I've raised £1440 to help fund school fees for 24 internally displaced young people at the Family Care School in the Gulu district of Northern Uganda.
Organised by Chris Argles & Ishmay Jessica Slechta
Story
We are raising money for Family Care Foundation in Uganda.
£1440 = 24 CHILDREN IN PRIMARY EDUCATION FOR A YEAR
£60 = 1 CHILD IN PRIMARY EDUCATION FOR A YEAR
£5 = 1 CHILD IN PRIMARY EDUCATION FOR A MONTH
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In the district of Gulu, the community as a whole have faced serious adversities; living through the aftermath of the Kony war and a continuing struggle for resources, employment and education. However, this community has grown in resilience and is full of hope as they seek healing and restoration.
With our efforts, we hope to raise funds to support the amazing work the Family Care School is continuing to do in Northern Uganda despite the challenging circumstances. Since 2009, they have provided opportunities and an environment for internally displaced young people and orphans within the Gulu area to receive an education from Primary 1 - 7. They have been doing incredible outreach work to reduce marginalisation against the local Ik tribe, one of the poorest tribes in Uganda, and continue sponsoring students in Kaabong and around the Gulu area.
The Family Care School continues to rely on donations for food and learning resources, as well as teaching salaries and student fees. However, in the aftermath of CoVid19 and lockdown, the need for this is more pressing than ever.
When I (Ishmay) visited Gulu in 2017, I was able to witness the restorative, grass-root work of the local community and NGOs. Whilst out there, I met Robin Yamaguchi, one of the Project Managers for Family Care Foundation. Her stories and work inspired me to think of a way to support the organisation.
We have decided to organise a run in 24 hours with 24+ runners to raise the necessary funds for tuition and scholarships for 24+ Primary children under the Family Care School in Gulu, and hopefully exceed our expectations in order to fund other essentials, such as food and renovations on the Community Hall.
Each donation over our target amount means the school can invest in one of the following;
STUDENT FEES --
Primary school - £60 for each child per year
Secondary school - £380 for each child per year
Food for one month for the school—beans, maize flour and some veggies -- £157
Teachers’ salaries for 9 teachers and 3 staff (2 cooks and a guard) per month -- £669
Curriculum and record books throughout the 3 terms -- £157
Quotes from annual Family Care School newsletter:
Even though so few of the children we take in speak English when they join us, we are happy to say that they have been receiving excellent results in the National PLE exams.
We have built 9 classrooms, teachers accommodation and are building our 3rd home for the children. Other basics such as a store, kitchen, toilet and bathing facilities have been built, and we bought a 20 acre plot of land across the road with a vision of using agriculture as our means of long-term self-sustainability.
We have hardly any electricity and hardly any network, so all study has to be by hand. We were happy to send all our older children off with a fat package of study material and work sheets to cover all that is on the curriculum till the end of Term 1…plus, we got 2 goats and had a mighty special meal before everyone headed off for what we knew would be a few weeks apart.
We managed to get all our wonderful children and older students from high school back to the refugee camp, up the mountains and to their villages safely. The big challenge was the older students who are studying nursing, medicine, engineering and such in distant cities.
Transport costs had doubled but we were very happy to get each child safely to their respective homes!
