Rev. Jackson Olega
Founder & Director
MA Conflict Resolution
TEP
TEP
Trinity Education Programme (TEP) is an indigenous, Christian-based but non-denominational NGO dedicated to empowering South Sudanese refugees through education. It was founded in 2005 by Reverend Jackson Olega during the civil war between the Sudanese government and the SPLA/M, when formal schooling was out of reach for families uprooted by conflict.
It began as a small charity foundation with a handful of children and its first school, Atepi Nursery and Primary School, in Pajok. In 2019 TEP was registered as a national NGO in Uganda, and it is incorporated as TEP Programme (U) Limited.
Today TEP runs three Atepi campuses – Pajok Centre and Pajok Odwele in South Sudan and Palabek in Northern Uganda – and invests in clean water, solar power, teachers' housing, boarding and farming, so that refugee children and their host communities can keep learning and thrive together.
To restore hope to communities in Uganda and South Sudan affected by war, poverty, disease and drought – bringing quality education directly to refugee children and the children of their host communities, and meeting basic needs.
A generation of South Sudanese refugees empowered through quality, Christ-centred education, released from the cycle of poverty and conflict, and filled with hope.
We put God first and value all religious denominations – "The Lord is my foundation".
We respect every child, whatever their tribe, religion or nationality, and work as one team with pupils, staff and parents – the reason we exist.
Hard work, excellence and selflessness – with confidence and self-esteem for pupils and staff.
Investing in refugee children is sowing the seeds of peace and prosperity for the next generation.
I founded TEP in 2005 because I saw children growing up in hiding, cut off from school by war. Education was the one thing their families asked for, and the one thing that could change their future.
By God's grace, a single nursery in Pajok has become three campuses serving hundreds of pupils. Thank you to our partners, staff and parents – the Lord is our foundation, and you build on it with us.
Rev. Jackson Olega
Founder & Director
Rev. Jackson Olega starts TEP as a charity foundation; the first Atepi school opens in Pajok.
Upper primary moves to Pajok Odwele with Classroom Block A.
Fighting returns in South Sudan; TEP follows its families into Uganda and opens Atepi Primary School in Palabek.
Registered with Uganda's National NGO Bureau.
Solar power reaches all three campuses; Palabek ranks 6th of 90+ schools in Lamwo District.
The upper primary campus, closed by conflict in 2017, reopens.
Blocks B and C open at Palabek and Block B at Pajok; P.7 and P.8 introduced at Pajok.
TEP works with partners in Uganda, South Sudan and abroad. Among them:
A small Swiss charity that has built and run schools with TEP in South Sudan and Northern Uganda since 2005 – 15 school buildings and boarding houses so far. Board members Kathy and Hanspeter Rüegg spend several months a year at the projects working alongside TEP.
Visit Together (Switzerland)
A UK charity working in Uganda since 2018 so that children are safe, in school and learning. With local partners it runs learning centres in the Palabek Refugee Settlement that teach children at their level, helping those who missed school catch up and move into formal education.
Visit Street Child
HYT is an award-winning charity that trains young people in climate-friendly construction and builds schools, homes and water tanks.
Visit HYT UgandaTEP is also supported by other organisations, churches and individuals – sponsors, donors and volunteers in Uganda and abroad, some of whom prefer not to be named. Thank you.
Become a partnerEvery project is reported to our partners with photos, costs and results, and our books are audited each year.
TEP is an indigenous, Christian-based but non-denominational NGO founded in 2005. We run the Atepi Nursery and Primary School campuses for South Sudanese refugee and host-community children, and the projects that make learning possible – water, solar power, housing, boarding and farming.
Our schools are in Pajok (Magwi County, South Sudan) and the Palabek Refugee Settlement (Lamwo District, Uganda). Our coordination office is in Kampala.
About US$50 a month covers one pupil's education at an Atepi school – school fees, meals and materials. About US$110 a month funds a Ugandan teacher at our Pajok school.
A gift for a named project or sponsorship is used for that purpose. General gifts go where they are needed most in our schools. Every project is reported to our partners with photos, costs and results, and our accounts are audited every year.
