Build an Early Childhood Education Centre, Uganda

GlobalGiving Project Report          

August 1, 2019

IREAD’s 2019 building program is going full speed ahead. We have broken ground on four new Early Childhood Development Centres in Uganda (at Bukeda, Butende, Kanungu, and Luzira) and on two new ECD Centres in Pakistan (at Raman and Shuist). IREAD board directors and ECD Centre donors will travel to Pakistan in the fall of 2019 and to Uganda in the spring of 2020 to inaugurate the Centers and to celebrate the introduction of ECD to the villages’ children. By the end of 2019, IREAD will have 21 ECD Centres—10 in Uganda and 11 in Pakistan.

IREAD’s remarkable growth has been possible thanks to the generosity of people like you. We have received donations of $50,000 USD for each new Ugandan ECD Centre ($200,000 USD total) and $37,500 USD for each Pakistani ECD Centre ($75,000 USD total). We have also received a pledge for our 11^th Uganda ECD Centre, which we will build in 2020.

The fundraising goal for our “Build an Early Childhood Education Centre, Uganda” Global Giving project was $50,000 USD, which we reached in July. What a remarkable success! Thank you, everyone!

With this project wrapped up, our next Global Giving project will raise $30,000 USD to provide critical help to our village-led Centre Management Committees (CMCs) struggling to operate and maintain their IREAD ECD Centres. Although the CMCs charge school fees (ranging from $8 to $11 per term), they commonly waive fees. About 97% of our parents are subsistence farmers and the household’s income is heavily impacted by drought, heavy rains, low market prices, and so on. If school fees collected are insufficient, our CMCs cannot pay teachers; maintain and refurbish the Centres; supply the schools with water, soap, firewood and other necessities; provide school supplies and school uniforms; and give the children a nutritious meal each day. IREAD staff and volunteers in Uganda and Pakistan and IREAD board directors, in consultation with CMC leaders, will direct funds raised to those villages where the need is greatest.

We are very grateful for your support and encouragement and hope you will join us in making certain our CMCs can provide the best possible learning environment for IREAD’s ECD children in Uganda and Pakistan.

IREAD has broken ground on the first of seven Early Childhood Development Centres that will be built in 2019. Five ECD Centres will be built in Uganda (at Bukeda, Butende, Kasangati, Luzira, and Kanunga) and two in Pakistan (at Raman and Shuist). These new ECD Centres will allow for an additional 2,400 ECD enrolments each year and will bring us to 22 ECD Centres in total by the end of 2019.

 IREAD builds centres in remote villages where ECD is not already offered but where there are sufficient numbers of children aged 3 to 6 to warrant an ECD program. Our criteria also includes selecting a villages that are eager to form a volunteer Centre Management Committee (CMC).

 CMCs are integral to IREAD successfully delivering ECD programs. In addition to attaining local building material (bricks, sand, dirt) to build the Centre and providing unskilled labour to help with construction, once the school is operational the CMC moves into a management role. Members of the CMC act as our ambassadors, encouraging the village’s parents to enrol their children. The CMC sets and collects the school fees (which in Uganda typically ranges from $8 to $11). It is not uncommon, however, for fees to be lowered or waived for parents who cannot pay. About 97% of our parents are subsistence farmers and the household’s income can be heavily impacted by drought and low market prices.

 The CMC uses the school fees to pay for:

• Teachers’ wages (IREAD pays for their training)
• Lunches (cereal) and a cook
• School supplies such as paper, crayons, markets
• Necessities such as water, soap, firewood
• Security

We are very grateful for your support and encouragement. Your gifts are helping with the construction of one of the five new schools in Uganda (we have received pledges for the four other Uganda schools and the two Pakistan schools), and will help us to support the CMCs that do not collect the school fees they need to ensure they can provide the best possible ECD environment for the village's children.

 Thank you.