Kearns • You can see the concern in Jim Wirkus' face, and hear the urgency in his voice, as he talks about the conditions of schools and villages half a world away.

He describes the huts that pass for classrooms, the desperate need for basic school supplies, the squalid conditions that surround the schools. He shows pictures of children who don't know where they will get their next meal.

Wirkus, a sixth-grade teacher at Beehive Elementary School in Kearns, has seen the conditions in Uganda and is working to improve them.

Last year, he joined Global Solidarity Partnership, a faith-based effort that helps build schools and clinics and aids villages in the genocide-ravaged African nation.

Wirkus, who also teaches at the Bridges of Hope Academy boarding school near Cape Town, South Africa, returned last month from his third visit to the continent. He has other trips planned in September and early next year.

Beehive's year-round schedule accommodates Wirkus' trips, which average about two weeks.

"The whole idea is to build relationships and find out what their needs are and help," says Wirkus, as he flips through dozens of pictures taken during his humanitarian trips. "It's people caring for people. … If we can't have compassion for other people, what good is it, you know?"

The pictures reveal that in some ways the English-speaking students, classrooms and curriculum are similar to those in Utah. Pinned to the walls are handmade signs showing the chambers of the human heart, the condensation of water and the different ethnic groups in Uganda.

But the juxtaposition is stark: dirt floors, no electricity, no windows, very little food or clean water, classes as large as 75 students. In villages ravaged by AIDS, there are signs on fences, trees and classroom walls denouncing promiscuity and hailing virginity.

"Because of AIDS, there are two or three generations that are gone," Wirkus said. "So there's lots of old folks and lots of kids, but in between is gone."

Wirkus said a little money goes a long way in Uganda, citing examples of a $200 donation that allowed fishermen in a village near Lake Kyoga to buy government-approved nets so they could resume fishing.

About $1,000 would put a cover and pump on a borehole to provide clean water to a village of 300 in northern Uganda, north of Luweero. An entire school can be built for about $10,000.

"It's not like you're giving them a handout," said Wirkus, a former Marine. "You're just giving them a tool so that they can go work and eat. That's the idea behind this whole thing. … It's one person at a time, one thing at a time."

Wirkus donates his time and money to the cause. On his recent trip, he taught algebra to a group of seventh-graders. But there is much more to do.

Beehive Elementary principal Pauline Longberg said the school is in the early stages of figuring out how to help. Some of Wirkus' students have written letters to their peers half a world away, and Longberg said they are looking into adopting one of the Ugandan schools.

"We are exploring all the possibilities right now," Longberg said. "It's a fabulous opportunity for our students to see a world that's bigger than us."

Wirkus and Longberg talk about how they can get Beehive students involved, how to put them in a position to make a personal connection similar to the one Wirkus has experienced.

"Our lower-grade students could benefit from a real-life purpose for writing, and using that paper and pencil," Longberg said. "You know, we think life's hard here, but you don't appreciate the life you live until you see the way someone else lives. … We need to put it in perspective, that's really the important thing for kids to be able to do."

closeup@sltrib.com —

Aid for education

R Beehive Elementary School teacher Jim Wirkus recently returned from his third trip to Africa, where he volunteers to help build schools, educate children and improve poverty-stricken villages in Uganda and helps teach at a boarding school in South Africa.

He educates his Utah students about the conditions of their peers in Uganda, but he and principal Pauline Longberg are looking into ways the Granite District school can help more.