drug abuse, alcohol addiction, petty theft, teenage pregnancies, domestic violence and arranged childhood marriages. As a result, both young and old alike live with uncertainty, lost hope and resigned to living in generational abject poverty.