Support Educating Secondary Students in Uganda

Healthcare Volunteer Uganda (HVU) continues the struggle lobbying for support to promote education
of orphans and vulnerable young people providing them with tuition fees and scholastic materials which
are essential for facilitating their learning at school. Many families where OVCs come from live  under
distressed conditions, even some children live on their own and as such cannot afford secondary school
education. Many of Students who cannot afford the requirements of being at school have continued to
drop out of school while those who persist have poor education attainment due frequent miss out of
classes and inability to perform academic tasks given at school.

Activities:

Enrolling Students in need of support for education:

From  January to mid February HVU has
been registering students who are in most need for educational support. A total of 10 students
were registered two of which are HIV positive, while eight are complete orphans and living with
HIV positive care takers. All the ten students do not have assured support for school fees and
other scholastic materials and many have not yet returned to school for this school term. The
total cost for school fees for one term for any given student is $ 150, $40 for uniform, $40 for
examination fees, and $ 50 for scholastic materials. Other miscellaneous fees amount to $120
bringing the total cost for all the items for one school year to $USD400.

Assessing Alternative means of sustainability for the OVCs Households:

In  an  effort  to  promote  the  principle  of  sustainability,  HVU  with  Mildmay  Uganda,  in  January
2014  been  making  an  assessment  of  the  possibility  of  supporting  poor  households  were
vulnerable students comes from with income  generating activities (IGAs). By enabling families
with means of earning an income, these households can become self reliant in the future and be
able to support the education of their children other than depending on donor funding that may
not  be  long  lasting.  Majority  of  the  households  visited  during  the  exercise  suggested  to  be
supported with livestock projects such as poultry, piggery, goats, and cattle projects while a few
wanted  financial  capital  to  start  small  businesses  in  the  informal  sector. 50  OVC  households
were visited for this exercise and their cases documented.

Life examples:

Shamim aged 16 and Hamadah  aged 13  attends  school  at  St. Francis  S.S.S Nansana  and  MK Crown Academy respectively. The two are siblings and were born in the rural Rakai district. They lost their mother in 2004 and their father in 2008 due to HIV/AIDS. The dual have  been  registered  for  the  HVU  education  support program and have been leaving under the support of their paternal uncle who cannot do much anymore at this time given his poor financial situation. Shamim is in secondary form  four  while  Hamadah  is  in  secondary  from  two,  but they are not sure of their future in school at the moment.

The two are part of the 10 students who were enrolled for potential benefit from the education support program.