Herridge Technical School
Herridge's Humble Beginnings Year 2005
Burundi is a very small country on the northern shores of Lake Tanganyika in Central East Africa and among the poorest in the world.
Whilst visiting her birth place, in the North East of Burundi, Georgette Butera came across eighty helpless orphans being cared for by a former business woman who had lost most of her possessions herself but not her big heart. Grateful to have the means to help, Georgette was able to donate money to buy enough food to last six months. Later on that day, in the town of Karusi, she came across an even greater situation of desperation. It was a camp for Internally Displaced People (IDP), no longer supported by UNHCR. Overwhelmed by the whole encounter of lost children without parental care and without education, the images haunted Georgette's sleep throughout the night. She woke up with a vision of a "School and Church" to be a refuge but also a light, a place where children could get counselling and help and secondary education.
"The experience was so engaging and all consuming, we rallied friends and family to make the vision a reality," she recalls. Enough capital was raised to build a school. It was named Herridge in honour of Audrey Herridge, a lady with inspiring generosity who helped so many Rwandan and Burundian orphans find their feet again.
ACTS established the Herridge Technical School in Burundi for orphans and destitute children which opened in 2007.
Most of the pupils come from the IDP camp and have absolutely nothing and the cooked meal provided at lunch breaks is the only meal most of the children get.
Herridge Technical School Opening Year 2007
Herridge Technical School (HTS) in Karusi, Burundi was opened in September 2007. It consisted of seven classrooms, offices and a refectory with secure storage and cooking facilities to enable us to ensure that our students would get at least one nourishing meal per school day. We also built two five bedroomed houses to accommodate the teachers most of whom stay at the school during the week and go home to their family at the weekends.
The school is fully funded from individual gifts and occasional grants. The money pays twenty three staff, buys books for each of the pupils, provides one cooked meal a day and buys two uniforms for each child. At first we offered general education whilst keeping in mind the establishment of technical sections once the charity had funds to do so.
There was much to do in the last few days before the big opening at the start of term. The floor in the refectory had to be polished, classrooms had to be furnished with desks and chairs and uniforms had to be made and presented to the students. For most of these children their uniform was the first proper set of clothes they had ever owned.
There was much to celebrate on the day as this was a momentous occasion for the town of Karusi with our school being the first to offer free secondary education to the poorest children of its community. Large crowds came from the town and its out lying villages and communities to be a part of the celebrations. A host of bishops and ministers from the Anglican, Methodist and Pentecostal churches came to give God's blessings through their prayers for the work and future of the school. Officials from governments as far away as the USA took part in the opening day along with the most celebrated guest, the late president of Burundi, Pierre Nkurunziza.
There was entertainment performed by the Burundian Drummers and Dancers then to finish the celebrations all of the students and officials were invited to the refectory for a meal.
Catering & Technology Centre
In 2011 the government of Burundi changed its educational curriculum which would have seriously impacted the work of the Herridge Technical School. After considering the work we were already doing with the students in secondary education it became obvious that we should also be offering practical and technical opportunities for our students further to their theoretical studies. So it was we decided to open a Catering and Technology Centre to give our students the very best chance to compete in a modern work place.
In October 2012 we took a team of fitters out to the Herridge Technical School to complete the Technology Centre. Led by Leonard Harrison along with his grandson Matthew Harrison and a friend and work colleague Ian Fletcher, the team fitted out the IT suite, kitchens, shop as well as completing the flooring and decorating.
All the materials were sourced by Len from his contacts in and around Stoke on Trent in the UK. Companies were more than generous and despite troubles with customs at the Burundian border, which gave Georgette many sleepless nights, the kitchen, restaurant, IT suite, tiling, painting, gas fitting and all the electrics were completed on time.
We at ACTS and all the students that pass through the Herridge Technical School owe Len, his team and all those companies who supported us through Len a huge debt of gratitude. Thank you. Your selflessness has given so much hope to some of this worlds poorest children and will continue to do so for many years to come.
Herridge Technical School’s goal to help students reach their full potential in terms of growth and opportunity is consistently achieved. Herridge has achieved a 100% pass rate in the national test exams in fifteen out of the last seventeen years since 2007, thanks to the hard work of the pupils and the commitment of the teachers. Not only do our graduates score very high marks in their exams they also have a reputation of being dedicated, always polite and produce the highest quality of service. As a result most of our students are offered permanent employment during their apprenticeship.
By rigorously following the government curriculum, Herridge Technical School graduates can pursue university education if they obtain a grant or an employer gives them a day release.
The bakery (below) produced bread for two years from 2013 to 2015 but sadly the project had to be put on hold due to a severe shortage of flour in the country. Also the excessive price of imports made it too costly to continue to bake as the finished loaves were far too expensive for local people to be able to afford. Today the ovens remain mothballed and ready to use as we would love to see them baking again. Sadly shortages and costs continue to plague Burundi and without guaranteed subsidies and a source of materials we have no choice other than to wait. However, students are learning valuable skills in the catering kitchen which will give them much better job opportunities as they strive to make a living in a country riven by poverty and shortages.
Recreation & Sports Training
In 2018 the Burundian board of education requested that we make three additions to the school and its grounds. The first request was for us to provide a purpose built recreation facility and so we set up an appeal to raise the finances to build a basketball/volleyball court. The total cost came to £17000 (mainly due to there only being one person in the country with the design expertise) and took almost a year to raise. However, once the funds were there we immediately set to work. The basketball/volleyball court was completed for the beginning of the September term 2019 and the students immediately put it to good use and have played against many other schools.
From the conception of the Herridge Technical School, physical education was an important part of the school curriculum. For many years the children used a large area of grass between the school and the teachers accommodation as a sports field playing football, volleyball and even using it as a running track.
© Copyright. All rights reserved.
We need your consent to load the translations
We use a third-party service to translate the website content that may collect data about your activity. Please review the details in the privacy policy and accept the service to view the translations.