More than 200 students at Ntenungi Secondary School in Rwamwanja Refugee Settlement in western Uganda have been left without accommodation after a dormitory was destroyed by fire on Tuesday night.

School authorities said the blaze broke out at about 8 pm and is suspected to have been deliberately set by unknown individuals.

The affected students, a total of 215, lost all their belongings when the dormitory was gutted.

Ntenungi Secondary School, a community institution established in 2022 by the non-governmental organisation (NGO) Finn Church Aid, serves both refugee learners and students from the host community in Kamwenge District. The school currently has an enrolment of 1,012 students.

The school headteacher, Burnnet Niwagaba, told Monitor that the fire destroyed books, bedding and other personal items belonging to the learners. Results slips belonging to Senior Four candidates were also burnt.

"By the time the fire started, all the learners were in evening prep. No student was inside the dormitory. We suspect that some arsonists could have set the dormitory on fire. The building has no electricity; we only use the solar system. Unfortunately, we were unable to rescue any of the students' property, but no learner was injured," Niwagaba said.

According to him, the school now requires about Shs200 million to replace the destroyed belongings of the students, excluding the cost of reconstructing the dormitory.

Following the incident, the school has struggled to find temporary accommodation for the affected learners.

"On Tuesday night, after the incident, we improvised and allowed the students to sleep in one of the classrooms. They shared a few mattresses that we managed to obtain from outside. At the moment, we don't know where to start in rebuilding the dormitory because it needs to be demolished and constructed afresh," he said.

Fire amid donor aid cuts

Niwagaba appealed to well-wishers and the government to support the school, warning that sending the students home could disrupt their education.

"We are appealing for support because we fear sending learners home. Some of them might not return to school," he added.

The incident has also compounded financial difficulties the school has been facing following the suspension of donor funding that had been supporting teachers' salaries.

Previously, Finn Church Aid paid salaries for 24 teachers through a programme funded by the United States government under the United States Bureau of Population, Refugee and Migration (PRM).

However, the funding stopped recently, forcing the school to rely on contributions from the Parent-Teacher Association to pay teachers.

"When the funding stopped, we engaged the PTA to help pay teachers, although salaries were reduced to about Shs400,000. We had planned to meet with parents to discuss how to sustain teachers, but now the dormitory has been burnt. We don't know how we shall continue running the school," Niwagaba said.

He urged the government to intervene and support the institution.
The Country Director of Finn Church Aid, Wycliffe Nsheka, confirmed that the organization established the school with support from the United States government through the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration.

"Unfortunately, the funding stopped, and now the dormitory has also been destroyed by fire," Nsheka observed.

He said the dormitory had been constructed with donor funding and was fully equipped before it was destroyed.

Nsheka added that the organisation is engaging officials at its global head office in Finland to explore possible emergency support through a disaster response fund.

"We are in close contact with our officials from our global head office in Finland. They have a disaster response fund, and we hope to mobilise some resources to support the school. Once we receive feedback, we shall communicate with the school next week," he said.

He also noted that the organisation had planned to construct a perimeter fence around the school to improve security, but the project stalled after funding stopped.

Efforts are also ongoing to help the school meet the requirements for a possible government takeover so that it can receive government-paid teachers in the future.

By Wednesday evening, police had not yet issued a statement on the cause of the fire, saying a response would be released later.