Uganda: Opening Doors to Higher Education

Turning to our work abroad, as you probably already know, we have two ongoing projects in Uganda. One is an educational center located in Luwero, where we have a primary school and a secondary school. This year we have 163 students in the primary school and 265 students in the secondary school. We have come a long way since we purchased a piece of jungle and started the school in 2014.

A New Opportunity

Right now we are about to launch something that, as far as we know, has not been done before in Uganda. We are starting a university tuition loan program that will enable selected academically gifted students to pursue careers of their choice that otherwise would not be possible because of a lack of funds. We are eager to remove that barrier for them. Once they graduate and find gainful employment, they will repay the loan to the school so that the next generation of students can then use those funds to obtain an education.

The First Student

We are about to sponsor one student who graduated from our high school last year, and she would like to pursue a degree in Public Health. Since graduation, she has been working odd jobs and has raised a significant amount of money to contribute toward her tuition this year.

Most nonprofit organizations that sponsor educational programs in Africa end their support when students graduate from high school. We have always believed that we need to go beyond a high school education in order to bring about more meaningful change in society. Now we are about to find out whether this really works.