Back To School!

Last week was term break, so no children were in school. Today was the first day back, and the day that we begun major profiling of the kids to either update their sponsors, or find them sponsors. I found today particularly interesting because I learned a lot about the challenges and barriers that stop kids in Uganda from going to school. Many of the kids weren’t there. Of the 170 children at the school, only about 60 or 70 were there. Hellen told us it usually takes at least a week for the kids to slowly trickle back. Attendance rates are always a challenge due to many factors; sickness (malaraia, most often), going up north to the village, needing to work, and not having the school supplies among the most common. The kids need to have 12 workbook (lined notebooks) each term, with three terms per year. This costs 6000 shillings per 12 books, which is less than $3, but many families cannot afford it, especially if they have multiple kids going to school. I talked to several kids in the community who attend other schools who told me they didn’t go back today because they don’t have their books. Some of the kids who arrived had their full 12 books, but others had 6... 4... or none. Some didn’t have a uniform and some were barefoot, even though it is supposed to be a requirement that the students each have uniform, shoes, and books. Hellen tries to accept every child despite whether they can afford these things, but it is not always easy.

It was exciting seeing the kids in their uniforms sitting at their desks, despite the low number of students. Tomorrow we have paid for a nurse to come and check all the children, so we expect numbers to be much higher tomorrow. Wednesday is a field trip to Didi’s World, so again, it should be high and hopefully they stick after that. We began the day sitting around Hellen’s kitchen table (right next to the school) with Hellen and Innocent, going over the needs of the school. We made a cost breakdown for everything; teacher salaries, text books, registering the school with the Ugandan ministry, lunch, uniforms, etc. It is a long list and we have prioritized what is most important. Currently at the top is the lunch program and teacher salaries. Teachers at CUS get paid about half of what teachers at government schools get paid. They have a quick turn around rate because teachers will find jobs that pay more and will leave. They can’t hire good, qualified teachers because the pay is too low, and then the learning of the students suffer. We want to be able to pay the teachers what they would get at a government school. We also want to add fish, ground nut paste, and fruit to the students’ meals to make it more nutritious. Hellen said that when they don’t have the money to provide lunch, attendance drops rapidly. I found books to be of particular importance. The entire school only has a few text books, and most are several years old, from before the government changed the curriculum, so schools shouldn’t even be learning anymore. Ideally they should have a book for each child, but all they are asking now is for one teacher copy.

For the past three years, I have sponsored 2 kids with CUS; Rebecca and Adongo Kate. Recently Adongo has moved to Tororo, a few hours away. She had been tossed around from family member to family member and is not in school anymore. She is 10 years old. Hellen is going to try to get her to join Hope Home when it opens this summer (still waiting on papers from the government) but in the meantime, it doesn’t look like she will be at CUS, so I wanted to choose a new sponsor child. There are 4 girls in the p5 class that I have really bonded with. As I said before, Kate, Sarah, and I have each divided the grades to focus on separate ones. I am focusing on p 5 and 6. Sylvia, Molly, Jackie, and Mariam are all in p5 and are best friends. Molly and Jackie are sisters to Scovia (an Escape secondary student, friends with Rebecca) and three years ago I sponsored Sylvia for my sister for Christmas. Mariam is the only one of the four not sponsored, so I decided to sponsor her. Nabwende Mariam is 11 years old and wants to be a lawyer when she grows up. She likes skipping and is from the Tororo region of Uganda. She lives with her parents and 6 siblings (4 sisters, 2 brothers, she is the eldest). Her mother doesn’t work but her father is a fisherman. When she is posing for pictures she smiles with her mouth closed, but sometimes I catch one of her with her teeth showing and she has the cutest gap tooth smile, it just makes me melt! She and Sylvia are best friends and are always holding hands. All 4 girls speak excellent English. I was due to make payment for Adongo Kate, and now that I have switched to Mariam since Adongo is gone, I decided to just pay a full year upfront to get some of the text books purchased. Sponsorship of $10/month will cover a variety of things including those things I listed above, but I figured that since I am here I might as well just pay it all now and see with my own eyes where it goes.

(photo left to right: Molly, Sylvia, Mariam, Jackie)

We set up a good system. Sarah went to each class and had the kids write a letter or draw a picture (depending on their age, the youngest student, Divine, is not even 3 yet) for their sponsor or future sponsor. Then they would go to Hellen and Kate to be interviewed; name, age, hobby, family situation, etc. Then they would come to me to get photographed (one just a headshot, once holding a whiteboard with their full name on it) and to get a gift; underwear for the girls (thanks to Please Mum who donated 200+ pairs) and packages of stickers for the boys. It was interesting seeing the results of the interview. It seems most kids have at least one parent who has passed away. We have kids from all sorts of tribes; Acholi, Karamojong, Luo, etc. Some of the kids reported issues in the home such as abuse, and one girl, when asked how everything in her home is going, stood up and refused to speak again (she is a student who has had issues in the past, sadly, with abuse of all kinds). In all cases, nothing was pushed, and if they didn’t want to talk they certainly didn’t have to, but some were eager to open up. The littlest students were terrified and barely spoke, but as they got older they got more talkative.

Dinah and Ketty (the twins) stopped by at the end of the day and we spent time with them for a bit. I love getting to know the secondary school girls, as I have read so much about them and have been rooting for them to excel. I thought of them as such serious girls when I first met them, but they are getting more outgoing with us. We played in the compound and had a huge group of kids doing the chicken dance, the time warp, and the Macarena! And then Rebecca showed up! It was great to spend a little bit of time with her, although it was getting late and we had to leave before it got dark, as there have been lots of robberies on boda after dark. She had just come from school. She has exams all week long, so unfortunately won’t be able to come to Didi’s World on Wednesday. But it was great seeing her, and I gave her the book that I had brought for her; one that I had read many times when I was her age, and the copy which I still had, with my name and the date I bought it (2002) inscribed on the inside, with a note to her. She was a bit chattier but still quite shy. Her English is excellent. She said she would stop by before school tomorrow so that we can spend more time with her, as both times it has been very short. She has two exams every day this week until Saturday, so she is studying hard! I have the two most amazing sponsor kids :)

Note that that bottom picture is me and Rebecca. This girl inspires me to no end! The top photo is Prisca (Among Patience Priscilla). She is 4 years old, wants to be a teacher when she grows up, likes dolls, and is from the Luo ethnic group. She lives with her parents and Hellen tells us the father is an alcoholic and is abusive when drunk. Prisca is seriously the happist child I have ever met. I have never seen her without a smile on her face. She needs a sponsor at $10/month to help cover the fees I mentioned earlier to improve her quality of education. Please leave a comment if you are able to!