A new matrons’ house has been completed at Rwesasi School in Uganda, providing something incredibly important for girls living in the school’s dormitories: access to trusted female members of staff, 24 hours a day.
When we talk about removing barriers to education, it’s easy to think first about school fees, books, classrooms and equipment, but helping a young person access education is only part of the story. For them to make the most of that opportunity, they also need an environment where they feel safe, supported and able to learn.
That’s particularly important for children and young people who live away from their families in order to attend school.
At Rwesasi School in Uganda, a new Rafiki Thabo Foundation-funded matrons’ house has now been completed, allowing two female members of staff – a matron and a teacher who will assist her – to live on site and provide support to girls in the school’s dormitories around the clock.
It may look like a house – but what it represents is so much more.
This isn’t the first project Rafiki Thabo Foundation has supported at Rwesasi School. In 2023, thanks to the generosity of our supporters, we helped fund a new girls’ dormitory at the school, providing a safe place for girls to live while continuing their education. Since then, with funding generously provided by a charitable trust, we have also built a dedicated girls’ toilet block. Each project has addressed a different practical need, but together they form part of a much bigger picture.
A safe place to sleep. Appropriate sanitation facilities. And now, trusted female members of staff living alongside the girls and available when they need support.
Providing somewhere for girls to stay at school is important – but accommodation alone isn’t enough. Living away from home brings additional challenges. Students may need advice, reassurance, mentoring or support with their health and wellbeing. Sometimes they simply need a trusted adult to talk to. And those needs don’t stop when the school day ends. The next step, therefore, was to provide suitable accommodation for female members of staff to live on site alongside the girls.
The result is the new matrons’ house.
With the house now complete, two women will live at Rwesasi School: the school matron and a female teacher who will assist her. Together, they will be available to support the girls living in the dormitories 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Their presence will provide another important layer of support within school life. They can offer mentoring and guidance, help students with health and wellbeing concerns, provide reassurance when girls are missing home and contribute to their safety and security outside normal school hours. Having trusted female adults nearby also gives students someone they can approach when they have a concern they may not feel comfortable raising elsewhere.
For a young person living away from their family, knowing somebody is there when they need them can make a significant difference.
The need to look beyond simply enrolling girls in school is part of a much wider picture around girls’ education in Uganda. UNICEF highlights a number of barriers that can prevent children and young people in Uganda from accessing and remaining in education, with girls facing particular challenges including poverty, gender-based violence, child marriage and teenage pregnancy.
Read more about education and the barriers facing young people in Uganda from UNICEF Uganda.
These are complex challenges and there is no single solution. But creating school environments where girls can feel safe, access appropriate facilities, receive trusted support and continue their education is an important part of helping more young people stay in school and fulfil their potential.
At Rafiki Thabo Foundation, this is why our work goes beyond scholarships alone.
Removing barriers to education can mean paying school or college fees for a student who would otherwise have to drop out. But it can also mean providing nutritious school meals, improving access to clean water, providing specialist equipment for students living with disability – or creating the facilities and support systems that allow girls to live safely at school.
Every project starts with understanding what is preventing young people from accessing or making the most of their education, and working with our local committees and partner schools to help remove that barrier.
The completed matrons’ house was recently visited by Benon, Chair of our Uganda Committee, alongside Peter, Head of Rwesasi School. Benon sent us photographs of the finished building and described it simply as:
“A beautiful house at Rwesasi.”
And it seems he wasn’t the only one impressed! When he first shared the photographs, Benon told us that the female teachers at the school were extremely keen on the prospect of living in the new house. The two women who will live there have now been selected – a matron and a teacher who will assist her. And then we discovered something that makes this story even more special.
The new matron is Sarah Asiimwe – a Rafiki Thabo graduate. Sarah only completed school in August 2026 and has already secured employment, taking on a role in which she will now help support other girls with their own education.
For us, it’s a particularly special full-circle moment. A young woman who was herself supported in her education by Rafiki Thabo will now live in a house funded by Rafiki Thabo supporters, using her experience and skills to help care for and mentor the next generation of girls. It’s difficult to imagine a better example of the ripple effect that access to education can create.
Education doesn’t end with one student. The opportunities it creates can travel outwards – into families, schools and communities – as young people take what they have learned and use it to build their own futures and support others. We often talk about the importance of creating opportunities that extend beyond an individual scholarship.
Sarah’s story brings that idea beautifully to life.
Seeing a completed building like this is wonderful. But what matters most is what happens inside and around it in the years to come. It’s the girl who needs some reassurance when she’s missing home. The student who needs support with her health or wellbeing. The young person who benefits from having trusted female adults nearby to talk to. And the added sense of safety that comes from knowing someone is there throughout the night.
This is why removing barriers to education is about so much more than getting a young person into a classroom. At Rwesasi School, the girls’ dormitory, dedicated toilet block and now the matrons’ house are helping create a more holistic environment in which girls have the practical facilities, safety and support they need to continue their education.
Buildings themselves don’t transform education. It’s what they make possible that matters. Sometimes removing a barrier means providing a scholarship. Sometimes it’s a nutritious meal, clean water or specialist equipment. Sometimes it’s safe accommodation and appropriate sanitation facilities. And sometimes it’s making sure there is a trusted person nearby when a young person needs help.
At Rafiki Thabo Foundation, we work alongside our local committees and partners in Uganda, Kenya and Lesotho to understand the barriers facing children and young people and create practical, locally-led solutions.
The projects at Rwesasi School show what that approach can look like in practice. From the girls’ dormitory completed in 2023, to the girls’ toilet block and now the new matrons’ house, the continued generosity of our supporters is helping Rwesasi School create an environment where girls can feel safe, access support, learn and thrive. And with Rafiki Thabo graduate Sarah now stepping into the role of matron, the story has come full circle in the loveliest possible way.
Thank you to everyone whose support makes projects like this possible. 💙
If you would like to help Rafiki Thabo Foundation remove more barriers to education for children and young people in Africa, please consider supporting our work. You can find out more about what we do here and how to get involved here.
