We need to enable children to return to education in Uganda and reverse the damage of almost two years' without school: the longest school lockdown in the world.

With your kind support, we can distribute essential academic supplies to hundreds of orphaned children in Nansana, Uganda, so that they can return to school despite losses of household income during the pandemic. We will also be able to reopen our Care Program, providing much-needed emotional support and skills development to these children.

The Education Crisis in Uganda

60% of primary school children and 44% of secondary school children stopped learning when the schools closed in March 2020.

In January 2022, schools in Uganda officially reopened after an almost two-year shutdown. However, many children have not been able to return to school because of financial hardship caused by the pandemic. A third are predicted to drop out of education unless we act now.

The long-term damage of the pandemic is profound. Early results from a survey conducted by Ashinaga shows that 80% of the orphaned children we interviewed reported feelings of stress, anxiety, and depression during the school lockdown. Damage caused by missing school might be felt for a lifetime. Each year of traditional schooling represents an 11% increase in adult earnings for men, and 14.5% for women.

How You Can Help

By supporting this appeal, you can enable children to return to school, receive extra support, and restore hope for those left behind by the pandemic.

We will distribute essential academic supplies to hundreds of orphaned children: the demographic most likely to drop out of education. These supplies include lined and graph notebooks, geometry sets, packs of pencils, masks, and bottles of hand sanitizers.

These items are all required to return to education in 2022, and although their cost is low, they represent a high barrier to education for the orphaned children we support.

Just £1 / $1.30 could buy a notebook or pack of pencils, and £8 / $10 could provide all they need to attend school again in 2022.

Donations will also enable us to reopen our Care Program, which used to run on Saturdays before the pandemic. The Care Program is open to all registered orphaned children in the area, providing much-needed mental health support, skills training, and extracurricular education.

In the past, activities included sharing life stories, group sessions, presentations, and games. Workshops and classes covered hygiene and social skills for primary level and HIV/AIDs education as well as career planning for secondary school students. Other activities include outings to local sites, dance sessions and baseball clubs.

For the price of a cup of coffee and a muffin, you could send a child back to school.

£8, or $10, enables one orphaned child to return to school by covering the costs of lined and graph notebooks, 12 pencils, a geometry set, a mask, and hand sanitizer.

£20, or $26, buys new school uniform and sportswear for one orphaned child.

£75, or $100, runs a whole day of Care Program activities for two classes of children. Each day includes games, workshops, and a theme such as 'hygiene,' 'looking after the environment,' or 'how to make friends.'

Some school supplies have already been distributed in January 2022, but we need to reach more children over the next few months to limit the damage of the school lockdown. Each donation made to this campaign means we can enable another child to return to school, and stay in education.

Together, we can ensure that Covid-19 does not create a lost generation of children in one of the most vulnerable communities in the world.