Introduction to UgandAid
Uganda's recent history has involved turbulent civil war, violent dictatorship and more recently HIV/AIDS, which has left over a million children orphaned.
Poverty is widespread, most people live at a subsistence level and children commonly die from malaria, measles and dehydration. Primary education is almost universally accessible, but schooling after 11 years old is beyond the means of many families.
There is little hope of employment for most poor and orphaned youngsters in Uganda, and they desperately need an opportunity to learn skills to provide for themselves as they approach adulthood.
UgandAid has two primary objectives:
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To offer hope to vulnerable youngsters, the poorest of the poor, in Uganda by sponsoring vocational training (primarily at Nile Vocational Institute) or providing other life skills training leading to personal growth, confidence, employment and self-sufficiency. A life-changing opportunity for hundreds of students and their extended families.
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To support NVI in the development of existing and new courses (with appropriate building infrastructure and equipment) at its Njeru campus, and work with others to improve the health and education of young people and the disadvantaged in Uganda.
How UgandAid began
From the outset we were impressed by all aspects of Nile Vocational Institute and it's excellent success rate. It seemed obvious - rather than ‘reinvent the wheel’ we should work with this well-established Institute with it's experience and infrastructure in place, yet with spare capacity for more students.
In 2002 we started a sponsorship scheme to place students at NVI, where we could be confident of the quality of education and care students would receive even if we were not able to be involved on a daily basis ourselves. UgandAid has grown steadily, and now 311 students have been placed at NVI through UgandAid.
