Scholastic Development Fund

In our struggle to enrich children’s learning through school, we have thought and found it necessary to have them well equipped with essential tools they need to use in order to perform and excel in their academics apart from paying tuition. These tools or particulars are such important to facilitate a child’s learning at school and without them it becomes another great challenge standing in their way to success.

We therefore, aim at creating a scholastic fund to support students in schools who cannot afford having these materials by themselves or with no support from their families. We are looking at receiving donations in kind or funding to purchase these supplies. We’re counting on your generosity for the success of this project. Following are the items children need to have:

School Shoes:

For many village children and families they have a feeling that wearing shoes is a luxury matter or a thing to do with the grownups. Little children in deep village primary schools, dream of wearing shoes only when they reach secondary school level. They walk over 5-6 miles to get to school barefooted very early in the morning on our rocky and dusty roads and back home in the evening every day. Some resists going to school because they cannot stand the challenge any more, but get heavily punished.

When think of the distance from home to school and the way to get there plus other activities to be done while at school, life at school becomes not fun at all which makes learning a very big challenge to village children. Some children have become ill with rotten foot yet some people mockingly provoke them “Village children do not want to go to school, they will stay behind forever”. We can add our voice and say enough is enough and put a stop to such insults, we can give them joy in their learning and make them feel school a better place for them to draft their future. With a donation in kind or Uganda shilling 50,000 you can change the life of a student in rural Uganda with a comfortable black pair of Shoes which will take a child for a whole year.

Exercise Books:

These are the books students use to keep their notes. In villages schools students are not able to buy text books for themselves. Teachers help to write notes from each subject on wide boards from which students copy into their “exercise books” to be able to revise and write assignments. Without these books students are paralyzed in their learning. A Primary student will require about 8 books including one for home work and secondary level students will need up to 18 books every term. Each quality book will cost Uganda shillings 4,000.

For a primary student:
8 x 4,000 = 32,000 each term and for an academic year they would need (3 terms), 32,000 x 3 = 96,000.

Secondary Student:
18 x 4,000 = 72,000 each term and for an academic year they would need 72,000 x 3 = 216,000.
However, for the purpose of not having many subject exercise books for a student to carry, we shall purchase a big volume books with many pages. This makes 2 exercise books enough for each subject in an academic year.  We shall therefore, buy books in term one and term two. These shall cover for term three as well. So we need 144,000 for a secondary student a whole year and 64,000 for a primary student a whole year.

Pens:

In order to be able to write the notes, assignments, tests and examinations, students need to have Pens. 10 Pens are enough for a Secondary level student and 6 quality Pens for a Primary level student. Each quality Pen costs 500 Uganda shillings.
For a primary student we shall need 6 x 500 = 3,000 each term and for an academic year we shall need UGX 3,000 x 18 =54,000 Uganda shillings for 18 Pens.
For a secondary level student; 10 x 500 = 5,000 a term, and for one academic year 15,000 will be required for the purchase of 30 quality Pens.

Pencils:

Each student will require 6 sketch Pencils each costing 200 x 6 = 1,200 each term and for 3 terms, 18 x 200 = 3,600.

Scientific Calculators:

These are only for secondary level students. These specific types of calculators bear the functions required for students to treat the relevant subjects. Each Calculator will cost us Uganda shillings 45,000. They are very important most especially now when almost all science subject are made mandatory to students.

Geometry /mathematical Sets:

These are for both secondary and primary level students. Geometry sets will cost Uganda shillings 5,500.

School Bags:

These are for both primary and secondary school students. When students receive such important school supplies they need, it is important to have a school Bag for carrying and keeping them safe. Each school bag will cost 40,000 and is expected to last for atleast 2 years.

School Uniform:

It is a school requirement for all students to have a particular uniform for a particular school. In many cases girls wear a Skirt and Shirt or a full Dress with a printed school label. Boys wear a pair of trousers and a shirt and many school provide a sweater to students at a cost.
Uniform for both boys and girls will cost Uganda Shillings 35,000 and a Sweater at 20,000 shillings. A sweater can last for atleast two years and a Uniform for one year.

Lunch at School:

There has been many complaints for students staying hungry the whole day at school. For students to have lunch at school each will be required to pay Uganda shillings 40,000 each term, and for 3 academic terms (One year) students will need to pay 40,000 x 3 =120,000. 3 months form one term, and nine months form an academic year.

Mattresses:

For a fresh mind one needs to have had a good sleep. Commonly in a typical village family children sleep on Mats on unleveled ground. The Mattress we intend to provide for our children is to take them through their education career ( We shall not expect to buy another for the same child). This will cost Uganda shillings 80,000.

Blankets:

Despite sleeping on unleveled grounds, in many families children do not have enough bedding. They fight each other during day time for food and in the night they fight for the blanket if they happen to have one. You find three or four children in a family sleeping under one blanket of 4 to 5 ft wide and 6-7 ft long. The youngest is made to sleep in the middle. They keep polling the blanket from both ends throughout the night.

They sleep tightly close to each other in order to get warmth this condition stays the same even when one contracts a communicable disease. This is the luck family and the unlucky, children waits until their mother take off her work day cloth (Gomesi), which she covers them and when the morning comes, she puts it on to go for gardening. We want to buy blankets for children. Each quality blanket will cost us Uganda shillings 60,000 and is expected to take not less than 4 years.
We explained the need for Sanitary pads for our girls in our recent Voice of Hope issue. However, we have received demands from even some primary students.

BUDGET:

We perhaps cannot provide everything at once, but as the old saying “One by one makes a bundle”, and this seems to be a big journey ahead of us, but I’m very much hopeful that together we shall get there. You don’t need to buy or provide all the stuff pick the one that touches you the most. We shall deliver your gifts to the most deserving child and you will receive a personal letter and a photo of your supported child or children.

God bless you

Kenneth Kasule
Founding Director
P.O. Box 35197
Kampala, Uganda.

Tel: +256 774287388
E-mail: kasulekenneth@yahoo.ca
Website: www.widesmilesug.org