Protect 32,000 School Children from Malaria

In 2011, I travelled to Katulikire for the first time.  A met a group of students who sang for me for four hours, and I learned their names.  Among them was Sandra.  She was the youngest but full of self confidence.  There were probably 15-20 children in the group, and at age four she was brave enough to sing a solo. 

When I was there, I promised myself that we would ensure every child in the group received a net.  After I left Uganda, we contniued to fundraise and were eventually able to provide nets to Bweyale Primary School, the public school Sandra was supposed to attend.  Our volunteers looked for her, but she was not there.  I worried that she had fallen ill or had never started school.  We next returned to Katulikire Primary School, perhaps she instead attended this nearby school.  Sandra was not there.

When I returned to Uganda in 2014, I visited St. Monica Primary School.  The school costs students $17 a semester.  Parents send their children to St. Monica to have class sizes of 20 instead of 120 at the nearby public schools.  I visited St. Monica during my stay, and Sandra was there.

She has benefitted from our work in Uganda and now sleeps under a net.  Sandra is not just staying healthy and in school, but she is studying very hard.  She is the first ranked student in her second grade class.  Pictured not in uniform because she came to school to study on her day off!  She remains self-confident.  I am sure that if she can stay in school, she will do great things.  Children like Sandra are the future of Uganda.

Thank you for helping children like Sandra and making NETwork Against Malaria possible.

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Sr. Camilla is originally from Gulu. When the Lord’s Resistance Army was pillaging and devastating Gulu area, the children began leaving their homes at night and commuting to Gulu town to sleep in the streets. It became dangerous for people to work in the fields. Food insecurity was widespread. Sr. Camilla began a food program to feed these children. She risked her safety to plant and harvest her own crops. She prepared the food daily for the children.

The rebels heard about her work. They told her to stop or face the consequences. She was stationed at a church just outside of Gulu. The rebels arrived intending to destroy the church. They would have to destroy her first. She was beaten so severely that she could not move for days, but they did not destroy the church. She continued to work with the children. The rebels arrived one day and took her away. She was beaten and abused for months. Finally, one day without explanation, they sent her home. The mother superior of her order sent her to Katulikire to help with the Internally Displaced Persons. There, she started a women’s group and built a school called St. Monica.

St. Monica strives serve the poorest of the poor but at the same time providing them with a strong education that is often unavailable in impoverished, rural areas. Sr. Camilla continues to take on the problems of the people. Housing a schizophrenic mother and her three children. Hiring women who are saving for their children’s education. Taking in children who would otherwise never be able to have a quality education.

St. Monica is close partner of NETwork’s. It is growing. It currently has classes through third grade expanding every year. We provide all of their students with nets, and they allow us to use their extra classrooms for net storage. Please help us help protect the students of St. Monica against malaria, help the school grow in accordance with the vision of Sr. Camilla.