The Uganda Buddhist Peace School (UBPS) began at the Uganda Buddhist Centre on Sunday, November 30, 2008 with an aim of introducing the Dhamma teachings and practice to the children in our community.  It started with four Buddhist kids. Their ages were from five to eleven years old.  Later on, the total number of students increased to 16. Bhante began the class with a Dhamma story and kids were very keen to share their own experiences.

Purpose of the school:  Our Peace school is run only on Sunday. Our major focus is Ethical conduct and mindfulness/attention. Therefore, this is the only peace school of its kind in Uganda.

Our goals are:

• To provide education in moral or ethical conduct so that kids can become excellent citizens.
• To teach English to kids so that they can improve on their communication skills.
• To provide financial support to poor kids or orphans whose parents or relatives could not afford school fees.

Please note our peace school has a humble start.  Currently, the kids study under the mobile school (a big tent).  The school has NO permanent structure; however, we can make use of the library facilities at the Temple.  We’re still shaping our vision.  And the kids are increasingly getting interested in studying the Dhamma.

We’re happy that last we managed to give 10 full year scholarships to kids from our local community

We have only one permanent teacher.  While Bhante is in Uganda, he teaches them. The number of teachers varies from time to time. Sometimes we get International volunteers, who offer to teach English and Yoga exercises to the kids.

Ideology for the peace promoting for Uganda:

• Our main focus is the training in non-violence way of life so that their family, society and world can enjoy the benefit of freedom. Likewise the kids can share in the same freedom.
• To provide mindfulness and awareness education in order to contribute to peace to the individual, society and environment at large.

Future plans for the Peace School include but not limited to Building a school and  locating teacher who can teach  the Dhamma, English classes, computer skills;  secure more volunteers and local  teachers  who can translate the lessons from English into Luganda;  and raise the scholarship fund for the children's annual school fees.

We are very grateful for the Sri Lankan Buddhists in Uganda who donated the blackboard.

Our kids are our future generation. Let us nurture them.

May peace prevail on earth!