Our monthly reports are written by Susan Laker for our Kampala programs and by Aidah Wafula for our Jinja programs. You can read what happened in this specfic month in our Education, Nutrition, Health and Eye-care and Small Business Program and what else we did at 22STARS in Uganda :)
1. EDUCATION PROGRAM
All sponsored kids have been in schools since 10 January and according to the academic calendar they are to break off on 10 April 2022 for a two weeks termly holiday before the start of second term for those in primary and secondary schools. The Uganda national examination board (UNEB), announced that Uganda certificate exams for ordinary level students in senior four and Uganda advanced level exams for students in S-6, shall start in
November this year as the case was before COVID-19. No cases of dropout have been received as the kids are even much more willing to be in schools than ever before.
In Jinja we had also every day Music classes after school for the children. This program has not yet been implemented for the Kampala side, but we are working on it. In both Kampala and Jinja the computer classes have been going on every day for two hours after the normal school time of the kids.
Some of the beneficiary kids received special gifts from their sponsors which we were able to procure and hand out to the respective kids, and some kids got letters too. The children were very happy with the sweet letters and an extra donation helps them and their families always a lot.
We had a parent meeting at the end of February. Parents and teachers came together. In Kampala the minutes were taken by Anena Beatrice, and Susan Laker hosted the meeting. In Jinja Aidah Wafula hosted the meeting. We started with prayers, opening, matters discussed children’s visitation day and checking their performance. We also shared what happened in Ukraine, Russian force attacks, many people lost their lives and many left injured and most of our sponsors are in Europe. Our beneficiaries were worried about the safety of the European sponsors and we put everything in prays and hoped for a positive change.
2. NUTRITION PROGRAM
In Jinja Saturday meals have been ongoing as planned as the kids are available every weekend, except for a few of
them who are in boarding school. In Jinja we do not take meals to the boarding school children as it just concerns a small number of children.
As we rented a maize field to produce cheaper maize flour for our weekend lunches ourselves, we had our Program Coordinator David visiting the field to check on its latest stu
In Kampala we have hot meals every Sunday with 130 children, since the other 130 left to boarding school. We take food twice per term to the boarding school to change also their diet as part of their nutrition food. This has changed the health of children and balanced diets. We are so grateful to the donors and sponsors.
In February we also celebrated the birthday of one of our big ambassadors, Eddie, and we also received many visitors who turned up for the birthday party and they had lots of gifts for our kids.
3. HEALTH AND EYE-CARE PROGRAM
In Jinja there are a few recorded cases of illnesses, ranging from malaria to typhoid that some of the kids have been diagnosed with, but luckily Aidah wants to report that they are doing well every passing day and their medical bills have been cleared by the Foundation.
In Kampala we had especially many sick children who joined the boarding school. This was due to a changing of environment and diet for them. However the school and teachers are working on improving their health conditions and the medical bills have been paid for by 22STARS.
4. SMALL BUSINESS PROGRAM
In Jinja, repayment is ongoing following a recent boost that the small business group received. They are very grateful to the 22stars foundation for the initiative to improve their lives, businesses and enable them to self-reliance.
In Kampala, on 24th of February all the beneficiaries completed all the loan payments successfully and there is a lot of impact in the beneficiary’s life. We are looking now at who will be in the new round of loans.
5.VARIOUS
BIG NEWS: Susan Laker decided to go back to university herself! She is doing an education at MTAC University doing public administration and management communications. The foundation is paying for her universtiy fees, as it is very beneficial for both.
This month of February we have been able to receive Lucy and Max as our Visitors. Lucy has been doing an internship with us in 2019 for three monhts for the Eye-care program. Now she came back to visit us with her boyfriend Max. Lucy visited both our program, in Kampala and in Jinja and also visited the Optican Center close to Masaka, where two of our students are studying.
The LC1 (Local council) in Acholi Quarter donated 70 mosquito nets for our children.
Susan and Aidah take care of the kids, making sure they all go to school, they are all treated whenever they
are sick, they all get extra food whenever they need, the counsel them, make follow up on all matters concerning the sponsored kids and their families. They make the reports monthly, make budgets and proposals, send updates, update tasks, visit schools, make payments together with David or Stella, and give accountabilities of funds spent and received.
