My grandparents are Paul and Nancy Berrigan and in 2007 they built a Catholic secondary school in the small rural village of Chelekura, Uganda, East Africa. The school was named John Paul Secondary School. A little-known fact is that the school was named in memory of my great-grandfathers, John and Paul. When the school first opened it consisted of a total of nine classrooms. And, there were only 14 students and 10 teachers. Please click

We are very excited to announce the induction of the new Board of Governors for John Paul Secondary School!  We welcome these twelve talented individuals who will actively help guide JPSS to enable its vision: to produce citizens to be the light of the world.  View Fullscreen × Mr. Okuma John Francis, the Chairperson of the Board, holds a Masters Degree in Education Policy Planning and Management, and spent his career teaching and then as

Friends of John Paul School is a 100% volunteer run organization; we are proud of that since it means virtually every penny of donations goes to support the programs and construction that benefit our students and teachers. We are always in need of more helping hands, at events and fundraisers, but also with the daily operations of the non-profit, like finance, marketing, project management, website and social media management, etc. Please take a look at

Thank you so much to everyone who participated in or donated to our fourth annual virtual 5K – benefiting the students and teachers at John Paul Secondary School in Uganda! Please watch the Kick-off video above which includes footage from the race in Chelekura. It was a wonderful day and the students and teachers were all so happy to be part of a fundraiser helping their school. In fact, the teachers came together to take

On February 5, 2024, John Paul Secondary School opened its doors to our students who were eagerly waiting to get back to their studies and to see their friends again after their 2-month end-of-year break. They were warmly greeted by Fr John Chrysostom, Director, Moses Bwayo, Headteacher, and all the teachers. When our students return to school after a long break, it’s much like moving back into a college dorm. They must bring all their

Year 2023 saw the culmination of two essential and large projects, the Multipurpose building supported with a, large modern kitchen, and our big water project. Giddy from the success of these two projects we have even more ambitious plans for 2024 which are well underway. With the school now approaching 700 students with a staff of 50 we need more of everything – beds, classrooms, books, land and the list goes on. Our plan addresses

UCE – Uganda Certificate of EducationTaken by all S.4. students across the country Quoting our JPSS Director Fr. John, we are “over the moon” with excitement over our S4 students’ just-released 2023 UCE testing results!  They once again ranked #1 in the Pallisa District and, based on their average scores, the school is now in the top 20% in the whole country in UCE results!   Many thanks and congratulations to our wonderful teachers and

Hi, I’m Kim Dwyer, Financial Advisor at Thrivent and huge fan of Friends of John Paul Secondary School. One of the many reasons I love my job is that I help families every single day live and leave a legacy in their faith, family, and finances. I work with people just like you to help them organize their finances, align their goals to their values, and create a clear financial strategy. One of the most

A core part of the Friends of John Paul School mission is that all development efforts for the school include a positive impact for the local Chelekura and broader Pallisa communities. We hope to accomplish this by utilizing local labor workers for construction and campus development, employing locals for non-teaching staff and where qualified, as teachers, assisting with local business development, purchasing locally as much as possible, and by the inclusion of the community in

We are very excited to announce that the JPSS water project is now complete! Access to clean water has been an ongoing journey since the beginning of John Paul Secondary School in 2007. Initially our students and teachers would walk long distances to reach the community well in order to fill their Jerry cans of water needed for drinking and bathing. After several attempts, we were successful in digging a functioning well on campus in