Help Keep 15 Aspiring Ugandan Girls in School

We're excited that our Agwata school 6th graders have been back in school since October!

In October, the Ugandan government allowed students in "candidate classes" to go back to school and begin a time of intensive study for their year-end national exams which are now scheduled for late March 2021.

"Candidate classes" means that 6th, 10th and 12th grade students as well as university and vocational students in their final year can go back to classes. We hope that within the next month or two more if not all students will be back in school.  It is extremely difficult for young students especially, to study from printed materials at home.

Currently, there are 44 6th graders boarding at the Agwata school. Twenty-five of these students are girls. They are studying hard to make up for five missed months of school. We also have quite a few sponsored students in 10th and 12th grade and even university that are back in school now.

This is hugely good and everyone is glad to see girls back in school. We are concerned that when they are out of school, they may become overburdened with farming and housework and loose their focus. Or worse, go astray and become pregnant.  At least with our 6th graders, this has not been the case. All but one returned back to school.

That is why, as we mentioned in our prior letters to you, we have been meeting with the girls periodically to help keep them motivated and focused on schooling and their goals in life.  We will continue to do this until everyone is back in school.

We thank you for your continued interest and support of our project during these difficult times. It makes a huge differene! Your support helps us make sure more girls stay in school and remain focused on their goals.

We are very grateful!

Links:

• Our Web Site
• See our work visually in photos

Uganda's lockdown, with no school in session, has continued longer than we had hoped. As of today, schools are still closed. The government still prohibits gatherings larger than 5 people. Students have received study materials in June and are supposed to be studying at home.

In light of these circumstances, our Uganda staff requested special permission from the district to conduct special occasional meetings with the girls in our parish (like a county). We began meeting with them in mid-July to stress the continued importance of school and studying while at home, to encourage them to focus on their goals, and to receive feedback from them on the issues they face at home during the lockdown.

Fifty--eight girls attended the first meeting. We've included a photo of that meeting in this report. The biggest issue they reported was being overworked at home doing farming as well as caring for younger siblings. In two cases, the mother had permanently left the home. The girls were excited about the meeting and all agreed the meetings should continue.

Our staff met the next week with the mothers to provide encouragement, and give feedback from the girls meeting. Staff also met with district education officials to brief them on the status of our girls and encourage the district to promote similar meetings throughout the district.

We are continuing to monitor the situation and have also scheduled our primary school's teachers to meet with 6th grade students individually at their homes to help with the students' home learning, answer questions etc.

We believe our girls are doing the best possible under the circumstances. In the next month, we will discuss more with district education officials to see if we can help with girls' meetings at other nearby schools in our district.

We thank you for your continued support of keeping girls motivated about their schooling and for giving us the means to assist especially those girls who do not yet have sponsors.

We would very much appreciate if you can share about this project with your friends, family and co-workers who feel strongly about girls' education.

Links:

• Our web site
• See our work in photos