Send refugee and poor children to school in Uganda

By Joseph Munyambaza,           COBURWAS Education Director.

Dear our friends and supporters,

We say, special Thank you for supporting COBURWAS to provide education, leadership and entrepreneurship to refugees and underprivileged youth in Uganda. 

We are glad to inform you that our students have continued to do well in the national exams, this year we have got 8 students that have qualified to join university.

COBURWAS is preparing for a new school year and we are now supporting 300 students’ education. In addition to supporting students’ housing so they can attend secondary school and tutoring and COBURWAS Primary School, COBURWAS has also established an anti-violence young women’s empowerment initiative, an agricultural/collective farming initiative which leverages micro-finance, and a small business development and vocational training programming for widows and girls who never got the opportunity to go to school.

By supporting the COBURWAS students, you are making an investment in not only an individual life, but also a community, and a continent. You are giving an education that empowers and enables a young person to be an agent for positive change in his or her community. By educating young refugee girls and boys you give them hope that will sustain them in building their communities when they return to their home countries.

How can your support help?

Is a day of learning worth 67 cents? Just 67 cents covers accommodation, medication, clean water and electricity for one high school student for one day. But to unlock the potential in all youth, we have to make every day count!

Can you help give the chance for a better future for a child for a day, a month, or even a year?

Thank you so much, 

Links:

• The Inspiring Work of Joseph Munyambanza, a member of the Global

• By_Joseph_Munyambaza.docx (DOCX)

Dear our friends and supporters,

In this month of Thanksgiving, We say, special Thank you for supporting COBURWAS to provide education, leadership and entrepreneurship to refugees and underprivileged youth in Uganda.  

Our 2012 Calendar is based on the school Calendar for the 90 students living in the COBURWAS students hostels have gone back home after finishing their end of year examinations.  

On November 16, 20 students who were in senior four (equivalent to grade 10) a level in which one has to take National examination to qualify for Advanced level. And on November 23, the 6 students who were in their last year of high school finished their National Examination. The other 64 students were in other classes (senior one to three) did end of year exams which are set by school. And they will go to the next level in the year 2013. COBURWAS also has been able to support about 8 students with interests in vocational education. These students have as well found it easy to go to school while accessing health services, accommodation and guidance through your support. This is a big achievement for COBURWAS, friends and to many communities in Africa. We are so grateful that you enabled us to make this happen.

Since 1997 the refugees in Kyangwali settlement did not have an opportunity to access high school education.  In more than 10 NGO’s operating in Kyangwali settlement only COBURWAS has been able to send a big number of girls and boys in higher institution of learning. We believe in education and we put if first in all that we do. By standing on your shoulders my friends and I (the COBURWAS leadership team) are providing education to the growing passionate leaders who will change communities in Africa. 

In addition to starting farming projects, microfinance projects to support widows and orphans, our students are also going back to help set up more tutoring program to support and inspire more refugee children to do well in school and some of them are volunteering as teachers at our primary school. All this makes our management easy and less costly.   

Any step we make in providing to a refugee girl or boy, it brings exponential changes to a larger community. At first we were called, “the refugees” but today we are becoming leaders, entrepreneurs and the agents of positive change. We now have hope and every day we are dreaming for a better Africa we build together because we are growing stronger because of your support.

It is very hard and impossible to precisely express how grateful for your big support. We pray with hope that God will continue to bless you.

For us to continue supporting youth, we need YOU, your friends, your family, your co-workers, church members, and neighbors to help us raise the required funds. This will not happen without you! Please tell your friends, family, co-workers, church members and neighbors. Ask them to invite 10 friends to give and tell them why you gave. Post the link on your facebook page, tweeting or emailing or anything else you can think of! Thank you again for allowing CIYOTA transform communities in Africa by preparing, developing, and empowering a unified group of young leaders to tackle the greatest challenges facing our communities. 

With heartfelt appreciation

Joseph Munyambanza, Benson Wereje, Daniel Muhwezi, Bahati Marcel, Nziyonvira Ntakamaze and the whole COBURWAS family

• Dear_our_friends_and_supporters.pdf (PDF)
  

Dear friends and supporters,

In the previous term (1^st term 2012), the hostel witnessed several achievements.

The students also moved into two bigger residences with fully functional piped water.

For the first time, the hostels received qualified administrators to take of the students. The boys received a full time patron while the girls received a matron. The medical problems were managed by the matron also acting as the hostel nurse owing to her professional background.

Academically, hostel students awaiting to join A’ Level performed very well including first grades which enabled one boy reach the finals of admission into the Cornerstone Leadership Academy as well as having one girl being admitted to the prestigious African Leadership Academy and other students placed on the waiting list.

The hostel also received a consignment of text books mostly Science based; donated by student friends from the USA.

The hostels acquired a qualified matron who also acts as the hostel nurse. This has seen the number of sickness cases reduce. Plans have been finalized to ensure that there is procurement of basic medication to respond to the immediate medical needs of the students pending referral to more equipped health facilities whenever need arises.

There has also been recruitment of a qualified hostel manager has ensured that cases of low school attendance, poor hygiene, etc are reduced.

Busisi JeanBapt

I thank CIYOTA for the effort put in molding my life and I don’t hope to regret in my life because even if I have not fully succeeded to where I want to be, I have I can see that I will reach where I want to go.

I have a passion for providing a solution to my community problems and dream of a situation when everyone can have a chance to go to school which I have witnessed can change lives.

• COBURWASStudentshostels.pdf (PDF)
  

Dear CIYOTA friends and supporters,

We would like to thank you for your continued support and to update you on our progress.

In just 4 years since we opened up the students hostels, more than 400 youth have got access to education and 5 started social ventures to solve problems in their communities.

This year we have hired professional hostel manager and a nurse. The hostel is headed by the Hostel Manager, Musenze Solomon a graduate in social work and social administration from Makerere University. The Assistant Hostel Manager, Asaba Jovia a professional Nurse. She works as a hostel nurse and matron.

This week we are working with the district surveyors to open up the land boundary so that we can start preparing the site for making bricks and construction.

For us to continue supporting youth, we need YOU, your friends, your family, your co-workers, church members, and neighbors to help us raise $100,000 for the construction of the hostel building.  This will not happen without you! Please tell your friends, family, co-workers, church members and neighbors. Ask them to invite 10 friends to give and tell them why you gave. Post the link on your facebook page, tweeting or emailing or anything else you can think of! Thank you again for allowing CIYOTA transform communities in Africa by preparing, developing, and empowering a unified group of young leaders to tackle the greatest challenges facing our communities.

Sincerely,

Daniel

• Dear_CIYOTA_friends_and_supporters.docx (DOCX)

Dear CIYOTA friends and supporters, Thank you for your generous donation to CIYOTA. With your help CIYOTA now has secured a permanent fundraising place at the GlobalGiving website and raised $6225. I cannot tell you how much your donation means to us, the two permanent hostel buildings will enable refugee and underprivileged Ugandan Children get access to better and functional education, practical social entrepreneurship and leadership skills. Today, CIYOTA students have started many social innovative ventures in their communities and positively impacted many lives. The first hostel opened in 2008 in Hoima, Uganda, a town 80 km from Kyangwali. It has 100 members, including Ugandans, and refugees from D.R. Congo, Rwanda and Sudan. Through a partnership with government-run schools, hostel members attend for free under a universal education initiative that did not previously accept refugees and has not reached rural communities. Our students excel academically and assume school and community leadership positions. They are planting trees to protect the environment, doing HIV/AIDS prevention, fighting malaria, and helping the needy. We will continue to develop the Hoima hostels by building two permanent structures and making them financially sustainable by starting income-generating projects that the hostel members help run. The primary need addressed by the hostel-lack of access to quality education-is prevalent. We envision one day spreading our hostel model to other communities throughout the world. For us to continue supporting youth, we need YOU, your friends, your family, your co-workers, church members, and neighbors to help us raise $100,000 by June 30th, 2012! This will not happen without you! Please tell your friends, family, co-workers, church members and neighbors. Ask them to invite 10 friends to give and tell them why you gave. Post the link on your facebook page, tweeting or emailing or anything else you can think of! Thank you again for allowing CIYOTA transform communities in Africa by preparing, developing, and empowering a unified group of young leaders to tackle the greatest challenges facing our communities. Sincerely, Daniel

• project_update.pdf (PDF)