My Message

Hello from Emma, Tim, Sam, Richard, Steve, John, Emma & all the team,

All the money raised will be used to provide education grants to children orphaned by hiv and/or children living with hiv so they can complete the basic primary education that is vital to their future.

Although primary education is 'free' in Uganda there are many hidden costs (school uniforms, shoes, school dues, lunch, books and pens etc) that means education is out of reach for children these children.

The cost per child is £483 per year

 The cost to support ten children through primary education for a year is £4,830

 

Above are some photos of Jaliya, David, Dianna, Edrine and Godfrey - some the children that you will be helping if you sponsors us. Four of them have already started attending school and in just two terms they are getting some of the highest marks in their classes.

I met Jaliya first, she is now 10 years years old. After losing both her parents to aids she was sent to live with her uncle in Bwaise slum, Kampala. He was frightened that his children would contract HIV, so every morning her uncle told Jaliya to move her bedding from his house to a nearby makeshift structure where she used to spend her daytime locked away from hear family. She wasn't allowed to play with her cousins and she had to beg for food.

In May 2007, when Jaliya was too weak to move or eat, Regina (who you can see in the photo with Jaliya), a member of the Tusitukirewamu Women’s Group, found her, counselled and comforted her and took her to a hospital for treatment. Jaliya took an HIV test and was found to be HIV positive and suffering from tuberculosis. When I first met Jaliya last year she was still very sick, tiny framed, quiet and scared.

When I met her again this May she was a changed girl, she looked much healthier and was so much more confident – she told me how much she loved school because of the friends she had made there who weren’t afraid to be near her, and she is getting the highest grades in her class.

We want to help more children like her - The more money we raise the more children like Jaliya we can send to school so please sponsor us!

Want to cycle with us and do your own fundraising?

It’s not too late to come along, email me - emma.scullion@actionaid.org if you want to find out how to join us.

Where is the project?

The ‘Tusitukirewamu Women’s Group’ is based in Bwaise, a slum area of Kampala (Uganda), down in the valley where nothing was supposed to be built because it is swamp. The area is liable to flooding, and the streams, which are open sewers, sometimes overflow into the homes and shops of the people that live here. 

 

The organisation has been set up and is run by members of the community who have all been affected in some way by hiv/aids – most have lost partners, children or grandchildren. Many care for extended families and or orphaned children in their own homes (Regina has 10 children living in her home and as well as a list of children she visits in the community everyday) – they give practical support to women and children, especially those infected by hiv, or those widowed or orphaned by aids. They support children to get their education and adults to help them earn their own living. They also do lots of education on the prevention of hiv/aids and bringing the community together to make Bwaise a better place to live everyone.

They want to change things – we want to help them do it.