In 2018, this sweet girl showed up at our construction site at the Luwero Community Learning Center. She was very shy and lacked confidence. But she showed up every day, with her baby brother on her back; she would quietly follow us around and help with whatever we were doing ... moving bricks, cleaning up the site, etc. 

We found out that she was not in school because her family could not afford to send her. Through the generosity of donors, we were able to provide her a TTC scholarship and find her a school to attend. And she has been in school ever since. We receive periodic pictures and messages from her, expressing her love and appreciation for the love and care that has been showed to her, allowing her to attend school. When we are in Uganda, she always gives us a hug and says "I love you. Thank you for loving me." She is gained confidence, is doing well in school, and her countenance shines bright with hope and optimism.

Your donations and support truly changes lives. You've changed hers. 

Here she is in 2018 and now. Makes my heart sing.

Another school year has started in Uganda! We met with our TTC Scholarship recipients and their caretakers at the Luwero Community Learning Center for a beginning of the year kickoff, conversations about education, and to hear from them about what they're excited about in the coming year. 

We recently received these thank you cards from students at Our Lady Primary school, as well as the  email below from the headmistress. The impact this library is already having, and will continue to have, on the students at the school is immeasurable. 

Dear TEACH THE CHILDREN, 
We extend a warm thank you to Teach the Children for donating a library building to Our Lady Primary School…. I can’t wait again to thank you for all the support you have provided and continue to provide to our school. The bursaries for our kids, the provision of textbooks and readers, and we thank you for loving us that much.

The construction of the library has lifted the general appearance of the school, the academics are being boosted, the reading culture is now rest assured to be moving to the next step, and children have been given a chance to read ahead and explore new heights. Actually, Teach the Children has lifted the entire Our Lady School community.

There are so many things that I learned personally from Teach the Children during the time I spent with you. With a genuine heart of giving, togetherness, hard work, love for others, and hospitality, only to mention but a few, I Thank God who provided for the partnership. 

Thank you for lifting us. May God grant you all the good gifts you may desire.

Stay blessed.
CATHERINE NAMBAKIRE
OUR LADY PRIMARY SCHOOL

After a two year COVID delay, we were able to build a library in Uganda! This project brings books and educational resources to hundreds of students - opening up to them a new world of imagination, exploration, learning, and opportunity. The students and staff are so excited to have this new library and are grateful to everyone who made it possible; their smiles, hugs, and thank you's flowed freely throughout the couple weeks that we were there.  ​

Using scaffolding made from some pieces of wood tied together with twine, and without a single power tool or piece of heavy machinery, work on the library in Uganda is humming right along. ​

For the first time in almost two years, and after the world’s longest COVID shutdown, schools in Uganda are now open for all students/grades.

While this is great news, the length of time that schools have been “out” has created some issues that will have long term impact on students across the country. Despite efforts at remote education, more than 50% of Uganda’s students effectively stopped learning in March 2020 after the government closed schools; thus, most students are behind by almost two years at this point. Additionally, many students will not be able to return to school due to their family’s inability to afford the tuition/fees. Many students got jobs during the pandemic to help support their families financially, and now their families can’t afford for them not to work. Many young girls are now pregnant or new mothers.

While this is heartbreaking, and the effects of the shutdown will have lasting impact, we are committed to doing what we can to help. We are continuing our partnership with the schools we’ve been working with and doing what we can to cover their needs, and we are ensuring that the students we have sponsored in the past are back at school, with their school fees covered.
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Pictured below is Nanyonyi. We have sponsored her since 2018, after we met her at the construction site of the Community Learning Center that we were building. She was not in school at the time, because her family couldn’t afford it; she came to the job site every day, with her baby brother on her back, and moved bricks and stomped dirt and did whatever we needed help with. She just started secondary school, and we are so proud of her progress and effort and passion for learning.

As you can imagine, the 18+ months have been a bit difficult, due to the impacts of COVID in Uganda, with multiple country-wide shutdowns, school closures, the lack of infrastructure in the remote villages to allow for virtual school, and working through how to get students access to school/educational resources to provide some sort of continuity to their learning. The schools we work with in Luwero have only returned to in-person school in the last few months.

We had plans to go to Uganda in June 2020 to build a library at a Primary School that we have partnered with for the last couple years; however, borders were closed, schools were closed, and it was not safe to travel at that time. As schools sorted through how to provide students with lessons/homework/material to allow them to continue with some level of learning at home, we continued providing scholarships to nearly 50 students, removing a heavy burden from their families, at a time that most people weren't able to work, due to the lockdown. It also allowed students to remain busy and engaged in their studies, minimizing the learning gap from not being able to be at school with live lessons.

When our 2020 trip got cancelled, we rescheduled it for June 2021; however, COVID was still going strong across the world, it was not safe to travel, and Uganda shut down again. We are planning to return to Uganda in 2022 to build the library. In the meantime, we continue partnering with schools and providing scholarships to students to allow them to continue their education.  ​

[We received this note last week from the headmistress of one of the schools we partner with, have a built a library, and at which we have quite a few children on Teach the Children scholarships:
“Greetings from Ntumwa Primary School. The purpose of this communication is to congratulate all Teach the Children sponsors for having paid for Ndagire Aisha P7 [7th grade] - one of the students on scholarship, ... who sat for her Primary Leaving Examinations last year 2019, and managed to get a first grade of 8 aggregates.... Aisha's good performance is a result of the library you constructed for us, since candidates are given enough time to access it, read, and search information about their current curriculum... from which their final exams are set. Your paying school fees ... has also enabled her to concentrate and attend lessons regularly without fear that the school at any time might send her back home for payments. Being an intelligent girl, ... she has a dream of becoming a Doctor, whereby the Dad is a low income earner who will not manage to fulfill her dream. Thank you so much; continue with this spirit, and God will continue blessing the hands of your sweat.... We are working so hard to build/renovate (the school), but are still miles and miles away. The only nice, presentable structure we have at our campus is the library you donated to us. We shall always thank you for all the support.”
Stories like this make my heart swell with joy, and gratitude for all of the people who ever have supported Teach the Children in some way. Education, literacy, and libraries are truly changing lives of children in Uganda. This is why we are building another library at another school in the same community. 

“Libraries store the energy that fuels the imagination. They open up windows to the world and inspire us to explore and achieve, and contribute to improving our quality of life. Libraries change lives for the better.” (Sidney Sheldon)
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This is a picture that we recently received from the headmistress of Ntumwa Primary School, where we built this library in 2016. The children continue to be excited about the library, and use it daily. 📚 We will be building a library for another school this year (in June!!), and can’t wait to see the children’s excitement as they open books that will change their views of the world, and take them on adventures they’ve never before experienced. We would love your support!