HILARY STORM SCHOOL, ATUTUR, UGANDA
Hilary Storm Nursery and Primary School (HSNPS) is a rural village school situated some 300 kilometres north east of Kampala, in the Teso sub region, Kumi District, Atutur Sub-county, Akalabai village, next to Atutur Hospital. It is located some 40 kms north of Mbale, on the Mbale – Soroti highway, The Great North Road.

Atutur sub county is a community of very poor peasant farmers who rely solely on the land for their survival.

It is a privately funded institution incorporated with limited liability on 6th November 2006. It was licensed as a Private Primary School by the Ministry of Education under License No: ME/P/5271 and was registered as a Private Primary School in February 2011, with Ministry of Education registration number PPS/H/63, and has a Uganda National Examination Board (UNEB) Centre number 190073.

Unlike many other private schools, it was conceived not as “a commercial enterprise, but rather a social enterprise,” an income generating enterprise which uses its “profits” for a social purpose – improvement of the education of children as a way of giving back to the community.

The school has a population of 300 students aged from four to 15 years of age. There are currently 120 boarders, 18 teaching staff and 12 non teaching staff.

The vision for HSNPS
To be a model rural school, self sufficient and providing affordable, quality education that enables community transformation, connecting learning, life and the community.

The Mission for HSNPS
To educate, train, inspire and adequately prepare children as the next generation of community leaders to face the challenges of life in this world through honesty, hard work and entrepreneurship; to be principled professionals for the development of society, who constructively give back to the community.

School motto
“With education as a priority, God’s Will shall be done.”

Our core values

• Professional childcare and satisfaction
• Uncompromised ethics and integrity, transparency, impartiality and reliability
• Teamwork spirit, hardwork, entrepreneurial spirit
• Prompt service delivery/timeconsciousness and results orientated
• Community social responsibility, tolerance and patience

How was HSNPS established?
Government funded primary education in the rural areas of Uganda is inadequate, underfunded and poorly resourced. The economic activity is mainly peasant subsistence farming with fragmented small scale cultivation of mainly food crops. This is not sufficient to feed local communities through the dry seasons. There are low levels of literacy and the population is rapidly growing. It won’t take long before the land is unable to sustain the local population. Poor people with low levels of literacy and little formal education lack the information and confidence, or the means, to give the education of their children a priority.

The inspiration and leadership behind HSNPS
In 2006, Stephen Okiror, an experienced secondary teacher, currently Senior Principal Officer (Operations) in the Inspectorate General of Government (anti corruption department), had the vision of improving life for the community of his homeland of Atutur. From his educational background and experience of rural life the twin goals of education and self sustainability for the rural population became his mission. He was encouraged and assisted in this by his wife Hellen who is a teacher with a degree in early years education.

In 2003, a friendship developed between Stephen and Hilary Storm who was working as project advisor to Salem Uganda. Their mutual interest in education and self sustainability led to Hilary giving Stephen’s school project the financial support needed to help develop the basic infrastructure.

The development of the Friends of Hilary Storm School Uganda (FOHSSU)
In 2012 Stephen came to Scotland on a fact finding mission. A meeting with Luke and Caroline Borwick and Seth and Andrea Gardner led to the founding of the charity FOHSSU to support and enable the mission of HSNPS. Stephen also met with Mary Stormonth Darling who totally espoused his Christian work and her legacy has contributed to the water project.

Friends of Hilary Storm School Uganda is registered as a SCIO with the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator. Charity number: SC044018

Registered address: Carriage House, Blair Estate, Dalry, North Ayrshire, Scotland, KA24 4ER
Email: fohsssu@gmail.com