Sanitary Pads Keep Ugandan Girls in School

We would like to welcome Debi Hoege to the Kasiisi Project.  Debi joined KFSP/The Kasiisi Project in January 2014 as the new Field Director. She has several years of project management experience and 18 months of experience directly in the Fort Portal, Uganda area. While at USAID Headquarters in Washington, Debi served as the principal point of contact for roughly 200 colleagues worldwide as she managed the strategy review process for President Obama’s Global Health Initiative (GHI). In August 2012, she arrived in Fort Portal, Uganda to manage two research projects for the University of Notre Dame in collaboration with local organizations. During her time with KFSP/The Kasiisi Project, Debi will oversee all projects, but will focus specifically on the implementation of the Girls’ Program. She also hopes to improve her Rutooro (the local language in the Fort Portal area of Uganda) !

Additionally, we have had great news from the Project schools in Uganda concerning the government tests that the primary school children take their last year in primary school. This year, two more Kasiisi Project Schools have joined Kasiisi Primary School at the top of the Primary Leaving Exam League – Kigarama Primary School and Kiko Primary School scored averages of 12.4 and 13.0 respectively (lower scores are better). Kigarama Primary School had 57% of its students score Grade 1 passes (which is the highest grade pass), Kasiisi Primary School had 47% and Kiko Primary School had 45% of their students recieve grade 1 passes! The average Primary Leaving Exam scores in our 5 core project schools continue to improve and and in 3 of these schools girls outperformed boys!  We are very proud of the teachers, students and parents for these great test results! We are hoping more of the students will be able to attend secondary school as the scores increase.

Attached to this report are a few photos from the Kasiisi Primary School Girls Guides Meeting last week. It was the first Girl Guides meeting of the year, so they were focusing on recruitment to fill the spots that last year’s P7 girls held. The girls seemed excited to be a part of the group and ended the meeting with one of their Girl Guides songs!

Stay tuned for many more updates from the field and please visit www.kasiisiproject.org for more information!

Looking for a place for your end of year charitable donations that will make a REAL difference to a young GIRL?

Here’s why you should consider sponsoring a Kasiisi Project student for secondary school.

Nelson Mandela said that “Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world”. Giving the gift of education to a Ugandan child who would otherwise be unable to attend secondary school certainly changes their world!

In Uganda less that 30% of children even finish primary school and fewer than half of those attend secondary school, let alone college. The Kasiisi Project Scholarship Program was started to help redress this situation, and in the past 15 years we have enrolled over 120 pupils in our programs. We have 3 students in medical school, 4 university graduates, 3 undergraduates (1 at Harvard) and  one Masters Student. We have plumbers and nurses, lab technicians and agro-vets, teachers and electricians, caterers and beauticians. And over 90% have jobs.

Thanks to the hard work of the Kasiisi Scholarship Committee in Uganda who guide and care for our students and to the many generous sponsors who support our program it has been a wonderful success; one that has a far reaching impact on the welfare not only of our students, but of their extended families as well.

But we cannot do it without you. The Kasiisi Project can  assists schools to graduate students well prepared for the post-primary academic world,  but it takes your support to get them to the next stage, to help them attend secondary school and beyond.

If you give the gift of education to one GIRL you will help others that you may never be aware of. Cultural expectations mean that your student will use her wages to educate younger members of the family and will have better educated and healthier children herself.

To find out more about how we run our scholarship program check out our Scholarship Web Page and don’t miss the biographies of a selection of our students.

For more information or any questions please contact elizabeth@kasiisiproject.org

Links:

• Kasiisi Project Website