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This past February, we had to make some tough decisions on how many girls we could award scholarships to for 7th grade. The wonderful news that so many of our 6th grade students had done well on their year end exams in December was tempered by the stress of knowing that we did not currently have enough sponsors to support all students that had excelled on those exams.
Thanks to your donations through this GlobalGiving program, we boldly agreed to sponsor an additional eight girls to go to 7th grade even though we had no current sponsors for them. We knew that if we did not offer them scholarships at this critical point in their schooling, they would most likely drop out of school forever. Sixth grade would have been the end point of their education. And considering how well many of them did on their exams, that would have been truly sad.
So we agreed to provide scholarships for these eight girls in hopes that we would be able to find sponsors for these children later this year. So far, we have found sponsors for four of them and are continuing to urgently seek sponsors for the remaining four. We have included the photos of two of these girls, Esther and Lona, who very much appreciate that they are able to be in school at this very moment in spite of having no sponsor!
Your GlobalGiving donations are what is making this possible, to be able to pay their school fees until a more long-term sponsor can be found for them.
Thank you for your generosity in making sure these girls could continue their education and follow their dreams!
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We're excited to share with you a success story of one of our sponsored students, Scovia. You might wonder does the support I provide to keep girls in school through this GlobalGiving project really matter? Is it really helping Ugandan girls stay in school?
Scovia is a real life example of why this project to keep girls in school really does makes a difference. It is not a simple task to keep a girl in school starting from when they are younger, during puberty and the early teenage years when as teens they do not always make the wisest choices in life and finally through their later teenage years and into their early twenties when you can see more clearly that they are maturing, growing older and wiser, and are more clear about the goals they want to accomplish and have an understanding that what they are doing is something that most of their friends did not have a chance to do.
Scovia turned 20 late last year. She had first joined our sponsorship program in 2017 as she completed 6th grade and was wanting and hoping to join 7th grade. However, she was living with an aunt at the time and the aunt could not afford to pay her fees. Her father had been a soldier and was killed during the LRA war. Scovia had done well on her exams but we initially could find a sponsor to pay only half of her sponsorship cost. We needed more time to find a second sponsor to contribute for the other half of her sponsorship cost.
It was only through this project's help, that Scovia was able to be accepted into the sponsorship program. She was joining 7th grade in February 2017 which was the very time that our GlobalGiving project began so that it could provide key short-term help so girls continue their schooling while we continued to locate enough needed longer term sponsors for them.
As one of the first beneficiaries of this project, Scovia is very grateful for the dedication and support each year which has allowed her to complete 7th to 10th grade, and then branch to a two year vocational course in Agriculture. Her goal is to start her own farm while also being either an extension worker or farm manager for someone else.
She is the 2nd oldest of five children in her family and her goal is also to be able to help her siblings with their education. In the meantime, she is a role model for them.
So, not only is Scovia very grateful for this project and YOU, we also are very grateful for your support and humbled by your generosity especiallly during the last couple of challenging years!
Please feel free to share about this project with friends, family and co-workers that might be interested in donating to change another girl's life forever!
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Your support of this project gives girls a much sought after chance to continue their schooling. But it gives more than that! In addition to going to school, each girl is also given mentoring and coaching to help her make good schooling choices and good life choices along the way.
In addition, girls who are still in primary school also participate in occasional fun group and team building activities as shown in the attached photo of over 60 girls participating in a Saturday morning activity day at our library where they played educational games, and made fun beaded necklaces that they could wear.
On another day, they gathered together after school to learn how to make liquid soap as shown in our second photo. This is a possible activity one girl or a group of girls could do to help earn small amounts of money to provide funds for needed personal items and supplies while boarding at school.
So, we thank you for not only making schooling possible, but for giving girls the chance to interact with other girls, learn important life stills and have time to JUST BE GiRLS and not grow up too soon!
Thanks for making this possible. Please feel free to share this update with friends, co-workers or family members who may want to help more girls through this project!
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Your support is critical for helping keep 7th to 12th grade girls in school. And the single most important Outreach Uganda program to help make sure girls graduate from 6th grade with average to excellent grades is our Girls' Education Initiative Program. Because this program has been extremely successful since its founding in 2011, more girls are eager and excited to head on to 7th grade to continue their education.
We wanted to update you about this key program for younger girls that allows so many to complete 6th grade. It wasn't always that way. Prior to the program's beginning in 2011, almost no girls in Agwata were finishing 6th grade. Many were not starting school at all or were dropping out as early as 2nd or 3rd grade. There were no girls to sponsor for 7th grade and above in 2011!
We founded the Girls' Education Initiative to change this and make sure our primary school was increasing the enrollment of girls in 1st to 6th grade. An equally important objective was to start a boarding program for 6th grade girls to improve their academic performance on the very important national year end PLE exam each November and to provide life skills training so younger girls understood their options after 6th grade and could see the importance of being successful in school.
The 6th grade girls' boarding program at the Agwata school provides:
What this means is girls make up 50% or more of each 1st to 6th grade class at the Agwata school. The girls have been achieving very well on the 6th grade year end national exams, far above average and usually with some of the highest scores in our district which has 73 primary schools.
And that is where you come in! Instead of having no future or possibly entering into early marriage, our girls know that they have a choice. They can continue to 7th grade and beyond because of your monetary support. And for that, we are EXTREMELY grateful.
Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for the life changing chance you are giving these girls. We would appreciate your sharing of this report, with friends, family and co-workers who would like to be part of this life changing opportunity!
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Jacky, pictured in this January photo, is very happy to learn that she's been accepted into Outreach Uganda's girls' education program. She completed 6th grade in November 2021, excelled on her required year end national exams,.But was uncertain if she would be able to continue to secondary school this year.
Jacky realized her family could not afford to pay any of her school fees for 7th grade. Because of this, her prospects for continuing in school were very dim. Many of her friends had not even made it this far in school, often dropping out in 3rd or 4th grade! In Uganda, 7th grade and above is not free and serious students are expected to board at the school which makes it even more expensive.
Jacky lives with her grandmother and four siblings in a mud and thatch hut in Agwata village. She helps her grandmother as much as possible around the home in her spare time. But her grandmother could barely afford food for the family.
Jacky heard about our scholarship program, applied and was accepted into the program! However, until a more long term sponsor can be located to fund this additional scholarship, it is your contributions through this GlobalGiving project that allowed Jacky to start 7th grade in mid-January and not fall behind in her studies. She is now in school and pursuing her dream of being an accountant one day!
We thank you so much for providing key funding through this project, that allows us to respond timely to girls' schooling needs so they do not become a dropout statistic especially at this important transition time between 6th and 7th grade.
Please share about this project with your friends, family and co-workers who feel strongly about keeping girls in school.
Thanks again for all your help!
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