10/06/2025
Education
NORTH BUKEDI
John Paul SS brings hope to Pallisa’s fishing communities
Monday, June 09, 2025
Students and teachers of John Paul SS, a rural school providing education to needy, fishing communities in
Pallisa District. PHOTOS/Bonnyman Wynter
What you need to know:
Once cut off from secondary education, the fishing and farming communities of Chelekura in Pallisa District are rewriting their future, thanks to John Paul Secondary School, a grassroots initiative that has transformed a tree-shade classroom into a regional academic powerhouse, empowering hundreds of students with skills, hope, and opportunity.
In the remote Chelekura Sub-county of Pallisa District, access to secondary education had long remained out of reach for many children, particularly those from fishing and subsistence farming communities living around the shores of Lake Kyoga.
More than 90 percent of locals in Chelekura and neighbouring sub-counties depend on small-scale agriculture and fishing for their livelihoods.
Crops such as maize, millet, rice, cassava, and sweet potatoes dominate the landscape, with cotton grown on a limited scale as the only cash crop.
However, the lack of nearby secondary schools meant many children never completed primary education , many girls were forced into early marriages, and boys abandoned school for fishing or farming. That bleak picture began to change in 2007 with the establishment of John Paul Secondary School, Chelekura.
The mixed-day and boarding school, offering both O-Level and A-Level education, was founded by Msgr. John Baptist Kauta with the support of his American friends, Paul and Nancy Berrigan.
Touched by the high levels of illiteracy in the region, Msgr Kauta, who hails from Pallisa and current secretary general of the Episcopal Conference, shared his community's plight with the Belgians, leading to a vision that it became
