FOHU Sponsorship Scheme

Education System in Ugandan.

Ugandan education system has some levels which the learners go through.  The include;-

01: Primary School:  (Duration seven years).  Primary school level takes seven years from primary one (P.1) to Primary Seven (P.7).  At the end of P.7, the child (Learners) sits for national exams termed as Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE).

02: Lower Secondary Education (Ordinary Level- ‘O’ Level.

Children /Learners who complete Primary Seven (P.7) and qualify to join Lower Secondary School, do progress to this level which is otherwise known as Ordinary Level (‘O’ level) where they spend four years from senior one (S.1) to senior four (S.4). At the end of S.4, the student sits for the lower secondary education exams known as UCE (Uganda Certificate of Education).

03: Advanced level Education (Advanced Level Education)

This is the high school level of education which is joined by those who convincingly pass the UCE Exams (Ordinary level exams). At this Advanced level, there is greater specialization where the student offers only three subjects that form a combination. This level takes only two years after which students sit for National Exams known as Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education (UACE) also know as ‘A’Level exams.

Ed 04 University and Tertiary Institutions Education.

Students who finish UACE Exams (A’Level get the opportunity of either joining the university or tertiary institutions for professional courses. In these two Institutions, Government makes two categories of admissions.  There are children who get sponsored by the state/government and those who are fully privately sponsored.

Joining the university on government sponsorship depends on how excellent one passes UACE exams and wins that treasurable opportunity.  However still government pays for some basics like food, accommodation, course fees and a few other university costs.  The student has to personally meet costs for stationery, general functional fees and internship training fees.

Tertiary institutions where they offer Diplomas and certificates also gets similar facilitation from government for the children who are under its support.

Friends of Humanity-Sponsorship Scheme.

FOHU operates  in  Kisoro  District in South west Uganda which includes the very rural areas around the Bwindi and Mgahinga National Parks. When these parks were gazette in 1991, people living in these areas were displaced losing their land and key properties which were their primary source of income from subsistence farming. This has had a long lasting adverse effect on the community which is evident to this day.  FOHU is trying to address poverty and ignorance in this said area by empowering young people, by providing education opportunities for highly gifted children from poor families, especially those with single parents, double orphans, girl child and other marginalized children.

Its priority program provides quality secondary education for students in an area where many children drop out of formal education after Primary School Level as a result of financial hardship.  In addition FOHU tries to find sponsorship to cover the functional fees of children who have completed Secondary Education and have been offered government sponsorship for tertiary education, but would be unable to accept the government sponsorship without financial assistance with the functional fees which as mentioned above, are not covered by the government sponsorship.

In order to give sponsored students high quality secondary school education and to enable them compete with other students in more affluent urban areas, students sponsored by FOHU are enrolled as boarders at Kisoro Vision Secondary School.

Kisoro Vision Secondary School an affiant of  FOHU

FOHU is affiliated to Kisoro Vision Secondary School (a mixed boarding/day school) which is consistently the best performing Secondary School in the Kisoro District based on national examination results (UCE and UACE).

Education is an important tool for empowering young people. But to be truly empowered children also need to develop leadership and personal skills. The ethos of the school is to provide a holistic education and develop leadership skills by encouraging participation in numerous clubs and societies where students are expected to take the lead in planning and executing activities.  This would not be possible for students in rural areas unless they are boarders (Residing at school).

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In view of the background of the students, FOHU Sponsorship Scheme aims at covering all the expenses of their Secondary Education. The annual budget for the education costs is here attached (Annex A).

(Exchange rate: 1 US Dollar = 3600 UGX 1 UK pound =4,500 UGX

N.B Payable amount of money for S1 and S5 is generally higher than that of other classes because children in these classes are new students at that level. As new students at that level, they need new beddings, new Uniforms, new writing books and text books and other school assorted fees like building fees, library fees and personal school Identity cards etc.

Urgent appeal and Request for sponsors and supporters

Friends of  Human Uganda is seeking for  sponsors who are prepared to sponsor a child or children either fully or partially for six years of their  Secondary Education, subject to satisfactory performance and discipline the child may manifest. Although it is hoped that sponsors will agree to sponsor a child throughout their secondary education, it is appreciated that individual circumstances may come into play and have this changed.

FOHU has a number of very vulnerable children it looks at as potential beneficiaries. These children cannot continue to have secondary education because of their economic background inspite of being too intellectually gifted.  It is this category of children who seem to be having a very dark future of lacking education and enlightenment that we are looking up to and appeal for any pathetic person to pick up one and sponsor him.

Sponsorship is normally paid annually or monthly or termly as may be agreed or personally decided.  Potential sponsors are invited to make initial contact using the form in the ‘Contact Us’ section of the website (main menu – About- Contact us) and  to specify  their preferred payment method.

FOHU is happy to consider alternative payment arrangements if it would help a sponsor.  If applicable it is requested that the comments field on the form is used to explain what alternative arrangements a sponsor would like use.

Cost of Sponsorship

FOFU is a small organization and the Directors and project Co-ordinator give their time for free.  As a consequence the organization’s overheads are small but include costs associated with registration fees for this charity, website development and maintenance, bank/money transfer charges and an annual audit fee.  The sponsorship charges include an element for overheads but FOHU receives a contribution to overheads from a different source.

Annex ‘B’

Cost of Sponsorship/student in US Dollars and UK Pounds Starling

(Exchange rate is based on 1UK Pound equivalent to 4,500 Ugandan shillings and then 1US dollar equivalent to 3,600 Uganda Shillings)

Stewardship UK: Church and Charity

Stewardship is a long established UK charity (Registered number 234714) which aims at giving money for charitable causes so easily. Money given to Stewardship will be distributed to one or more approved charitable causes according to the donor’s wishes.  As a UK charity, Stewardship is under a legal obligation to ensure that money donated is used for charitable purposes.  FOHU has been vetted  and approved  by Stewardship as a suitable organization to receive charitable  funds. FOHU therefore has a stewardship recipient Account number 20281126.

As a consequence UK tax payers can make donations to FOHU via Stewardship which can benefit from gift aid (normal gift aid rules apply- please see www.gov.uk/donating-to-charity/gift-aid for further details.)

The preferred method of donating to FOHU is via a Stewardship Giving account.  The account is free and is easy to setup and donations can be made by standing order.  (See Stewardship Giving website www.give.net for   further details.)

Stewardship giving accounts are currently used by over 25,000 people to give over UK Pounds 50 million each year to a whole range of causes close to their hearts.  Over 19,000 recipients are registered to receive funds from Stewardship; including UK registered charities and selected overseas charities. FOHU is one of these selected overseas charities.

Interaction with Sponsored Students

All sponsors will receive details of the background of their sponsored child along with a photograph via email.  Kisoro Vision Secondary School has well established procedures for monitoring the progress of students based on course work and examinations and produces termly report so that the progress of students can be monitored. FOHU will email sponsors a copy of the termly report for their sponsored child at the end of every term.

FOHU welcomes interaction between sponsors and their sponsored children. This is clearly beneficial for the children and can lead to friendships which endure beyond the child’s education.

Sponsors are encouraged to write to their sponsored child.  FOHU will print and forward three letters per year from sponsors which are emailed to the FOHU email address.

Students are always excited to receive letters and a letter from a sponsor is likely to be he first letter a sponsored child has ever received.  The students are perhaps less  enthusiastic  about  writing a reply in a second  language (English  is second language for the  students) but  are encouraged to do so on up to three occasions per year.  The letters will be forwarded to sponsors via email.

If a sponsor does not wish to correspond with a student this will of course be respected.

One question often asked is can sponsors communicate with their sponsored student directly by email? FOHU has no objections to this but it must be remembered that the children supported by FOHU are likely to come from houses without electricity and probably from villages without electricity and will not have equipment to access the internet and send emails.  On joining Kisoro Vision S.S, the students are unlikely to have used or even seen a computer.

Kisoro Vision S.S is prepared to make their internet access facilities available to students at set times outside normal lesson hours.  However, this is only practical for more senior students who have   had some computer training.  Outside school terms it is likely that a student will have to use an internet café and pay the associated charges.  Although smart phones are becoming    more common in Uganda Kisoro Vision S.S does not permit students to be used at school to our phones in school.

One sponsor  was keen to have  email contact with a sponsored student and enquired  whether a bank account could be opened  for a  sponsored student  so that an  international money  transfer  could  be made to ensure  the student  had money for the  internet café charges.  FOHU was happy to facilitate this arrangement

Kisoro Vision SS is happy for any sponsor visiting Uganda to interact with the sponsored child and visit the school during term time to meet their sponsored student.  However, to avoid any disappointment it is requested that dates for a visit are agreed in advance.