As with other organizations, we have identified that education is one of the most important factors that will break the circle of despair that many Ugandans are in. With education people can understand how to control pests that destroy crops, understand the causes and prevention of AIDS, get better jobs and become the future leaders in their country.

While education in Uganda has improved over the years it still falls far short of the same in England. In recent years the Government of Uganda has embarked on education improvement and now 82% of children attend primary school, however with poorly paid and motivated teaching staff all the children can hope to achieve is to be able to read and write and do a few sums.

In Uganda, like in England 100 years ago, education is not free; parents and guardians have to find upwards of 40,000 Ugandan Shillings (about £15) per term to send their children to school. This may not sound like much but if the parents/guardians have little or no money (there is no social security or government handouts here) then it is impossible. Many local churches ran "Sunday" schools throughout the week. Besides being taught, the children usually receive a hot meal each day.

Private schools in Uganda do exist but the termly fees of at least five times that of the government run schools mean that this education is only for the children of well to do families.

We began our child sponsorship programme in 2006 with the intention of being able to provide high quality education to the poorest of Ugandan children; orphans and children of destitute families.

Many of these are, uneducated, unloved, wearing hand-me-down clothes that don't fit, with no hope and no future in life. Can you sponsor one of them? To give them, and their country, a future?

Sponsorship costs £15 per month and this will provide your child with a quality education at a selected school, nutritious food, a mosquito net to help prevent malaria and health care. For more details please contact Jane Sullivan on 0161 438 0879 or contact her via our Contact Page

What does sponsorship mean to the child?

• 3 meals a day instead of 1
• A bed and matress to sleep on instead of the floor
• A mosquito net to help prevent malaria
• Knowing that somebody cares about them
• A good education increasing the chances of a good job
• Access to healthcare and medicine

What does sponsorship mean to the parent/guardian?

• One less mouth to feed
• More room in the house
• When the child gets a good job more money comes into the home

By the end of 2008 we had managed to find sponsors for 139 children. While most of the children have been enrolled at a boarding school, a few are placed as day scholars at schools close to their homes; this is usually due to living too far away from the boarding school, being in secondary school or because the child has been tested HIV Positive and the parent needs to administer daily drugs. In all situations we chose a school that will give the best possible education.

We are currently building our own school at Bombo, a town some 12 miles north of Kampala. When the first phase is built we will use this for some of our sponsored children. The full project is to build a school, catering for up to 1000 children, a clinic and a meeting centre. We aim to provide accomodation, for orphaned children, living together in small units each with its own "house mother" to look after them. We aim to plant crops for food and equip the school with a library of books, computers and laboratories, games and sports, and run co-curricular activities like sports, music, drama and dance.

We have the land, the plans for the school are complete and building began in January 2008. We expect the first phase to be complete sometime in 2009.

LATEST NEWS
We want to give thanks for the many people who have come forward to sponsor some of these children. We now have over 140 children sponsored and in School with another 20 on the way. That's 160 lives that will never be the same again! Which one of these will be a future Business Man/Woman, Pastor, Teacher, Doctor or even President?

By February 2009 the walls of the Pre–Primary School are up to roof level. Currently we are purchasing roofing materials and we hope to have this first phase completed soon. We thank God for our Partners and Supporters who have financed this so far and we believe in Him to provide the rest of the finance.