“We rise by lifting others”
Robert Ingersoll
Our primarly work is giving people equal chances. In addition to feeding the hungry and ensuring healthy lives, we also send children to schools.
1. Feed the Poor
82% of cases of child malnutrition in Uganda go untreated, accounting for 15 percent of child mortality cases in the country. Many parents in Kigungu village do not have jobs, and therefore can’t afford buying food to feed their families. With the help of donations from our supporters we regularly rationate food among poorest families and orphanages in Kigungu.
What happens with donations?
Anyone is welcome to support our Kigungu community, especially its children, either by making a single, or regular donations. As for many it is not really clear how much does food in Uganda cost, below we present estimated costs for glocery shoppings we do for a single family. For instance, within our godparent program one of our supporters transfers monthly 25 EUR, which covers:
2. Finance Education
Affording school fees is beyond many families, especially if there are many children in one household. It is a seemingly impossible task for Kigungu families to fund an education, and a lot of children only manage to pay part of their fees, which causes them to get withdrawed.
KigunguKids Educare with the help of donations enables a few number of kids to go, stay and finisch school.
Facts about education system in Uganda
Uganda faces serious challenges in providing access to and quality basic education to children and teenagers.
Starting from the youngest, unfortunatelly in Uganda there is a deficiency of pre-school program, which prepares children for schooling. Such programms are only attended by 1 out of 10 children in the age from 3-5 years old.
Accessing primary school has become a bit easier, since the launch of the primary education policy in 1997. However considering the huge amouth of children, the country has not manged yet to raise enough teaching institutions and educate enough teachers to cover this demand for knowledge. Although there are private primary schools, the fees for them cannot be paid by the poorest families. After 7 years of primary education only 1 in 4 children makes it to a secondary school. Secondary education is still inaccessible to most adolescents, only 24% of them are enrolled at this level.
Another important fact about the education system is that classes in Uganda are not based on age. This is because a lot of children drop out and re-enter the school based on whether or not they can afford to pay the fees.
The situation applies very much in Kigungu too. This is why we do our best and jump in whenever needed to support the families and help their kids keep in the learning flow and allow finish school and get the education they need.
3. Provide Healthcare
It is not easy for children in many poor countries: poor hygiene, a lack of health care and little access to education shape their lives. Although we can’t do the work the government should do and can’t transform the medical and health system in the country, we can allow some from our Kigungu community to get the help when in emergency.
In Uganda there is no system for free medication, government hospitals lack drugs and prescribe most often only two sorts of medicatment, like Coterm or Panadol against Malaria and other diseases. Poor people also are uninsured, as they cant afford the insurance fees. In the past we had situations where we needed to react to help those in need. Some time ago we managed to gather donations to finance a hospital stay during labour for a 17-year old pregnant girl. We also afforded to buy basic items for the baby and herbst for the mum to better get over childbed. Another time we managed to receive financing for a small boy, who suffered from paralyze, as a result of a head damage, due to accident. He received a special kind of prothesis to be able to move his hand again.
Within our work in the Kigungu community we also try to bring awareness among children and their parents concerning children’s health issues like home hygiene,water source maintenance. We provide trainings in all preventive measures concerning health-related problems in Kigungu schools and communities.
KigunguKids EduCare 