Ashoka identifies and invests
in leading social entrepreneurs
worldwide, and has supported the LiA vision since 2001
The Ugandan children we know want and need
schooling!
Just $1 per day can make school and more a reality in the life
of a LiA community child.
After months of consensus building, Life in Africa
community members in Uganda have identified
assistance with the costs of educating their children and the orphans that depend on them as
their most urgent priority in seeking assistance from the world. We are asking for
your family's urgent help in making that possible.
Almost all of the children in our Ugandan
communities have experienced interruptions in their education - if not
because of war, because of poverty. Almost every family is responsible for
raising children that lost family members and friends have left behind.
Education in Uganda is notfree - some government run schools offer free
instruction, but the quality is poor and the cost of learning materials,
uniforms and meals must be paid for by the childrens' families.
In Uganda's mostly private school system, it
costs $1 per day on average to provide a Ugandan child with access to a decent
education. The Life in Africa community families this fund assists are lucky if
they earn $1-2 per day from dangerous work in a local rock quarry and the
production of local crafts combined.
Imagine the emotional havoc that's caused in
these families each term when it's time to pay the bill for multiple children to
stay in school.
Sincerely speaking, they need your help to
give their children a chance to lift themselves beyond this level of poverty.
toward
school fees,
supplies, shoes, uniforms,
and child monitoring
Make a one
time donation
$ 1 / day
Additional Background
Info to School Fees 2008
Over 90% of Life in Africa's members in Uganda
have been directly affected by Northern Uganda's 20 year long civil war.
Thousands of children have been left orphaned by war, or by the high
prevalence of HIV/AIDS and other diseases symptomatic of extreme
poverty.
There are few orphanages in Uganda - tradition
says that families take care of their own. The majority of Life in
Africa members are responsible for supporting one or more children they
did not give birth to, in addition to their own. Most households are
barely able to pay the school costs of Uganda's education system for
their own children - the additional cost of educating dependent orphans
is often crippling on both an emotional and financial level.
Uganda's education system is dominated by private
schools with competitive entry requirements. The actual cost of a given
child's education depends on which school they are in. Our intention
with the school fees 2008 campaign is not to provide the cheapest
education available in Uganda, but to provide an amount that will enable
the sponsored children to attend competitive schools they are able to
enter.
Fundraising plan
$1 per day ($365 per year) will be raised and
allocated for each child identified by the community for inclusion in the program.
Funds for the school fees 2008 campaign will be
sourced from a combination of craft sales, online and
offline donations, proceeds from Life in Africa supporters at iGive.com and cafepress.com, and other participatory funding resources
to be developed.
Delivery plan
An extensive member household survey has been
conducted in 2007 as part of the effort to identify the most
vulnerable 100 children in each of Life in Africa's Gulu and Kampala
communities
Part of the funds raised for each child in 2008
will finance local WE Center program staff to collect information on
the children's chosen schools, verify enrollment, effect payments and
monitor the progress of each sponsored child.
An amount of shs140,000 per term will be
allocated for each sponsored child, to be used for fees, uniforms, supplies
and/or exam charges in primary or secondary school as required.
Reporting plan
The children will be responsible for
maintaining good academic performance, and for reporting their results
to community leaders at the end of each term.
The community will provide Life in Africa USA with
profiles of the children who have been sponsored by this fund, for use in
updating the program's online fundraising campaign participants at
LifeinAfrica.com.
Profiles of children already assisted in 2008 will be
posted mid November 2008. The next school term begins in February 2009; children
who've already been assisted will have top priority in allocating funds raised
by that time.
Please help us help these families by
supporting
the School Fees 2008
Campaign!
