Help Keep 15 Aspiring Ugandan Girls in School

Tomorrow starts the new Uganda school year. We've exiciting news about the girls from Agwata village.  In 2019 the school had the largest graduating class of girls (13) and they performed the best ever on their national exams that they took last November. In fact, this is the first time ever that one of our girls scored in the top division on the national exams.

We've got more good news--the incoming 6th grade class this year is the largest ever at 40 students with 25 girls, almost double our 2019 girl poopulation.  What a contrast to 2011 when we first began working in Agwata village and there were no girls in 6th grade!

But with all this good news comes challenges. We have found lots of sponsors for these girls but more sponsors are needed.  As we continue to look for sponsors, we remain very grateful to this GlobalGiving project for providing funding to plug the difference and allow additional girls to begin the school year tomorrow even if they have no long term sponsor.

You are helping girls like Patricia in this photo who does not yet have a sponsor but wants to go to 7th grade so she can eventually become a nurse.  She's extremely hard working and did well on her year-end exams.

And, as we mentioned in our last report, we want Patricia to achieve her dreams but we also know that (based on UN statistics):

Girls who complete secondary school (7th to 12th grade) will most likely: 

• Be 60% more likely to find work
• Be 66% less likely to marry at a young age
• Be 60% less likely to have children before she reaches age 18
• Be 50% less likely that any of her children will die before age 5 when she becomes a mother herself
• Be 70% less likely to die in child birth

Thank you for helping Patricia and other girls like her start or continue on the path of completing secondary school! It's a huge gift to them and we couldn't do it without you!

Links:

• Our web site
• See our work in photos

I’d like to introduce you to Adeno so you can see first hand, how your donations are impacting girls' lives. Adeno joined our sponsorship program very early in 2008 when she was still in primary school. She is very thankful to her sponsors that she has had this opportunity in her life.

Adeno comes from a large family including her parents. Her mother is one of the women artisans in our Jinja craft group. Her family lives in a single rented room in one of the worst Jinja slums (her home is shown in the 3^rd photo). Adeno attended the nearby government primary school. Even that would have been impossible without her participating in our sponsorship program.

When younger, she dreamed of being a teacher. But when she finished 10th grade, she decided to branch to vocational school. She even received a scholarship for her tuition to join a catering course. Sponsorship means she could board at the school where she could focus totally on her studies.  She excelled in her studies.

This past summer she decided to pursue a two year associate’s degree course in travel and tourism. During her 2 month break from school, she joined us in Agwata village for four weeks as our paid chef. She started her degree course in September thanks to continued support from Outreach Uganda’s child sponsorship program.

This may not seem extraordinary. But comparing Adeno to other girls who grew up in the same slums, most are married with a couple of children. They have no means to support themselves or their families and no prospects for a future.

Because Adeno has completed 4 years of secondary school and will most likely complete 2 more years of schooling, we know that statistically per the UN:

• She is 60% more likely to find work
• She is 66% less likely to marry at a young age
• She is 60% less likely to have children before she reaches age 18
• When she becomes a mother, it is 50% less likely that any of her children will die before age 5
• She is 70% less likely to die in child birth

Thank you for your support to enable more girls like Adeno to enter our sponsorship program and develop into hopeful young women like Adeno.

Links:

• Our web site
• Follow Us on Instagram!

I just returned from spending five weeks in Uganda, including three weeks at the northern Uganda school where we have 13 sixth grade girls boarding. Through your support, as well as help from other donors, we purchased rain coats for each of the girls plus English textbooks and math sets for the new library. The girls can study in the library outside of class time each day. So it is very helpful having the textbooks readily available.

Books are very rare in Uganda, even at schools. We're quite excited that the school library is complete, and stocked with an inventory of 1800 books of all types for students in kindergarten to 6th grade. One entire shelf contains pupils' textbooks which are concentrated initially on 5th and 6th grade. We hope to expand this further next year.

Thanks so much for helping make the girls' learning more productive as they continue to study for their very important year-end exams in November.

Links:

• School Excitement: 6th Grade Girls with New Rain Coats
• Catch up on current Outreach Uganda news.

The 2nd term of Uganda's school year began on May 27th.  The Agwata School's 6th grade class has 13 girls in its class of 24 students. These girls are very appreciative of being able to board at school during this term.  Your continued support makes it possible for all girls to board at school regardless of whether they have a permanent sponsor or not.

Your support helps pay for food and supply costs to support the unsponsored girls at school during the school term.  There was a severe drought in this area of northern Uganda duirng the last half of 2018. This meant very little harvest at year end. Parents are struggling now to provide food for their families until the 2019 harvest later this year.  This makes it especially important and valuable for the 6th grade girls to stay at school where they receive three meals per day.

Boarding at school is not a luxury. The students follow a rigorous schedule of studying while they board at school. This provides them ample time for extra lessons from the teachers as well as time to revise their notes and study with fellow students. The girls hope that their extra study time will pay off when they take their very important year end exams at the end of November.

Thanks so much for your generous contributions which help make this possible!

Links:

• Our web site
• See our work in photos on Instagram

Thanks to your help, girls like Jully are able to stay in school--even when tragedy strikes. Jully was lucky. She was already in our sponsorship program when her mother passed away late last year.  But many other girls are not so fortunate.  With your help through this Globalgiving project, if we hear of a girl in our sub-county who suddenly loses a parent or guardian, we can step in and assist the family to keep the girl in school on a temporary basis until a more permanent sponsor can be found.

The ability to quickly respond in such emergency situations in many cases allows the girl to continue in school without interruption even when her family life suddenly changes. In Jully's case, we were able to place her in our boarding section at school since her new guardian was very overloaded and otherwise unable to send her to school.

We appreciate your continued help which allows even more girls to be helped immediately when they might be in the midst of a crisis and likely to drop out of school.

Thank you for making a difference in girls' lives!

Links:

• https://outreachuganda.org