Scholarship

There are over 2.5 million orphans in Uganda, and the number grows every year. The AIDS epidemic and a 20-year war in northern Uganda have created an especially catastrophic situation for children, who have been traumatized by the loss of their parents and witnessing illness and violence.

Some orphans end up with relatives or other caregivers; many become homeless and struggle daily to find food and a safe place to sleep. Others are fortunate – they are rescued from abusive caregivers or the streets and taken to an orphanage.

One such haven is the Charis Center and its adjoining Charis Junior School, just east of Uganda’s capital, Kampala. The center houses 85 children aged four to 14, and an additional 340 students attend the school every day. The children come from all parts of Uganda.  The children live and study at the Charis Center without plumbing – rainwater is collected in a large tank for daily use – and meals are cooked on an open fire. They sleep in dormitories with triple bunks, providing little space for privacy. The teachers make do with few resources, sharing books, tools and other materials in their endeavor to educate the children and teach them basic skills to survive after graduating from the Charis Junior School.

After completing their studies at around age 13, the youths must return to their home villages, to live on their own or with caregivers whenever possible. There is no room for them at Charis – the center continually admits new orphans – and the school does not have the space or funds to provide secondary education.  The graduates are fortunate to have had a safe place to live during their early years and to have received a foundation in education. However, they are still vulnerable. They need further education to have a chance to make a living, and a protective environment to support them until their late teens.

The Leapfrog Scholarship was established in 2010 to give a graduate a jumpstart in life. The scholarship is administered through the Maya Library project, started in 2004 to create a library for the Charis Center. Maya, a teenage girl, set out to donate used books to promote reading, and the project has expanded to involve fundraising for the center, including for the scholarship.

A mere $3,000 – or $80 a month – provides one child with three years of tuition in a secondary school in Uganda, including room and board, clothing and books. A committee at the Charis Junior School selects a student each year based on academic achievement and demonstrated need.

The first student to receive a Leapfrog Scholarship has now been selected by the Charis Junior School committee. We are thrilled to report that Lovisa, a 14-year-old student, will be able to continue her studies in secondary school in 2011.  Lovisa’s father died of AIDS and her mother is HIV positive and in very poor health. Lovisa is an excellent student who merits this scholarship. She has been an active contributor to the Charis Chronicle, which is a magazine created by the Maya Library project to encourage the children at Charis to hone their writing skills.