Kakemer Primary school is in Teso district about 25 km from the border with Uganda. In the school’s history of over 20 years, only one girl had ever gone on to achieve a university degree while countless boys had done the same. The community identified the cause as coming from its own culture which required girls to help at home with household chores, fetching water, cooking, looking after younger siblings etc. 

While boys could still find time to do homework and prepare for exams, girls had a heavy workload at home which meant that by the time they were in the final years of primary school they were already far behind the boys in academic performance. The community decided to build a dormitory at their primary school for girls in the final 3 years of their primary education.

By the time, the community invited Community Outreach to get involved in their project, they had already raised a significant portion of the funds required and materials were on site to start the building. Community Outreach contributed to the completion of the project. By working with the community, this dormitory was officially opened in 2006.

At the end of 2007 for the first time in the school’s history a girl, staying at the boarding school, came first in Class 8. Currently in Kakemer location only 35% of girls in primary school continue to secondary school.