Meet the children waiting for a sponsor
Uganda does not offer free education. Instead students must pay school tuition and exam fees, buy a uniform, and purchase their own supplies. The supplies Ugandan students must buy include some additional items that are not typical in the United States. For example, students must bring toilet paper, brooms and sugar (for tea, which they are given as breakfast each morning).
There are three school terms in Uganda spaced throughout the year (example below):
| Term | Opening of Term | Closing of Term | # of Days |
| Term 1 | Monday, Feb. 22 | Friday, May 13 | 82 |
| Term 2 | Monday, Jun. 6 | Friday, Sept. 2 | 89 |
| Term 3 | Monday, Sept. 26 | Friday, Dec. 9 | 75 |
| Total | 246 |
What Happens If School Fees Aren’t Paid?
If school fees aren’t paid, the child can’t enter school. If the child has already started school and the family can’t pay the fees during the year, then the child is “chased from school” – sent home, unable to return until the fees are paid. For many poor families and orphan children, having children chased from school is a fairly frequent event. They miss some school, pay fees, go back, get chased away a few weeks later, and so it continues all school year.
The child may miss so much school that he or she starts a long, slow slide toward the bottom of the class. Ultimately, this affects the child so much that he or she eventually drops out of school. Especially at the secondary levels, children may be sitting at home right now, just hoping that their parent(s) will somehow be able to afford to pay their school fees for the next school year so that they might continue. Students who have lost both parents have little hope of attending school unless God intervenes. Jobs are so difficult to find, it would be unusual for a child to be able to find a job to earn his/her own school fees.
For children without parents or living with only one parent, the situation is bleak. The median age in Uganda is just 14 years old. That means half the population of Uganda is under the age of 14. This has happened primarily due to a high rate of HIV/AIDS and the two decades of civil war between President Musevini’s government and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). Many children have no parents, or only one parent who may be sick or have no job.
What Can I Do?
You can sponsor a child! By sponsoring a child’s education, you can change the course of their life forever. Being able to receive an education gives a child hope for his/her future. Education provides more opportunities for employment, but it also provides other benefits, such as occupying a child’s time so they are less likely to get into trouble or be forced to marry at a young age. A sponsored child knows that, even if they have no family, they have someone who cares about them enough to sponsor them, providing community for a child who may not have anyone else. For $40 dollars a month, a child can be enrolled in school, have their tuition paid, and have all supplies and a school uniform purchased.
If you would like to sponsor a child, please click on the blue DONATE button located on the right-hand side of this page and sign up to give $40 as a recurring monthly gift designated for child sponsorship. You will have a place to indicate which child you would like to sponsor.
Thank you for your desire to invest in a child’s life and future! See below the reaction when one of our kids found out she has a sponsor.