Protect Vulnerable Refugee Children in Kampala

ANNUAL REPORT OF THE PPDR REFUGEE CHILD CARE PROGRAMME

Introduction

This report covers the period from January to November 2012 and focuses on the informal education of refugee children in Kampala done by PPDR. It also clear to mention that the kind of education we give is informal and in this we intend to reduce the numbers of refugee children who fail to access and to integrate the Uganda Education System because they lack some few basic needs such as English, information about the schools and the lack of basic needs. This report is also made when there is no credible information about the true statistic on the numbers of refugee children in Kampala.

Area covered by this project

This project covers the areas of Kisenyi, Lubaga Road, Bakuli, Nakulabye, Old Kampala, Bulange, Kasubi, Lubiri, Kabusu, Mengo town, Katwe, Kibuye and Nsambya Kevin. According to our observation 7 refugee children out 10 (7/10) are not going to school because of various reasons which is project is currently solving.

Activities at PPDR Uganda

We conduct two classes from Monday –to Friday in the morning hours 8:30 am – 12pm. Children learn English, songs, History and Geography and sciences. They also end up the day with sports activities and other different games. Our classes take a period of ten (10) months composed of two levels, level one and level two which means 5 months in level one and 5 months in level two.

Enrollment

The enrollment is done twice in a year that is in January and in June. The total number of children in our center depends of the people who come, we don’t send anyone away. But our two classes cannot accommodate all children who come, the first class can only accommodate 30 children but they are now 56 and the second class can only accommodate 40 children but they are 26. If a child has come and he/she has nowhere to sit, he/she decides to remain at home.

Statistics:

Level One. Total number: 56 children

Girls: 33

Boys: 23

Level two. Total number: 26

Girls: 16

Boys: 10

Enrollment as per January 2012

Level one: 67

Level two: 83

Enrollment as per June

Level One: 16

Level Two: 20

Those who finished in June and before June were encouraged to now stay at home.

The total number of 41 refugee children finished in our level two in June this year. The majority of these children are now in different primary schools here in Kampala and those from the poor families are staying home.

Girls: 24

Boys: 17

Achievements

This project helps an overage 70 refugee children in each six months to join primary school,

This project offers internship opportunity to two students each three months,

This project has helped many parents to solve the education problem to their children and therefore contributing to the development of the community,

This project has helped 134 refugees newly arriving to get shelter,

This project has helped 51 refugee children unaccompanied minors to be integrated in the community through connecting in host families.

Challenges

This project has faced number of challenges each time and particularly this year, in some instances this projects has failed to protect all refugee children who need our protection, by not providing them with food, clothes, shelter and medical care.

This project has not yet managed to look into the situation of refugee young girls aged from 12 to 18 years to avoid early pregnancy which is affecting many refugee young girls, this project has witnessed powerlessly refugee young girls being sexually abused and defiled or impregnated.

This project has not yet managed to raise enough money for its continuity and to pay the teachers. This year alone only 150$ USA was used to pay the teachers. This has made number of teachers to run away from the programme and has greatly affected the learning culture of many pupils,

This project has not yet managed to pay the space rent bills, this year alone it has been closed twice by the landlord because we had not yet paid the rent bills, and this has greatly affected our programme.

Opportunities

Despite all these problems affecting this project, we have an opportunity to raise funds from Global Giving tree times in a year,

This project has an opportunity this month to secure enough space for the learning in a convenient environment at a cost 800$ per month,

This project is a great income generating activity for the whole organization and for its self- sustainability because children can be contributing just one (1) $ USA each month. The target for the next year is to ensure that we can have 300 refugee children in our center.

This project can in the future be looked at as a future primary school for all refugee children in Uganda,

Threats

The major threats facing this project are mainly the lack of money to pay the teachers and to pay for the rent of the space. If these two problems are not solve, this project might collapse and this will create a negative impact to the community.

Way forward

We call upon people of good will to continue supporting financially this project during our fundraising campaigns on Global Giving.

Accountability statement

From January to November 2012

Major source of income,

Donations through Global Giving

Month                                     Amount                      Expenditure

April 2012                              625$ USA                   450$ USA (paying the rent for one month and half and allowance of 100$ to the teachers, then 50$ for 10 benches.

September 2012                     600$USA                    It has not yet reached our accounts but will be mainly used to pay the house rent for two months (August and September).

Contributions from the pupils:

Each child is encouraged to pay 1$ per month

The little of 231 $ we collected this year was mainly used for operational costs (buying books 70$, chalk 30$, repairing the black boards 50$, cleaning 60$,  and 20$ which is still in our account.

Thanks

Kulihoshi Musikami Pecos

Coordinator/ PPDR Uganda