It is with extreme joy and thanksgiving that I greet all the readers of the Giraffe Watch Magazine on this 26th School Anniversary Day. I welcome all the different stakeholders of the school. Thank you for honoring our invitation. In a very special way, I welcome and receive this year’s Chief Guest and Main Celebrant, The Very Reverend Msgr. Richard Kayondo, Vicar General, Lugazi Diocese. Dear Monsignor, thank you so much for accepting our invitation and for presiding over today’s functions especially the celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of Mass. I equally thank you for administering the two sacraments of Christian initiation, Holy Communion, and confirmation to our 25 students. Thank you to for witnessing to their profession of faith. In a special way, I receive the Vicar General of Kampala Archdiocese and Chairperson St. Augustine’s College Board of Governors and all the members of the Board present.
Welcoming St. Augustine’s College New Board
The New Board Let me use this opportunity to inform all readers that we have now a new Board of Governors recently ushered in. We congratulate those whose tenure has been renewed. We welcome the new members to this Board. We thank you all for volunteering to serve our School as Board members. We acknowledge the respective bodies that forwarded you namely, the Foundation Body, the Parents, the Members of Staff, Old Students, the Town Council, and the District.
The present body of St. Augustine’s College Wakiso is made of the following members;
- Msgr. Charles Kasibante (Chairperson)
- Mr. John Baptist Nkwaju (Deputy Chairperson & Chairperson Finance)
- Mrs Florence Kwesigabo (Member)
- Mr. Bernard Mutyaba Ssempa (Member)
- Mr. Allan Ggitta (Member)
- Mr. John Ssebudde (Member)
- Mrs Grace Mugabi Matovu (Member)
- Mr. Francisco Ssemwanga (Member)
- Mr. Senasiyo Edward Ssentalo (Member)
- Hon. Rosemary Namubiru (Member)
- Ms Proscovia Nakimera Kajubi (Member)
- Mr. Joseph Kizito Ssebalamu (Member)
- Fr. Benedict Kaweesa (Secretary)
We thank them for accepting to append their elaborative curriculum vitae to our school and for the time and sacrifice they will make in the process of serving the school.
Farewell to the former Board of St. Augustine’s College
In a related way, we wish to appreciate all that the former board did during its tenure of service. A lot of achievements were registered in addition to maintaining the school in normal progress.
A few of the cherished achievements include;
- Celebrating 25 years of Academic and Moral Excellence.
- Steady excellent performance at National Examinations.
- Land extension up to over 20 acres
- Acquisition of a school bus
- Getting piped water
- Strengthening computer learning and usage.
- Re-roofing most of the old structures
- Construction of St. Cyprian Hall.
- Construction of Pope Francis Block.
- Establishing a school chaplaincy
- Developing a five-year development strategic plan.
- Formalization of the employment structure of the school.
- Paving way to the jubilee storeyed structure which is soon to take off.
- Managing the fire disaster which hit the school prior to the jubilee celebrations and immediately after the jubilee celebrations.
- Formalizing many operations of the school and other detailed advancements.
We pledge to keep the candle burning and propelling the school to greater heights.
Note of Appreciation;
Let me use this opportunity to extend my appreciation to all the people who assisted us to celebrate the school Silver Jubilee last year 2018. We thank everyone who stood with us in the celebration of that day.
Significant to mention are: –
- members of the Adhoc Jubilee Planning Team,
- The School Board,
- The Staff, the students
- Special Visitors who participated in the various annual events that colored the year. These included
- Hon Fredson Mukalazi, Chief Guest in absentia represented by Hon Speaker of Wakiso Town Council Mr. Paddy Ntume for the Jubilee forest planting,
- Mr. Emmanuel Kiwanuka Ssewakiryanga who gave the memory lecture of the Late Founder Fr. I.F Kasibante,
- Msgr. Charles Kasibante who presided over the Founder’s Memorial Mass,
- Professor Kigongo Bukenya who presided over the Jubilee Sports Festivals,
- Hon, Matia Lwanga Bwanika who was the Chief Walkers on the Jubilee Walk from Nansana to St. Augustine and opening the Health Camp.
- The Old Students who organized the Health Camp together with other associates among them St. Joseph’s Hospital Wakiso,
- the Jubilee magazine Team and those who contributed the articles.
- The Archbishop of Kampala represented by His Vicar General who presided over the Jubilee Mass and festival.
- We thank visitors from within our immediate neighborhood, our sister schools and other guests among whom were priests, Education Officers from the District, Kampala Archdiocesan Education Office and everyone.
Your contributions and goodwill made the day a success. It was unfortunate that prior to the celebrations of the Silver Jubilee on the 16th July 2018 and immediately after on the 23rd July 2018 our boys’ dormitory of S.2 and S.3 were burnt by yet an unknown arsonist. The search is still on, but we wish to appreciate all the people who came to our aid during those difficult moments. We are grateful to the Police and all security personnel involved.
The students and members of the staff and the kind neighbors for the overwhelming support you gave us during the hard moments. If it had not been the extra effort of members of staff and students led by Mr. Sseruwu Mathias the Deputy Headteacher then the whole boys complex would have been burnt to ashes. The fearless intervention of the members managed to control the fire. The students’ leaders deserve special mention. They mobilized and spearheaded braving the fire till extinction. We shall ever be grateful for their resolve. We appreciate the parents who stood with us. It was a difficult time. Many had to procure new scholastic materials for their learners to keep them at school. Thank you, dear parents.
Farewell to Mr. Sseruwu Mathias & welcome Mr. Kijjambu Robert: Dear readers of the Giraffe Watch allow me to inform you that at the conclusion of the academic year 2018, Mr. Sseruwu Mathias a long-serving member of staff and Deputy Headteacher In-Charge of Administration was transferred on promotion as headteacher of St. Charles Lwanga, Kibiri. Mr. Sseruwu had served the school for twenty-three years in a number of capacities and offices. He started working at this school as a subject teacher teaching Economics and History at both “O” and “A” levels respectively.
However, in the process, he acquired many other responsibilities among them being a Class teacher, a House Patron, Discipline Committee member and Chairperson, Staff Football Team player, Staff Choir member, Chairperson Celebrations Committee, Head of Economics department, Chairperson Silver Jubilee Planning Committee, Head of Business Subjects department, Chairperson Staff Welfare Scheme, Chairperson Staff Saving and Co-operative Society, Chairperson Procurement Committee, Deputy Headteacher In-Charge Academics and later Deputy Headteacher In-Charge of Administration. He was a regular and celebrated columnist of the Giraffe Watch Magazine and many other detailed works assigned or undertaken voluntarily. He has been our major link with all the old students of the school. With his contribution to the Silver Jubilee, we have the first organized history of the school piled together in the Jubilee Magazine. Mr. Sseruwu was a God-sent minister of the school. He was an exemplary schoolmaster. He was with the school at its infancy and saw it through its thin and thick. His departure is greatly missed!
However, we rejoice that his stay at this school will ever remain a celebrated moment. We feel happy to see him leave on promotion. I am full of trust that St. Charles Lwanga will be greatly enhanced by his dedicated service and experiences.
Allow me also to use this column to welcome Mr. Kijjambu Robert to St. Augustine’s College. Mr. Kijjambu is our Deputy InCharge of Administration. He is a teacher of fifteen years of experience and former Director of Studies at his former centre. He is young, intelligent and committed. I believe with his dedication St. Augustine’s College will not lack. We pray that his stay at this college shall be invariably blessed.
Tasks ahead:
At twenty-six, the task ahead of us remains enormous and daunting. It is upon our shoulders to ensure that we do not fail the noble goals of this school. The onus is the duty and mission to translate learners into academically excellent, morally and spiritually strong persons ready to serve in the national and global community. In this endeavor, we call upon all our stakeholders to help and support us in all ways possible. In a special way, we call upon our parents never to wear out in your support. We need you and without you, there cannot be any progress. Our old students your alma mater need you in its ever upward movements. Please support it. We need to see it rightly taking its position among the giant school in our country.
To our current students, your contribution to the success of our school cannot be underestimated. We ask you to love your school. To utilize the present opportunities to excel in academics and in all areas of worth. The school offers the best it can in all spheres of your stay here. Do not overlook their utility. This is the opportunity to you that must be utilized maximumly. It is also good that while at school you build a network of relationships that can enable you to excel in academia and even in life after school.
Last but not least allow me to thank all our visitors who have made this day colorful. Our old students, our parents, special visitors, board members, and everyone who has turned for this event.
Long live SACO. Higher we aim.
For my country.
Fr. Kaweesa Benedict
HEADTEACHER.