Education
We support the most vulnerable children through education, helping them to get the most from their time at school and providing a foundation for a productive and happy future.
Despite the enormous benefits of being able to attend school and receive an education, the costs involved in sending children to school in Uganda are prohibitive for the majority of slum residents.
The cost of school fees, uniforms, pens, paper, pencils, shoes and transport means that a large number of children have no hope of attending school. Poverty levels make it extremely difficult to develop any savings and often money for school fees is instead spent on greater needs such as food.
Education means opportunities and empowerment. Through supporting education, we are giving children the means to obtain necessary skills that will give them a better future in life.
What we do
Access
We help as many vulnerable children as possible living in Namuwongo slum to go to school.
Performance
We monitor the attendance and retention level of each student to ensure that they attain good academic performance.
Quality
At UHfH school we maintain a student teacher ratio of 30:1 or less and only employ motivated and qualified teachers.
Participation
We encourage strong community participation with school reports and regular parents meetings.
Environment
At UHfH school we provide an environment that is safe, happy and conducive to learning.
Opportunities
We offer extra curricular activities at UHfH school such as music, dance, drama and sport.
Nursery, Primary and Secondary Education
Each year 25-30 new children are identified to join our baby nursery class. We now have over 225 children attending UHfH school and over 105 children attending other local schools, both primary and secondary.
Despite being at other schools, we are still very much involved in their welfare, health and education through the services of our social workers on a daily basis and participation in our holiday programme during school holidays.
Children with Special Needs
Within Namuwongo slum, children with special needs are some of the most vulnerable and face social exclusion and marginalisation on a daily basis. Most of them have nobody to attend to their special needs and too often they are regarded as ‘a burden’ to the entire family.
We run a small special needs class for 12 children to access basic education, learning self help skills (dressing, feeding etc) and support with healthcare including physiotherapy. We also support some children to attend a specialist special needs school near Entebbe.
Holiday Programme
Three times a year, during the school holidays, we run a holiday programme for all our children. This allows the children to remain away from the dangers of the slum during holiday time.
It also gives children the opportunity to see their friends and have fun during the school holidays. We run different sports, games and activities for them and continue to provide them with two meals a day.
Reading Support
Without the ability to read what the teacher has written on the board or to write work in their exercise book, the long term effects of not being able to read have far reaching effects.
To help improve this, we provide one to one support for those children at UHfH school who we have identified as struggling with reading. We also have a very popular school library which all children have access to during the week including being allowed to take books home.