Investing in the Future: Supporting Students in Kobulubulu, Uganda
/May Update for KUSP Activities
Our team, both here in the US and in Uganda, has been incredibly busy as the country emerges from the longest country-wide school closure of schools in the world – 22 months! Just as U.S. children and youth are experiencing challenges regarding academic, emotional and social health, we are hearing similar stories about the students in the schools we sponsor in Uganda where there are far fewer resources.
KUSP (formerly KRMA) has four educational programs underway in Uganda:
In our four public schools in Kobulubulu:
Collaboration with Teach for Uganda
Beginning in January 2022, KUSP began a formal collaboration with Teach for Uganda (“T4U”) to bring consistent expertise to our community development approach to education. Teach for Uganda appointed Esther Chebijira, a graduate of T4U’s excellent Fellows program, to live and work among the communities surrounding each of our four schools for a full year. For the first three months, as she learned about the school communities, Esther set goals around promoting student leadership, organizing the parents at each school, and fostering better communication between parents and each school’s administration.
The next three months, beginning in April of 2022, are focusing on laying the foundation for a multi-year project. A self-sustaining business will be established at each of our four schools, generating enough profit to provide comprehensive menstrual health supplies for 100% of the girls attending the school (essential so that these girls don’t have to miss several days of school each month.) These “Ladies Choice” sanitary pad projects will train students, parents and teachers to make the pads, both for sale to other school communities and to provide for the needs of the girls in that school.
Educational Supplies
Our local coordinator, Juliet, has spearheaded the effort to bring much-needed text books, solar calculators, lanterns and other supplies from Kampala, the capital of Uganda, to our four schools. Pandemic-related problems made this a challenging task, but these supplies, purchased and contributed by our donor families, are now finally being used.
Esther Chebijira, Teach for Uganda, in Kobulubulu
Text books and other supplies delivered to our four schools
Tutoring Camp
Susan, our educational consultant, is facilitating two more sessions of our Tutoring Camp for a new group of girls who want to take (and pass!) the national educational exams. Good scores on these exams, which will next be administered in late 2022, are necessary in order for a young woman to be able to compete for one of our scholarships for the last two years of high school.
Scholarships
As private schools re-opened, KUSP sent four girls to Halcyon School to complete their last two years of high school. This is our largest class of girls in any one year! In addition, our first two nursing students have begun their studies at Jerusalem Nursing. Finally, we had two young women return to their last year of university studies, with a 3rd young woman slated to begin classes at university in May 2022.
Most of these young women are supported by an individual family; others are supported from the general funds of krma-USPartners.
Tutoring Camp for Scholarship Applicants
2022 Scholarship Applicants for Last Two Years of High School
We continue to need your support! Please donate at https://www.krma-uspartners.org/donate. Or, if you are interested in sponsoring an individual student, please contact Lois Stovall lstovall@krma-uspartners.org.
