Educate 200 War & HIV/AIDS-Orphaned Ugandan Girl

“Educate 200 War and HIV/AIDS Orphaned Ugandan Girls” is a project that has given hope and a better future through education to more than 150 beneficiaries in northern Uganda, despite the hardships endured due to the absence of their biological parents who they lost either to HIV/AIDS or the 21 years long LRA rebel war.

Some of the beneficiaries due to the effort of the organization (platform for labour action), have managed to get full education scholarship for school fees and only need counseling and scholastic materials for the organization, most of these beneficiaries that require only scholastic materials are secondary going beneficiaries while one girl has managed to get free rehabilitation center from one of the NGO’s here in Lira,

School monitoring visits
11 school monitoring visits were this quarter made to PLA beneficiaries. 21 girls were visited at their respective schools that they enrolled in; the major reason for the visit was to monitor the girls’ school and class room progress. Most of the girls such as Atala , Aygiketty and Morine are steady improving in their performance in class as seen in their [progress reports and teachers comments at the schools.
The girls were visited in their different schools of Lira parents, Lira Police primary school, Lango Quran primary school, Sir Samuel Joe primary school, Adyel primary school, railways primary school, Lira modern primary school, Lira primary school, Railways primary school, Lira Police primary school and secondary schools such as Menta secondary school, Amach complex secondary school and King James secondary school.

During the visits, the beneficiaries were talked to on a one on one basis while sharing their experience about life at and out of school and the difference in their livelihood since PLA’s support and how they feel about the support that they continue to get.

Counseling

All the beneficiaries monitored got counseling services from the organization, some of the beneficiaries were able to share personal issues while the majority had mainly challenges at school psychological support was therefore provided to those children who seem to decline in performance to help them realize the importance of education and thus improve on their performances.

The teachers were too involved in the discussion to work together with PLA staff to ensure the improvement of the beneficiaries in both school and class work. The beneficiaries in schools also discussed their performances and came to better conclusion that they will seek help from their teachers and hold group discussions to help improve on their performances.

Referrals
This quarter due to the referral system, we were able to access food and shelter for 7 children from child restoration centers an organization here in Lira, we have also managed to start rehabilitation for one of the beneficiaries Akullo from Adina rehabilitation center.

Home monitoring visits
3 home visits were made to 5 beneficiaries that were inclusive of Morine, Atai, Ejang, Nebila and Apio.

Additional Visits to beneficiaries such as Immaculate and Fauza were as a result of calls made from their neighbors complaining of the mistreatment of the girls by their guardians, this called for a meeting with the guardian of the girls who pledged to start treating the girls as their own however, hey reported their inability to support the girls financially because themselves cannot afford the basic necessity due to lack of money.
Other beneficiaries such Atai and Morine we visit so as to encourage them to work had at school since they had joined secondary school late after all the students had reported due to challenges.

The girls have been able to improve their performance as evidenced by Morine who managed be in the 24th position out of 211 students in her form one class at King James secondary school, Also Ataiwas in the 48th position out of 119 students in her form two class at Amach Complex secondary school in Lira.

PLANNED ACTIVITIES
PLA will continue to support the girls in providing them with physiological support, scholastic materials and school lunch. Monitoring visits to both the schools and homes will be carried out to analyze the progress of the girls in their performance at home and at school; this will ascertain what kind support the girls need most.
More girls are going to be identified and introduced to the project to with the support from Global Giving donors and well wishers.

MORINE’ STORY

Morine’s journey through primary school has not been an easy one and it had become even worse when her PLE results were back and there was no clear indication of continuing with school.
The 15-year old came close to an early marriage when the final help came from the director of King James secondary school who offered her full scholarship at his school.

Morine was born to the late Okello and the late Amony and she is now in care of her 40-year old paternal aunt g Anna.

Morine parents were both killed by the rebels in 2000, “after their death, my grandfather tried to cater for me but he became helpless until aunt Anna took me up, but she can also hardly help. It is the church that provides for us but it’s also fading away,” sadly mentioned Morine.

Morine has 2 siblings whom she doesn’t know where they are or who could be supporting them, she continues to be grateful to PLA for the support that they have renderer her in the past years of her school.

PLA started supporting Morine right from primary five to her completion of primary seven at Sir Samuel Joe primary school.

Morine held a number of responsibilities while at Sir Samuel Joe nursery and primary school and among this was her position as the head prefect at her school. Much as this position was competitive, she emerged the winner due to her discipline, performance in school and especially the leadership skills that she portrayed.

In her free time Morine loves to do a lot of things which are inclusive of time spent in church and playing handball.
“I love playing hand ball and singing, I also teach Sunday school children at our church in Ogena Christian church,” happily narrated Morine

As the results were lanched, Morine’s quest for funds for her secondary education started, she made several visits to PLA office, which in turn also made several follow ups with the owner of Guru Nana an industry that produces shea butter, who had promised to sponsor at least 3 of PLA primary seven beneficiaries.

There was no response to Morine’s request and time went by as other now Senior one students reported to school.

This depressed Morine so much that lead her to thinking of suicide, that she attempt twice, on hearing this, it provoked another search for a donor to support Morine in School.

During the counseling session, Morine shared that one of the reasons as to why she wanted to commit suicide was because she saw no future ahead of her with education and to make matters worse her guardian wanted to marry her off just so that she could have less mouth to feed and also gain something out of it.

This story was therefore shared with the director of King James secondary who felt touched and rendered full support to Morine. The support is inclusive of school uniform, full fees till university, scholastic materials, out of school clothes and pocket money.

PLA shall continue to psychological support Morine especially during the school holidays.

“It has been a tough time for me and I thank you for standing by me”, slowly shared Morine as she made the final departure to her new home and school.

Above is a picture showing PLA Administrative Volunteer after he had handed Morine some counter books and pens at King James Secondary School Lira

The administrative volunteer Odong was therefore able to take Morine to the school and she was left in the hands of the director of the school, who mentioned that Morine was now his daughter who he has vowed to take care of.

• Morine`s photo (DOCX)