The Brain School Challenge was an idea started by Juan Reina a defender of fair tourism who was hosted in Uganda on his very first visit to the Pearl of Africa-Uganda. After several days of visits around the main capital city, he later traveled to the far west of Uganda on the 17th of November 2017 and paid a visit to the communities of Nyabuhama and Rwenjeru located in the western district of Mbarara.
After a visit to these rural end vulnerable communities, Juan Reina and Rogers Nasasira realized a need of launching a competition in the only two community primary schools of Nyabuhama and Rwenjeru where pupils would use their Brains to think and create practical solutions in order to solve the available local challenges faced in their rural communities. Like a local proverb says “Teach a man how to fish and he will survive for the rest of his life” Juan Reina believes that all once the pupils are trained and equipped with skills, they can easily survive on their own and have their communities transformed.
The brain challenge was the very first of its kind to happen in Nyabuhama primary school and in his speech to the pupils, parents and teachers of the school, Juan Reina asked the pupils to think about any idea or solution they believe can help their community in addressing social, economic and environmental problems.
The future of Uganda lies in the hands of the young people once they get the right education, utilize their brains and have relevant practical skills that can enable them to develop sustainable projects for the good development and growth of their communities. It’s from this background that Juan Reina together with Rogers Nasasira the founder of RUCEF launched this Brain Challenge where all pupils were given an equal opportunity to write down articles, design, draw or make a painting of what they “Think” can help their community.
After 2 weeks of research, thinking, drawing and painting, more than 85 pupils submitted their work to their respective teachers who selected the best 5 ideas. It’s from the best 5 selected work that we got to award the best 3 pupil by the names of Susan, Michael and Andrew who made great good drawings with great messages about Girl child education, conservation of the environment and importance of education respectively. They were all rewarded with a cash prize of 20Euros a contribution made by Juan Reina as a way of motivating other pupils to start using their brains and think for what they want to see changed on their community.
We believe that with more partners and well wishers on board we can enroll this Brain challenge competition to several rural primary schools in the hard reach areas across Uganda.