Our kindergarten in Mityana has been running since March 2025. Built by craftspeople from the region, run by a Ugandan team, funded entirely by donations.
Mityana already had a primary school, built up by our partner organisation on the ground. We went to see it and came away with one question: what is missing for the children to arrive here at all?
The answer lay before the first grade. So we started earlier — on the same site, a few steps from the school gate. Today 80 children go to kindergarten there in the morning, and in a few years they will move on to the school next door.
We could have spread the money across many villages. We deliberately chose not to. Because a kindergarten that truly holds up needs more than a building: teachers who stay. Food that is there every day. And a school the children can move on to. You build that in one place — not in ten at once.
So what grew in Mityana is not a project that ends at some point, but a daily routine that begins again every morning.
Opening day in Mityana, March 2025
Drag the slider to see what became of the design.
The design on the left, the finished building on the right — same view, one year later.
Together with PMCO the choice falls on Mityana — the kindergarten is built on the grounds of their primary school.
€41,502 goes into construction. Craftspeople from the region are hired — so the money stays in the area.
A further €11,600 goes into furniture, learning materials and outdoor areas. The team hires teachers.
Inauguration with PMCO, CityChurch, the families and a team that travelled from Germany for the occasion.
80 children come every day. The Ugandan team runs it; we help fund it and report openly on that.
This kindergarten is not just a building — it is a place full of hope, education and opportunity.
From the opening report · March 2025
Construction is complete and funded entirely by donations. No loan, no outstanding gap. The sum is spread across two years and appears that way in our annual reports.
What remains are the running costs for salaries, meals and materials — the part that keeps a kindergarten alive once the site fences are gone. These are covered by sponsorships: monthly contributions with which people secure a child’s place. That search was successful — operations are funded.
View annual reports and finances →100 % of donations go into the project.
The children, a few warm words, and the moment the ribbon was cut.
Film · 1:04 minutes
Every day
Permanent teachers guide the first years of learning — language, social skills, self-confidence.
The children are fed at the kindergarten. A child who is not hungry can learn.
Fixed hours, familiar caregivers. And older siblings no longer have to babysit — they can go to school themselves.
At six the children move to the PMCO primary school next door — a school they already know well.
On the grounds
A kindergarten is more than classrooms. Four things belong to it, without which none of this would work — and they are part of the construction costs.
Toilets and ample washing facilities for children and teachers, in a separate building. Where poverty and lack of education meet, hygiene is often set aside — yet small habits prevent a great many illnesses.
Before meals, after the toilet, every day. What the children learn here they take home — so the kindergarten reaches their families too.
The entire kindergarten runs on solar power. That makes it independent of the grid and lowers running costs for good.
For the youngest, play is not a break from learning but the form learning takes. That is why the playground was there from the start.
Because a healthy child learns better.
Julie and Ray — they lead PMCO in Mityana
PMCO has existed since 2019 and is led by Julie and Ray — they live in Mityana and know every family whose children come to us. PMCO has run a primary school there since January 2023; our kindergarten now stands on the same grounds.
That closeness is no coincidence; it is the core of the idea. Later the children do not move into an unfamiliar system — they walk a few steps further across the same yard. Julie and Ray oversaw planning and construction on site and run the kindergarten independently today.
Our role is that of a partner, not an operator: we help fund, we accompany, and we disclose where the money goes.
More about PMCO →What changed during the first year of operation.
Read the post→ News · 2025The report from inauguration day.
Read the post→ TransparencyAll the figures to read up on, audited and published.
View the overview→ OverviewWhat else we are working on.
See the projects→A truck reaches many. Our next project brings basic medical care and learning materials to places where no road leads to a school — building on what has worked in Mityana.
