Provide a hand "up" for 352 Ugandan children

Dear GlobalGiving Supporters of The African SOUP,

As I mentioned last report, each quarter we are required to provide a report to our supporters on the progress that we have made with your generous donations through GlobalGiving. Please note that we are still active on GlobalGiving in order to continue to seek out corporate donors and company matches, and we are so very grateful for this opportunity. Some of the corporate donors require a 9-12 month length of active support on GlobalGiving before we can be considered for funding. So, thank you for your incredible gifts as we raise funds for some awesome SOUP kiddos!

To date, we have raised $6,040 on GlobalGiving and have achieved some pretty significant milestones in the last few months:

• In January, we launched our Active Learning national education initiative with a wildly successful conference at Busoga University in Iganga, Uganda. With nearly 150 people in attendance, we had teachers representing 18 schools from four districts, and were accompanied by government officials and teacher training college professors and leadership who all want to see systemic change within the Ugandan primary education system. Why does this matter? Well, here's the deal: The UNDP estimates that only 24.8% of Ugandan pupils who start Primary 1 will reach Primary 7. And this number does not include those who fail the Primary Leaving Exam (PLE) after P7. The percentage of youth who actually progress onto secondary school is below 20%. That's right - less than 20% of Ugandan youth go on to receive an education beyond 7th grade. This is due to an educational delivery system that focuses heavily on rote memorization. If a student doesn’t excel in this manner, s/he fails to advance in school. We believe active learning can provide the building blocks for a skilled workforce and developed nation, so we have decided to do something about it! We have developed a teaching tool that simply embeds active learning into the existing Ugandan primary school curriculum across critical, creative, and ethical thinking spheres, and advances new ways of teaching in Uganda using native materials. We are currently running a soft pilot in 18 schools for P1 and P2, with a hard launch across all primary levels in 150 schools in 2016. 
• In December 2014, all 23 SOUP Primary 7 graduates took the Primary Leaving Exam (PLE), the national exit exam which determines if students will be eligible for secondary school. We received the results in January: 20 of our 23 students passed with flying colors while the other three are now eligible for technical school! All 23 scholars have the opportunity to attend post-primary institutions - a pretty awesome feat for rural Uganda! This solidifies what we already knew - SOUP teachers are JUST.PLAIN.AWESOME! 
• The new school year kicked off in January, and we have increased our enrollment to 400, inclusive of a nursery program to enhance early childhood development and prepare these little ones for Primary 1.
• Our newest program is the Emma Baby SOUP Program that is working to eradicate malnutrition from 0-5. Check out the weighing scale picture below that we are using to ensure a healthy start for our village babies!
• Our chickens are doing great and laying eggs that total 12 trays a day which is generating revenue for Ugandans, by Ugandans. We are currently looking to expand our sustainability initiatives into a dairy farm. Pretty powerful!

All of our students are continuing to thrive and excel at the SOUP school, and we are having great positive impact in their lives. Read Recheal's story below to see just how critical our mission is in this village:

Recheal is a 12 year old girl with an inner-optimism that stretches far above and beyond her surroundings. Recheal is the oldest of two children, a role model to her little brother Geoffrey in Primary 4. Recheal and Geoffrey's father died from AIDS when they were very young, and their mother ran away from home soon after his death, leaving the two children in the care of their Uncle Peter.

Although the care in their auntie and uncle's home is good and kind, the family of 10 has little money to support their basic needs. “My uncle has no job,” Recheal explains. “He is not a farmer. He is just a peasant.” And the poverty at home has severe consequences on the children. “Sometimes we eat. But sometimes we don't.” To make matters worse, one of Recheal's cousins suffers from sickle cell anemia, and often the morale at home is low.

It seems as though life is stacked against Recheal's favor. Yet Recheal's positivity and joy at The African SOUP School always shines through. Most notably, Recheal has a natural, incredible talent for the English language. “Yes, English is my best subject! Maybe I have the best English in the school!” she exclaims with a laugh. She also enjoys expressing herself by participating in Drama and the school Netball team. With so much talent and enthusiasm for life and learning, and a resilience that stands against the toughest of hardships, Recheal is bound to go far.

On behalf of The African SOUP Board of Directors and the children that we serve, thank you for the immeasureable impact of your support!

Sincerely,

Brin and Holly

Links:

• Visit us online at The African SOUP