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Why build a school? Kabalagala, an area outside the capital city of Kampala, is impoverished, and the AIDS epidemic has taken a heavy toll. Even though Africa has a rich culture of extended families, the scale of the orphan problem in Uganda is taxing the system. Poor families must stretch beyond their limits to take on the task of parenting a generation of children left orphaned by the disease. Such families get by just one day at a time, and often cannot afford to pay for their own children to go to school. Unfortunately, in many cases, these orphaned children become an additional and unwanted burden, creating a generation of young people with no access to education. Despite the Universal Primary Education Act, which aims to ensure that children in Uganda have access to formal education, many of the children in Kabalagala are not able to go to school because there are no free, government-run schools in Kabalagala, and for many families, the cost of private school puts it far out of reach. That’s why we believe it is important to establish the SEEDS school, which in its first year of operation will enable thirty children to gain access to an education. i.HUG believes that, by gaining an education, children also regain their right to childhood. Extreme poverty often strips children of this right. The quotation below found in our ‘Teacher’s Manual’ demonstrates much of our commitment to our pupils’ right to childhood: When you come into our school please remember – It is a child’s world! These activites are – Their ideas Their work Their fun! Sometimes a child’s idea of decoration, beauty and good housekeeping does not coincide with an adults’. A child’s imagination is great! Children can do wonderful things – paint the wind, dance like a leaf and find joy and happiness in performing simple tasks. These are abilities that adults might have lost along the way. Enjoy their enthusiasm for living and learning. Children who have never received a formal education face a multitude of problems. First, chances are slim that they will be able to obtain anything other than a poorly paid manual job, and even those can be hard to come by. Without literacy skills, children and families are less likely to know their rights, and even less able to exercise them, making them more vulnerable to exploitation. The lack of formal education traps them in a dangerous and devastating cycle of poverty, with little hope of positive change. Even on a daily basis, the lack of literacy poses a problem: because people cannot read the instructions on medicines, it’s easy and common for people to harm themselves by taking the wrong tablet dose. In Uganda today, being literate is a basic necessity. Indeed, it can be a prerequisite to survival.

Why build a school?

Kabalagala, an area outside the capital city of Kampala, is impoverished, and the AIDS epidemic has taken a heavy toll. Even though Africa has a rich culture of extended families, the scale of the orphan problem in Uganda is taxing the system. Poor families must stretch beyond their limits to take on the task of parenting a generation of children left orphaned by the disease. Such families get by just one day at a time, and often cannot afford to pay for their own children to go to school. Unfortunately, in many cases, these orphaned children become an additional and unwanted burden, creating a generation of young people with no access to education.

Despite the Universal Primary Education Act, which aims to ensure that children in Uganda have access to formal education, many of the children in Kabalagala are not able to go to school because there are no free, government-run schools in Kabalagala, and for many families, the cost of private school puts it far out of reach.

That’s why we believe it is important to establish the SEEDS school, which in its first year of operation will enable thirty children to gain access to an education. i.HUG believes that, by gaining an education, children also regain their right to childhood. Extreme poverty often strips children of this right. The quotation below found in our ‘Teacher’s Manual’ demonstrates much of our commitment to our pupils’ right to childhood:

When you come into our school please remember –

It is a child’s world! These activites are –

Their ideas

Their work

Their fun!

Sometimes a child’s idea of decoration, beauty and good housekeeping does not coincide with an adults’. A child’s imagination is great! Children can do wonderful things – paint the wind, dance like a leaf and find joy and happiness in performing simple tasks. These are abilities that adults might have lost along the way. Enjoy their enthusiasm for living and learning. Children who have never received a formal education face a multitude of problems. First, chances are slim that they will be able to obtain anything other than a poorly paid manual job, and even those can be hard to come by. Without literacy skills, children and families are less likely to know their rights, and even less able to exercise them, making them more vulnerable to exploitation. The lack of formal education traps them in a dangerous and devastating cycle of poverty, with little hope of positive change. Even on a daily basis, the lack of literacy poses a problem: because people cannot read the instructions on medicines, it’s easy and common for people to harm themselves by taking the wrong tablet dose. In Uganda today, being literate is a basic necessity. Indeed, it can be a prerequisite to survival.