Uganda's recent history has involved turbulent civil war, violent dictatorship and more recently the scourge of HIV/AIDS which has left over a million children orphaned.
Poverty is widespread, and most people live at a subsistence level. Children commonly die from malaria, measles and diarrhoea. Although primary education is becoming almost universally accessible, schooling after 11 years old is beyond the means of many families.
There's 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 - a chance to break free from the trap of poverty.
In 2000 members of Altrincham Baptist Church visited Jinja, the second largest town in Uganda. Team members wanted to help young people learn vocational skills but starting up a vocational training centre, however modest, was not a viable option.
How UgandAid began
In 2001-2002 we were introduced to NVI, and were impressed by all aspects of its work and indeed the excellent success rate. One bright February morning in 2002, sitting in the Director’s office it suddenly became obvious. Rather than ‘reinvent the wheel’ we should work with this well-established Institute which had all the experience and infrastructure in place, yet had spare capacity for more students.
A light switched on – we could set up a sponsorship scheme to place more students here, where we could be confident of the quality of education and care students would receive even if we were 4000 miles away and unable to be involved on a daily basis ourselves. UgandAid was born!
In November 2002 UgandAid was launched with the aim of ultimately placing between 50-75 students each year. To work towards this we have taken it community wide and UgandAid has support from Trafford Borough Council and the Trafford Jinja Association.
Christine Booth (UgandAid co-ordinator)
