Sponsored kids

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The school where I have been assigned for this project is based in Makondo, rural Uganda. It is a secondary school with 200 kids and 4 classes. Currently the majority of the students are funded by an American NGO and so as sponsored students, they are expected to turn up in the term time and help with activities. Jamie and I, keen to be present in the school environment, went along to take part in their activities. Although we had asked to come along and take part, when we turned up they still only thought we wanted to watch and see what they had been doing.

After much persuasion that we were strong crazy mzungu who liked hardwork we were allowed to start carrying the trees with the students down into the valley where they were building a fence. The previous day they had already dug the holes and chopped down heaps of trees so it was just a question of moving the chopped trees and putting them in the holes. It caused a huge amount of amusement when I picked up an enormous great log and asked who was going to carry it with me.

We all worked as a team, staff included, all heading up the hill together finding a pathway through people’s crops and then back down the hill together. We were able to meet a lot of the students and to learn from them about the local area and local produce, as all having grown up doing subsistence farming, the students are highly knowledgeable about farming and crops. Slipping around in the mud we came back filthy but somehow the students all managed to come back just as clean as when they started and ankles their intact, despite having done the whole thing in a flimsy pair of flipflops.

Although the majority of students are sponsored, the american organisation, among other projects, aims to help students to raise as much money as possible for their own school fees. They have set up a ‘Send a Piglet home’ program whereby 30 students were given a piglet last year - these have now had at least one litter each, of which one piglet must be returned to the school to provide a piglet for another child to benefit from the scheme. The student can then sell the remaining piglets or alternatively grow them up to sell them for a greater profit when they are fat! The project is in its early stages but there are now 60 students benefiting from the scheme. Since saving is not a familiar concept (and not readily available in the rural areas), the majority of the money is being put towards living costs or school materials which although not directly paying school fees, is greatly helping each household in their individual way. Oh I would have loved to have been given a piglet when I was at school!

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