We’re thrilled that Lew Dickert, principal at Fernwood Elementary in Bothell, WA-known there as Mr D-has joined us in Uganda this year. As we left one particularly challenging little village school, Lew remarked, “There are real heroes everywhere,” yet he also noted that the challenges of teaching are universal-teacher salaries, class size, materials-albeit Uganda’s teachers face those challenges on a grander scale than most in the US.
Beyond the classroom, the schools we visit in Uganda struggle to involve their communities in educating children, although we certainly see some amazing examples of it. That same little village school exists at all because a village “mama” gave them the buildings in which to teach. Lew’s perspective is helping the team see ways in which we can build even more into our program.
