Help Keep 15 Aspiring Ugandan Girls in School

I’d like to introduce you to Adeno so you can see first hand, how your donations are impacting girls' lives. Adeno joined our sponsorship program very early in 2008 when she was still in primary school. She is very thankful to her sponsors that she has had this opportunity in her life.

Adeno comes from a large family including her parents. Her mother is one of the women artisans in our Jinja craft group. Her family lives in a single rented room in one of the worst Jinja slums (her home is shown in the 3^rd photo). Adeno attended the nearby government primary school. Even that would have been impossible without her participating in our sponsorship program.

When younger, she dreamed of being a teacher. But when she finished 10th grade, she decided to branch to vocational school. She even received a scholarship for her tuition to join a catering course. Sponsorship means she could board at the school where she could focus totally on her studies.  She excelled in her studies.

This past summer she decided to pursue a two year associate’s degree course in travel and tourism. During her 2 month break from school, she joined us in Agwata village for four weeks as our paid chef. She started her degree course in September thanks to continued support from Outreach Uganda’s child sponsorship program.

This may not seem extraordinary. But comparing Adeno to other girls who grew up in the same slums, most are married with a couple of children. They have no means to support themselves or their families and no prospects for a future.

Because Adeno has completed 4 years of secondary school and will most likely complete 2 more years of schooling, we know that statistically per the UN:

• She is 60% more likely to find work
• She is 66% less likely to marry at a young age
• She is 60% less likely to have children before she reaches age 18
• When she becomes a mother, it is 50% less likely that any of her children will die before age 5
• She is 70% less likely to die in child birth

Thank you for your support to enable more girls like Adeno to enter our sponsorship program and develop into hopeful young women like Adeno.

Links:

• Our web site
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I just returned from spending five weeks in Uganda, including three weeks at the northern Uganda school where we have 13 sixth grade girls boarding. Through your support, as well as help from other donors, we purchased rain coats for each of the girls plus English textbooks and math sets for the new library. The girls can study in the library outside of class time each day. So it is very helpful having the textbooks readily available.

Books are very rare in Uganda, even at schools. We're quite excited that the school library is complete, and stocked with an inventory of 1800 books of all types for students in kindergarten to 6th grade. One entire shelf contains pupils' textbooks which are concentrated initially on 5th and 6th grade. We hope to expand this further next year.

Thanks so much for helping make the girls' learning more productive as they continue to study for their very important year-end exams in November.

Links:

• School Excitement: 6th Grade Girls with New Rain Coats
• Catch up on current Outreach Uganda news.