Meet Bay Roberts of One School at a Time in Eldorado Springs

Today we’d like to introduce you to Bay Roberts.

Bay, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Fueled by nothing more than a shared interest in helping others and a curiosity to visit a country we had never seen, I flew with Patty Gilbert to Uganda in 2005. Africa to meet Juliet, a 5-year-old orphan sponsored by our kids’ school in Boulder, Colorado. Patty and I barely knew each other at the time. We arrived at The Rock Foundation School in the slums of Kampala, naïve and eager to see how we might provide aid to more children at Juliet’s school. What we found was a dangerous, frightening neighborhood flooded with desperate refugees and a learning environment that shook us to the core.

We found a “school” with 500 students and one textbook, temporary classrooms with no windows and doors, dirt floors, no electricity, no running water, no scholastic materials, no blackboards, no playground and a staff of poorly trained, inexperienced teachers who frequently were not paid.

We spent over two weeks at the school, observing and making friends. Upon our return home, we decided that we would dedicate ourselves to partnering with targeted Ugandan schools to better the lives of the children. The Rock Foundation School was our first partner school.

15 years later, our non-profit, One School at a Time (1schoolatatime.org), partners with six schools serving over 2,500 girls and boys with a special focus on empowering older girls to stay in school- educated girls can break the cycle of poverty for both their families and communities. And what happened to that little girl, Juliet? Well, she is now attending her junior year at University of Colorado, Boulder!

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Running a non-profit organization in a developing country led to a lot of mistakes early on. On one trip to Africa, for example, Patty excitedly delivered an enormous suitcase crammed with picture books and beautiful posters for the children to enjoy. On returning to the school a few months later, she discovered the unused gifts stored in a closet so they wouldn’t get dirty. “Unless you know how the culture works, this is a mistake that is so easy to make,” Gilbert points out. “They don’t read for leisure. For a kid to sit down, or an adult to sit down and read a book to a kid does not happen. Because they’re just trying to survive their day. They’re out looking for food or lugging water or sweeping their hut. I never brought another book after that.”

Another eye-opener came when we attempted to help more private schools like the Rock Foundation. Many owners, we learned simply use infrastructure improvements at their school as an excuse to raise student fees, rendering the poorest students unable to pay. So we started working with public schools in rural areas away from the unstable urban slums of Kampala and in communities where residents were motivated to take pride in their children’s accomplishments.

But the most significant turning point came when we hired a local Ugandan project manager named Hussein to manage the relationships at the partner schools and train educators how to use more humanitarian teaching techniques, such as small collaborative groups and non-violent communication instead of caning, the traditional discipline for unruly students.

We’d love to hear more about your organization.
One School at a Time partners with subsistence farming communities in rural Uganda, Africa to boost the performance and quality of existing public schools— ONE SCHOOL AT A TIME. We currently partner with a network of six schools serving over 2,500 girls and boys. We are passionate about our programs to empower older girls to stay in school. educated girls can break the cycle of poverty for both their families and communities. One School at a Time supports girls to stay in school with the following simple and cost-effective interventions:

• Provide a culturally appropriate way for girls to manage their menstruation (re-useable sanitary pads).
• Provide peer-to-peer mentoring and educational and emotional support meetings for girls and their parents.
• Provide clean on-site water.
• Provide latrines and wash areas for girls at school.
• Provide new uniforms for girls developing bodies.

What sets us apart from others working in education in the developing world is that we believe that a school is an ecosystem. Fixing just one thing will not repair the whole. We recognize that a well-functioning school is composed of much more than just buildings and infrastructure and we take a whole school approach. In addition, we engage with our schools for five years or more. Long-term relationships with our partner schools build trust, good working rapport and community empowerment. It also creates the necessary conditions to build sustainability. One School at a Time does not dump resources and leave. We monitor each school’s progress to ensure that existing programs are functioning as intended. If something does not work, we learn from our mistakes and make adjustments.

Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I would say that I am extremely fortunate to be born in the USA and to have been blessed with numerous educational opportunities. I have been lucky to be able to explore places where people are less fortunate and to have the time and resources to engage with these communities in a meaningful way.

Contact Info:

• Website: 1schoolatatime.org
• Phone: 303-447-8836
• Email: bay@1schoolatatime.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/1schoolatatimeofficial/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/1schoolatatime/?tn-str=k*F

Image Credit:
Ken Driese

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