Launching Brilliant Fund in Uganda

MONDO’s child support activities reached a next level in Kikooba Infant and Primary School. In the last months we did not spare energies in order to ameliorate the living standard of the children and help the school to stabilize its functioning. As a first stage MONDO financed the establishment of a boarding section hosting twenty children in the school. We also organised two sessions on child protection with an aim to provide training for the staff. As a third step MONDO decided to involve Kikooba to the Brilliant Fund, its child support program. 

MONDO is actively involved in supporting hundreds of kids in need in Kenya, Ghana, Myanmar and Afghanistan. The Brilliant Fund was founded in 2009 and since then gave the chance for the most vulnerable children to have one of their basic rights, education. Specifically in Uganda children are exposed to child labour, human trafficking, abuse at school, early marriages and teenage pregnancy which are factors of high level of drop-outs from school. According to UNICEF’s data only 25% of the children enrolled to primary education makes to be enrolled to secondary. In a country level only 40% of the children become literate at the end of their studies due to the extremely low level of quality of education. Children with disabilities are largely excluded from formal schooling because of shortages of special needs teachers and facilities. Kikooba Primary is aiming to provide quality education and fights extreme poverty in order to keep the children in the school.  

In Kikooba paying school fees is a challenge for each and every family. The region is highly affected by the bush wars of the 80’ and touched by draught regularly. The families are mainly living from subsistence farming and lack of any other income. Kikooba primary school was founded in order to provide the possibility of education for the most vulnerable ones with very low fees. However the question in Kikooba is not whether something is expensive or cheap but rather costs any money or not. The families are struggling to find the means to support the children’s schooling, nutrition and clothing.

Due to MONDO’s Brilliant Fund we were able to identify the 100 kids the most in need and cover their school fees for the year 2019. The selected children are all members of families living in extreme

poverty, some of them abandoned by one or even two parents, orphans and some HIV+. Abandonment of children is a very common phenomena in Uganda. Due to the lack of work places in the country many parents decide to look for jobs abroad mainly in Arabic countries and leave their children behind. These parents are highly exposed to human trafficking and modern slavery. The parents leave their children to the care of their relatives in the villages and try to earn an income abroad. Almost every selected children are coming from this family background. 

 By paying EUR 50 per year for each supported children, the donors keep the children in school, alleviate the financial struggles of the families and make sure Kikooba Primary school can keep on the work to provide quality education. By supporting a child, as a donor you are not just helping by giving the chance to a kid to be educated and a successful member of the Ugandan society but help to keep them away from child labour, human trafficking and forms of exploitation. MONDO together with Ugandan Pioneers Association is dedicated to continue the work for a better future for Ugandan children in Kikooba.