Give a child the start to education for a year

In Uganda, schools have been closed since March 2020, putting 15 million pupils out of education. Only certain classes with exams coming up have been allowed to return. The rest will return in a staggered way in the coming months, though thousands of girls will not, having become pregnant or been married off in the intervening period.

In the Gulu district in the north of the country where we operate, many school going children are making bricks, selling bread or fruits under the burning sun for pennies, rather than attending classes. Their plight is part of a wider rise in children working in the region.

The children here still have fun, sometimes finding time to play hide-and-seek or perform tricks with skipping ropes, but do not know if they will ever go back to school. Their mothers worry about the physical impact this is having on their children. Mothers are aware that making bricks brings physical problems like pain in the arms and spine but they can’t see any other way for their families to survive.

The government of Uganda encourages online classes where possible for these children. However, our new Agape school is still short of finances to acquire the necessary gadgets and equipment & training to make digital classes possible. We are still counting on the generosity of you our well wishers to make this dream possible and give these children a better future.

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A good quality education helps children reach their full potential; However, for thousands of children in Northern Uganda its beyond reach and many are not learning due to the government measures to curb down the spread of COVID-19.

All children, of all ages are being affected, in particular by the socio-economic impacts and in some cases, by mitigation measures that may inadvertently do more harm than good.

Moreover, the harmful effects of this pandemic will not be distributed equally. They are expected to be most damaging for children in the poorest neighbourhoods, and for those in already disadvantaged or vulnerable situations.

The potential losses that may accrue in learning for todays young generation, and for the development of their human capital, are hard to fathom. Schools for more than 168 million children globally have been completely closed for almost an entire year due to COVID-19 lockdowns. Even prior to the pandemic, children’s learning was in crisis, and the pandemic has only sharpened these inequalities, hitting schoolchildren in poor countries particularly hard.

Though the government has been quick to implement remote learning, new health protocols and reopening plans, these measures have varied widely based on each family’s wealth and the capacity of the schools. Since most families have lost their sources of income due to the pandemic, they can’t afford the tablets, laptops, Television sets as well as radios to access lessons. The schools too don’t have the capacity to acquire these online teaching gadgets since there are not readily available funds!

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