Mission

Nelson Mandela beautifully states the profound effect education can truly have when he said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”Mission Statement: To empower the at-risk youth of northern Uganda by providing sustainable educational opportunities that will create independent global leaders.

Category

Education and Skills

Additional Information

While there were many NGO’s working in Uganda and Gulu specifically, they were mainly focused on the larger issues of refugees, infrastructure, job creation, agriculture, and health issues facing the region during and immediately after the LRA conflict. Many of these larger NGO’s and organizations have left since the region has been experiencing general peace.  Those who have remained are slowing down their services and simply cannot help everyone; they need to choose where their resources will be used to affect the greatest number of people.  However, the most vulnerable children have been and are often times still missed. We work with many of these students who come from small villages, are formally from the street, and are not currently being served by the larger NGO’s. Educating the most vulnerable children allows them to become productive members of their village, town, region, country and the world. It is through education that these children can change their lives. Educate for Change has been in operation since 2012.  For 2014 we have increased our GLOBAL Scholar program from 15 to 40 students attending secondary school.  The scholarships they receive will either supplement what the families are able to pay or will cover the entire tuition, uniform, and supply fee for students with no family or families experiencing deep poverty. In the works for 2015 are some programs to enhance the education of students at the primary and secondary level.  These include literacy and phonetics training (primary), school-based tutoring programs (secondary), and debate.  In addition, we are currently in the planning stages of a pilot program to address the issue of Gender Based Violence both in schools and at home in Nwoya District.  For this project, we are collaborating with Ciford and Anyim, two Ugandan based CBO’s. With time, we are also hoping to begin a capital campaign to build a secondary school for Mother Teresa Primary School. This would allow students to have continuous education from nursery through high school.