Help Keep 15 Aspiring Ugandan Girls in School

It's what each 6th grade girl at our Agwata girl hopes for:  a sponsor so they know they can continue with their schooling. Children in our district of Uganda are some of the most poor in all of Uganda.  Very few families can afford to send any of their children to 7th grade and above. School is not free and the school fees for 7th grade and above become very expensive. 

This photo shows children in our program who already have sponsors. Each child writes a letter to their sponsor at the end of each term in the school year. They share how their school year is going and what is happening with their friends and family.

But we are not able to immediately find sponsors for all children, and it is especially difficult to find sponsors for girls in 7th grade and above which are more expensive.  This is where this project comes in to bridge this gap;  that potentially huge gap that happens when a girl completes 6th grade, does well, and yet we have not found a sponsor for her.  Instead of her dropping out and facing early marriage, we use your donations through this project to pay for her school fees until a sponsor is found.  Because if the girl stops school after 6th grade, there is usually no opportunity to ever catch up, to ever get the chance for 7th grade again.  As they say in Uganda, you do not want to fall into "the pit".

The 3rd and last term of the school year starts in mid-September, let's make sure no girls fall into the pit.

Thank you to each and every one of you who has helped girls bridge this gap and achieve their dreams instead of falling into "the pit". You truly do make a difference!

Links:

• See our work through photos
• Learn more about us on our web site

This past January, 6th grade students from all over Uganda eagerly awaited their results from the national exams they had taken in November. Their scores would determine whether they could continue on with their schooling and how good of secondary school they could go to for 7th grade.  And of course, they needed to have money to pay for the school fees at that school!

The entire Agwata community, and especially the teachers, students and our project staff were beyond excited to learn that the Agwata school's 6th graders were 3rd overall in the district out of 96 total primary schools. Now that's an amazing accomplishment especially considering that no student got an unsatisfactory or failing grade.

And at the district meeting to discuss the results, our school was singled out as being the school for the best performing girls overall since 2019.  We were thrilled again! Out of the 38 Agwata students who sat for the exams last year, 22 of them were girls!

The only sobering point in all of this is that with so many high performing girls eligible to go on to secondary, very few families in our poor sub-county can afford to pay the school fees to send their child to 7th grade.

And that's where this project to keep girls in school comes in and helps big time! It allowed us to pay school fees for additional girls to go to 7th grade while we continued to find sponsors for them.  In several cases, the girls had one sponsor who providing donations to cover half of their schooling cost.  We can then use additional funding from this project to cover the unfunded other half until a second sponsor is found.

Thank you again for coming through for our girls like Vanessa in the attached photo. Please share this update with your friends, family and co-workers and help even more girls!

Links:

• Visit our web site to learn more!
• See our work through photos