How We Help

Like many poor countries (and some not so poor), Uganda has a system of rigorous tests designed to winnow out all but the “brightest” children for secondary and university education.  These are nothing like the standardized achievement tests that students take in the United States.  If a child is not among the top 1% or 2% in the district, his or her education is finished.  Imagine if you had worked hard from first grade until you were 13, were always at the top of your class, and then failed by a tenth of a point to pass the test to get into high school.

Naturally children of wealthy parents go to the best private schools from primary onward, and thus have a better chance of scoring high on the tests.  Poor children have no choice but to go to public schools, where the caliber of teaching and the other resources that go to make a good school are lacking because the government has so little money.  Therefore these children are at a big disadvantage when the all-important tests are taken.  Of course, if a child has no family, he or she may be out of luck – even public school may be an impossible dream.

This is where The Stella-Rosie Foundation comes in.  We have a network of public school administrators who introduce us to their best students in hopes of helping them advance.  But in rural societies, simple word of mouth works wonders when children hear that someone may be able to help them go to school.  Finding candidates is the easiest part of our job.

The hardest part is deciding which candidates to support.  They are all deserving; that’s not the issue.  The issue is, who is most likely to succeed?  With limited resources, difficult, even agonizing choices have to be made.  We talk to them and we make our decisions.  With more resources we can help more deserving children.  It’s that simple.

The major expense is of course school fees.  These are remarkably low by developed-world standards:  $500 – $800 per year for elementary and secondary students, around $2,000 for university students.  There are other expenses as well:  school uniforms, mattresses, books, pencils, paper and other school supplies, and transportation.  This last item can be significant for children who go to school in the capitol city of Kampala but whose homes are in rural villages.  The foundation’s sole paid employee is our local liaison officer ($250 per month currently), whose jobs are to take the children to their schools, pay and keep records of all expenses, find places for the orphans who have no homes to stay during school holidays and buy food for them, and accompany younger children who do have relatives to their home villages during breaks , often an eight-hour bus ride.

Once each trimester, boarding schools have a “Parents’ Day” when parents can visit their children and bring them their favorite home-cooked foods.  (Boarding school fare is nutritious but monotonous.)  These are busy times for the liaison officer, who tries to visit and bring food to every orphan child.  Without her they would sit quietly in their dormitory rooms during Parents’ Day.