Helping KMS through COVID-19 and Lockdown

Since the closing down of schools, we have not been able to hold Holiday programmes at the school. However, we could do so at the first opportunity, and many students turned up. The students were from Ugandan National Curriculum schools.

We’ve had two programmes this year, with attendance being between 17 and 26. It’s been an absolute joy having the school and corridors full of the sounds of happy little children. Some children loved it so much that they’ve come several times over, and some didn’t even want the holiday programme to end.

The Children sang, danced and were introduced to Traditional instruments.

The continued effects and challenges of the pandemic and the conflicts in Ukraine have meant that student numbers are still not where we were hoping they would be. As such, we had to reshuffle the admin staff to cater for the economic situation still on the ground. In addition, to continue providing some of the essential services, we shuffled around responsibilities. We had some of the staff take on a few more hours to cater for the staff shortfall we’ve had to have.

Claire, who had been childminding for Holiday Programmes, is now assisting with the front desk. She is mainly in the afternoons and early evenings when she helps out with the late customers and the various ensembles that meet then.

Douglas now also works part of his shift in the library, adding to his custodial duties. He has proved to be quite a find and is enthusiastic about his new and expanded role.

We hope that things will continue to get better. Still, We thank you, too, for your continued support in this extended rebuilding period. We are striving to keep the school open so we can continue developing talent and changing lives.

Kampala music school is now fully open. The student numbers have returned two about a third of pre-pandemic levels to date. However, in the last few weeks, registration has picked up, with more and more people coming in to explore and begin their journey in music.

As well as students coming back, some of the old programmes have also resumed. The children’s programme, for instance, has just completed its first term and is starting a new term shortly. The children love this programme, and more and more are signing up, which is very encouraging for the school and the teachers involved. It is encouraging to have many more children at an early stage beginning their journey.

During the 1^st Term Holiday for students in the National Schooling system, we had students come in for a holiday programme. The students enjoyed the time they had here and were introduced to the basics of rhythms, singing, and their various instruments. This programme has been a staple of KMS’s offerings. So it’s good to see it get off the ground even though the attendance was still relatively low compared to previous sessions.

The Kampala Symphony Orchestra had its first concert performance at a wedding of a former bursary student, Steven. It was great to have the orchestra performing again. The members are looking forward to having many more performances in the coming months.

After two years of not meeting, the junior orchestra finally resumed at the beginning of May. Unfortunately, the previous conductor is no longer available, so two new conducting trainees have joined the team. These conductors are very enthusiastic and with a great passion for learning themselves. With time invested in training them, it should yield some new conductors available to conduct orchestras.

Two years is a long time not to meet, and sadly, some members have moved on. Therefore, the junior orchestra is undergoing a rebirth and simultaneously at a crossroads. We hope that the mix of old and new members will gel quickly and return the Junior Orchestra to the heights of performance it had become renowned.

The lasting effects of the pandemic and the various shutdowns that we underwent also impacted our Human resources. The number of admin staff members dwindled. However, with the number of students and activities increasing, the workload on existing staff would be too significant to bear. It became apparent that we would need to hire new staff members to be ready to take on the additional volume of work that is coming our way. Talented people though are difficult to come by, but so far I believe we may have landed on gold.

We have taken on a new Marketing and Communications Executive, Faith, who brings plenty of experience. She has proved to be a vibrant team member with seemingly endless energy to get things moving and rolling.

Also new to the team is Zeridda, who joins the team as the administrator. She brings a high sense of diligence, commitment, and organisation to the team and a zeal to get things done and ticked off.

These are exciting times, but also challenging times. In a bid to get back to operational efficiency, and indeed in the future, KMS will require more resources, to support the personnel who are making all this happen. We hope that funding will follow suit for us to achieve both our current and future objectives and aspirations.

It is exciting times with more to come, and we are hopeful that upwards is the only way we’re going. It is wonderful to hear music filling the spaces once more compared to when the building was just an empty shell. We hope that this continues and that we get back on track with all the plans we had set forward for the school in 2019.

Many thanks for your continued support, and we look forward to continuing to grow back to serve our community even better than before.