The mission of Circle of Peace School is to educate nursery and primary students (regardless of their families’ ability to pay school fees), through balanced academic and social pursuits, nurturing reverent, hardworking, and disciplined individuals.

Circle of Peace School, located in Makindye, Uganda, outside the capital of Kampala, is a private school serveing children of all faiths, regardless of their family’s ability to pay school fees. Current enrollment totals about 300 boys and girls from preschool through Primary 6.

The school is governed by a Board of Directors, which reports to the Ugandan Ministry of Education.

The Ugandan Ministry of Education licensed Circle of Peace School in 1997. The school complies with all national standards and its students do well on required national tests. The school receives no government funding. It is supported by the selfless commitment of the Bbaale family, headed by Amina Bbaale. Five of her daughters and three of her sons and other relatives either work at the school or provide for it financially. Families of the students contribute what they can toward their child’s education, and the school generates income from poultry and maize farms.

Most of the school’s students commute from home but 40 orphans (13 boys and 27 girls) live in a boys’ dormitory and a girls’ dormitory on the campus. The school provides for all their needs. About one-third of these students have at least one parent who is deceased or ill from HIV or AIDS. Without the school, these children would have no support. These students now live in a safe and nurturing environment where they can realize their full potential and develop as people who experience human rights and fundamental freedoms.

Joanita Bbaale Senoga grew up in a family that valued education. After earning her degree in education from Kibuli Teacher College in Uganda in 1991, she began teaching Primary 2 at a public school in Makindye (a suburb of Kampala, Uganda’s capital city).

In Uganda, families pay for their children to attend public school, placing a burden on those of limited means. If a family is unable to pay, their children must leave. Joanita was deeply affected by her students’ distress when the headmaster removed them from her clas for failure to pay school fees.

In the 1990s, there was a movement to establish pre-primary education in Uganda. Though the government had no budget for this, Joanita believed schooling at this level was a critial. Then, private nursery schools existed only in big cities, too far away and too costly for the families of Makindye. So in 1993 Joanita left her job, and founded Peace Nursery School. Classes were held on the porch of her parent’s home. Soon more children started attending and teachers were enlisted.

At the end of the first year, parents asked Joanita to continue teaching their children. She and her family responded by renting land, erecting classrooms, and adding a Primary 1 class to the nursery school. A new grade was added each year until the school was offering nursery through Primary 7 classes.

Circle of Peace School has grown to around 300 students, and a permanent campus is located at the Bbaale family compound in Makindye.

The family is committed to the success of every child who attends Circle of Peace School and is working to improve it so they can reach even more children.