Primary School Education Programme
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The Ugandan government introduced UPE (Universal Primary Education) in 1997. This provides free primary school education nationwide to all children. However, in numerous areas the implementation of this policy has been slow, resulting in many families having to find fees or other costs such as uniforms, books, pens and pencils, food, school maintenance and even toilet paper, making it prohibitively expensive for many. It is common for children to drop in and out of school as family circumstances change. There is no legal requirement for children to attend school. Since 2006 Mikwano’s sponsorship programme has put over 300 children through primary school education. The sponsorship covers school fees, scholastic materials, lunch and sundries, depending on the needs of the children and the schools. Nearly all the children on this programme are orphans and none of the children would be able to attend school if it were not for Mikwano’s assistance. The children are putting a lot of effort into their studies as they appreciate the opportunity they have been given by our donors. The schools sponsored are: In Kampala:Uganda Martyrs (Lubaga), Lunjjuga Progressive (Lungujja), Bright Star (Nansana), Busega Preparatory (Busega), Muksia (Lungujja) and Uganda School for the Deaf. In Mpigi sub-county: St Andrew's and Nseke. It costs Mikwano approximately £45 to fund a child per academic year.
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Children with Special Educational Needs
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Mikwano supports ‘Mukisa Foundation’ an organisation working with primary school children with physical and educational special needs by making grants in the region of £3,000 per year to cover the cost of the headteacher and a teacher, scholastic materials and general running costs of the school. Mikwano continued to assist with educational input for an orphaned child with hearing difficulties by paying for him to attend a school for children who are hard of hearing, for scholastic materials, hearing tests and foster care in the holidays. He has settled into his new foster family and school extremely well and we look forward to seeing him again in February 2011. It costs Mikwano approximately £500 per year to meet Richard’s needs.
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Providence Home is run by the Little Sisters of St Francis and the Home cares for children and young adults with psychiatric and physical disabilities, orphaned and destitute children and destitute elderly. The Home provides shelter, food, medical rehabilitation, formal education and vocational training for about 120 children and 20 elderly. Mikwano supported the Home buying maize flour, rice and beans when its regular donor withdrew support due to growing commitments elsewhere. In late 2009 Mikwano facilitated nursing advisory support to the Home. We helped a retired nurse to go to Providence Home for over 3 months. She ran a daily clinic, accompanying patients to hospital visits and treating minor ailments. She also trained healthcare workers to enable them to deal appropriately with the many health problems that the residents have. Due to the interest generated by her voluntary work, we are considering adopting Providence Home as a project and providing financial support. Some private donations have already helped to provide food, medicines, dressings and school fees. |
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Rachel handing over clothes donations to Sister Juliet
| For the last year we have been supporting St Philomena’s Babies Home at Iganga by buying formula milk for their babies. Unfortunately in Uganda the alternative is very often watered down cows’ milk. Sister Elizabeth sends monthly reports on the weights and progress of the babies and they are all thriving.
It costs Mikwano approximately £6,000 per year to provide formula milk to St Philomena’s.
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Mikwano is keen to support children through chemotherapy for a cancer known as Burkitt’s Lymphoma. This is a very fast growing cancer but it is also extremely responsive to treatment. However treatment is usually prohibitively expensive. Mikwano has teamed up with Hospice Africa, a charity which pays for the first course of chemotherapy for children with Burkitt’s Lymphoma but because of restrictions on their budget is not able to pay for a second course of treatment, even where the prognosis is good. They will refer children to us so that we can sponsor the second course of treatment and ancillary support such as transport and food. Cases vary enormously but it can cost up to £1,000 for a course of treatment for a child.
Case study
Andrew was from a very poor family consisting of a widowed mother caring for 3 children living several hundred miles from Kampala. His mother sold a goat to pay for the transport to Kampala so that he could receive medical attention. None of the treatment is state funded and therefore Mikwano agreed to sponsor his chemotherapy and ancillary support. However in January 2010, when treatment had only just begun, we were very saddened to find that Andrew had died from malaria. This emphasises the devastating effect of a disease that causes more deaths worldwide than any other, and is preventable. Mosquito nets are expensive for families such as Andrew’s so most people have had malaria several times. Many international charities continue to try to address this problem.
In 2010 Mikwano made one grant to assist an individual with medicinal and accommodation needs.
