Mvule Trust Annual Report, 2007

Annual Report 2007

2 I Annual Report 07

Table of contents Executive summary Mvule Trust in maps The cost of education Mvule Trust objectives Q&A with Mvule Trust Project Manager Mvule Trust in 2007 Implementers of bursaries FAWE: 1,076 students World Vision: 330 students ADRA: 20 students UWESO: 70 students URDT: 60 students Nyabyeya Forestry College: 50 students STF: 62 students Nursing and health sciences: 154 students Direct funding and staff development: 6 students Other grant recipients Cornerstone: science lab, fuel-efficient stoves IHK: Hope Ward bed Follow up on other 2006 grants Kichwamba High School Kyambura Gorge Other activities Monitoring trips Adolescent Reproductive and Sexual Health training Parents’ meetings Additional effort: Child-headed families Implementers’ meeting Finance Mvule Trust 2007 expenses by category Appendix A: Legal and administrative information Appendix B: Mvule Trust organogram and goals for 2008

4 5 6 7 8 9 12 13 15 16 17 18 19 20 22 24 25 25 26 27 27 27 28 29 30 32 33 34 35 36 36 37

UK address: 25 Ross St, Cambridge CB1 JBP Uganda Address: PO Box 22366, Kampala, Uganda email: [email protected]; [email protected] Annual Report 07 I 3

Executive summary

A

lmost all Mvule beneficiaries belong to the “bottom billion,” the poorest onesixth of the world’s population that lives on less than a dollar a day: 75% have lost one or both parents; few have literate parents; 75% are girls. They attended dilapidated primary schools: most are now in under-resourced secondary schools without electricity and with few teachers. There are no other schools for them. Most would not qualify for a good Kampala school even if there were room for them. Nevertheless, Mvule beneficiaries flourished in 2007. At Lwala Girls in Kabermaido district, Mvule girls occupy the top four positions in their class of 93. Brenda Ayakaka of Metu SS in Arua is second in her class of 81. Her biodata form notes that her family home’s floor is “dung”, her bed a “mat” and her major diet “greens.” In 2007 - its second year of operation - Mvule Trust worked to ensure that the 1,383 students taken on in 2006 had the best possible outcomes. This was achieved: 97% of them continued in school in 2007. Of the 3% or 42 who did not, two died (one of heart failure, one of malaria), 15 dropped out and 25 had completed secondary school by the end of 2006. Besides supporting the 2006 beneficiaries, Mvule Trust took on new students as planned. All but one of the 487 new beneficiaries were girls: 303 girls started A levels, 30 started O levels and 153 young women and one young male were picked up for nursing and other health courses. (The single male is the brother of a forestry student whose family was selling their land to pay for his final year of nursing.) In 2007 Mvule staff physically visited 1,090 beneficiaries at school, tracing some to their homes. To help girls deal with formidable relationship and sex challenges, Mvule Trust had planned workshops for almost all girl beneficiaires. In the end it reached 398 girls in West Nile, Kasese, Kitgum and Kisoro but none in the east and Bundibugyo due to floods and an outbreak of ebola. Mvule provided sexual health sensitisation to all students at the forestry college, not just Mvule beneficiaries. The only major target not met was parents meetings, which were held in just one out of four planned districts, largely due to a meningitis outbreak. The only major disappointment was that only 7% of the new A level recruits were able to enrol for science subjects because of weak science teaching at O level. Throughout 2007, critically ill Ugandans occupied the hospital bed funded by Mvule. One was a forestry student whose lung collapsed, perforated by TB. Mvule paid for solar panels and to construct one science lab and equip three at Cornerstone Academy. There were exchange rate variations throughout 2007: total Mvule expenditure was $846,980. By the end of 2007 Mvule Trust had supported the education of 1,868 young people. It had a model for keeping young people, especially girls, in education in districts where only about 5% of secondary school-aged adolescents are in secondary school. It was increasingly providing direct funding to students in tertiary institutions devoted to practical subjects, such as nursing and forestry, that will contribute to bringing their home areas out of poverty.

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Mvule Trust in maps

Map 1: Districts of operation by implementer

Map 2: Concentration of Mvule Trust beneficiaries by district where they study (including 154 newly recruited nursing and health science students)

Annual Report 07 I 5

The cost of education Implementer

Cost

# Female students

# Male students

Ug. Shs.

US. $

FAWE

536,663,400

298,113

868

208

World Vision

183,596,400

101,998

129

ADRA

23,211,000

12,895

URDT

60,000,000

UWESO Nyabyeya Forestry College Straight Talk Foundation Nursing and health science students Direct funding and staff development TOTAL:

Total # students

Average cost per student per year Ug. Shs.

US. $

1,076

498,702

277

201

330

556,354

309

8

12

20

1,166,595

645

33,333

60

0

60

1,000,000

556

49,700,000

27,611

63

7

70

710,000

394

16,642,800

9,245

45

5

50

332,856

185

43,484,000

24,158

36

26

62

701,361

390

204,857,050

113,809

153

1

154

1,330,235

739

5,000,400

2,778

3

3

6

833,400

463

623,941

1,365

463

1,828

614,384

341

1,123,095,450

Mvule Trust costs by implementer

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Mvule Trust objectives • Fund bursaries for young adults, primarily girls, who are not able to pursue a post-primary education. • Where possible, provide Mvule Trust beneficiaries with personal materials crucial to academic progress, such as school uniforms, medical and health supplies, transport, and writing or trade tools. • Finance the development of school facilities, such as libraries and science laboratories. • Develop a support network for beneficiaries that will encourage them to pursue their studies. These efforts include reproductive health and life skills training, meetings with beneficiaries’ parents, workshops for teachers, and dialogue with community leaders to promote education. • Help graduates to secure employment once they have completed their education. • Support efforts by other organizations or programmes aimed at increasing quality and accessibility of education in Uganda. Above: A Mvule-FAWEU beneficiary in S2 at Muni Girls SS, in Arua, grinding sesame paste. She works in the school kitchen to earn scholastic materials like pads and books.

Left: A Mvule-FAWEU beneficiary at Otravu SS in Yumbe district filling a biodata form. During a counseling session, she spoke of her life with her grandmother and her daily 10 km walk to and from school.

Annual Report 07 I 7

Q&A with M.T. Project Manager Q: Whydoes Mvule Trust focus on education for girls in secondary schools? A: Universal primary education (UPE) has made it possible for most parents to send their children to primary school. But Universal Secondary Education (USE) has had less impact. Most rural parents see girls’ education as a liability. Most think that if you educate a girl, you are educating a wife for someone and giving this worth to her marital home. This trend is decreasing, but still less than 27% of girls ever set foot in a secondary school. Q: The motto for Mvule Trust is “Supporting education, science and the environment in Uganda.” Why focus Josephine Abalo, 25, has served as Mvule Trust Project on science? Manager since June 2006. A: The sciences have been male-dominated. At Mvule Trust we know that girls can perform equally well in the sciences. Our aim is to bridge the gender gap and overcome the stereotype that girls can’t do science or vocational trainings like forestry. Also, Uganda needs science to get out of poverty: we need soil scientists, entomologists...The goverment is reluctant to fund arts (humanities) students at university these days. Q: You encountered obstacles yourself in pursuing your education. A: I was born into a family of four girls. I lived with my mother. My father was a businessman in the north and was killed in an ambush. My mother was a cook. I can say that I was a bright girl. I received a scholarship for my O levels, which allowed my mother to pay for my sisters’ school fees. But after my S4 she fell sick, and I had no hope of continuing until I received a FAWEU scholarship, which paid for my last two years. I was aiming for a career in medicine but my mother died during my A levels so I did not do as well as I had hoped. I was given a government scholarship instead to get a paramedical diploma in orthopedics. While studying, I also volunteered with FAWEU and UNICEF to support myself and my little sisters. From fieldwork allowances, I would save money and come back and stock food for my sisters. Two of my sisters are at university. The youngest, who is 10 years old, is now in P5. She is HIV positive and is on ARVs. I thank God for bringing us this far. Q: You are currently studying community psychology. What challenges have you encountered when you counsel Mvule Trust beneficiaries? A: A lot of what these students face comes from their environment. In Teso, self-esteem is the main problem. The majority of girls lack life skills. They shy away from problems and don’t communicate. In the western region, kids lack exposure to the outside world, so they are very resistant to change. In the center, where it is more urban, kids are also very resistant to change because they think they know everything. As a mother I have come to know that, in counseling, you must take someone’s child as your own. Many lack parental guidance; you cannot just conclude they are a bad person. You have to take them as a human and make them realize their value. 8 I Annual Report 07

Mvule Trust in 2007

M

vule Trust is a small NGO which operates solely in Uganda, running a a large scholarship scheme. It was established with a grant of $5 million from Arcadia Trust (formerly the Lisbet Rausing Charitable Fund) to fund education. Arcadia is dedicated to “programmes that preserve cultural and social knowledge, or protect natural diversity,” as well as “promote human rights and free societies.” Through its commitment to needy youth, Mvule Trust helps Arcadia fulfil that human rights mission. Mvule Trust registered with the UK Charity Commission and the Uganda NGO Board in 2005 and began work in early 2006. Since then, the Trust’s budget of approximately $1 million per year has helped almost 2,000 adolescents and young adults to remain in school. The government of Uganda instituted free Universal Primary Education (UPE) in 1997, leading to a three-fold increase in enrolled primary school pupils. However, investment in schools and resources for UPE cannot keep up with the country’s 3.4% annual population growth, the third highest in the world. The average pupil-to-teacher ratio in primary school is 48:1 and the pupil-to-classroom ratio 71:1. According to the study “Efficiency of Public Education in Uganda,” 37% of what the government spends on primary education is wasted, largely due to teacher and pupil absenteeism. Conditions are so difficult in primary schools that absolute enrolment has been declining since 2004. Universal Secondary Education (USE) began in 2007, but international donors failed to fund the program - and the secondary education, it was only made available to students in S1, the first year of secondary school. It also applies to only about a third of the 3,500 secondary schools, so many students do not have a USE school within walking distance. Currently, the government pays 47,000 Ug. Shs. (US $26) per secondary student per term to USE schools.

due to lack of resources high cost of providing

Who are Mvule Trust beneficiaries? • 75% are girls • 89% identify as coming from peasant farmer families

• 40% come from single parent families • 35% are total orphans • ALL are vulnerable

Nationally, about 16% of boys and 15% of girls of secondary school age are actually attending secondary school. But in the areas where Mvule focuses, the figure is much lower: about 6% of boys and 4% of girls in the North and 0.9% of girls in Internally Displaced Person (IDP) camps. There are also enormous performance disparities between regions. In the 2007 O levels, 54% of good passes (division one) were achieved by students from greater Kampala and two other southern towns. About 16% of students in those areas achieved a division one pass. In contrast, in the Mvule district of Katakwi only one student out of the just 314 students who sat O levels passed in division one (0.3%). The Mvule districts of Yumbe and Bundibuygo had the highest failure rates in the country.

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Science teaching and learning is in crisis. Forty per cent of schools where O level exams were sat do not have science labs, and science teachers are in short supply. In 2007, 58% of students failed their physics O level, 69% failed chemistry and 38% failed biology.

Class

Student Enrollment by Class and Gender, 2004 S6

18,630 27,110

S5

21,879 30,711

S4

54,468 67,125

S3

64,549 75,712

S2

71,835 85,421

S1

82,494 97,573

Overall, there are more boys than girls in every class. (In 2007, 55% of students who sat the O level exams were male.) Female

195,460 233,716

P7

Male

338,396 352,613

P6

423,072 424,830

P5

475,437 479,007

P4

516,929 525,853

P3

533,397 544,139

P2

Drop out is extremely high throughout secondary school. The worse dropout is during the transition between S4, when O levels are completed, and S5, the year the A level course begins: 54% of boys and 60% of girls who complete S4 are unable to go on to S5. The main reason is the cost of school fees.

828,090 836,924

P1

Compared to national rates, Mvule Trust has good student retention: only 2% of its beneficiaries failed to complete all three of their terms in 2007. This is encouraging given that Mvule only sponsors children in extreme hardship. Term reports from 2006 indicated that most beneficiaries fell within the 1st and 2nd class quartiles, although results fluctuated over time, and girls’ results continued to lag behind those of boys.

Many Mvule students are excelling academically. For instance, in 2007 # Enrolled Students Mvule-FAWEU sponsored 28 students NOTE: Data only includes government schools. for S2 at Lwala Girls SS in Kaberamaido Sources: Uganda Ministry of Education and Sports, district. Out of a class of 93, www.education.go.ug/Fact Booklet.htm#Toc39914595, Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) www.ubos.org beneficiaries occupied the top four class positions. At Logiri Girls SS in Nebbi, Mvule-FAWEU beneficiary Keleminha Lekuru was first out of 140 girls in S2 and beneficiaries Mary Maturu and Juliana Candiru were first and third out of 132 girls in S3. At St Frances Acumet in Amuria, beneficiary Celine Amongin was third out of 53 students. Her biodata form notes that both parents are dead, she lives with her grandmother in a grass thatched hut, her “major daily diet” is cassava and greens, and “she is jolly.” 0

500,000

1,000,000

Overall, about 70% of beneficiaries are in the top 50% of their class.

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Above: Students of Ofua SS in Yumbe district with their maize porridge at break time.

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Implementers of bursaries

M

ost funds are channeled through independent organisations, each with their own approach to education. Mvule Trust currently provides bursaries directly to two schools, Uganda Rural Development and Training (URDT) Girls’ School and Nyabyeya Forestry College. In addition, the Trust funds bursaries through two international NGOs – World Vision and Adventist Development and Relief Association (ADRA) – and three local/regional NGOs, namely Forum for African Women’s Education - Uganda (FAWEU), Uganda Women’s Efforts to Support Orphans (UWESO) and Straight Talk Foundation (STF). Mvule Trust enters every beneficiary into a database and attempts to track their progress over time. Mvule Trust officers make frequent trips to the field to ensure that bursary funds are properly allocated.

Above: Newly recruited environmental health students at Mbale School of Hygiene, brought in under Mvule’s effort to support girls in the sciences. Of the 19 girls at Mbale, two have babies. One of the child mothers had been working as a house girl but her income was insufficient. Her mother, who is HIV positive, is currently taking care of her baby.

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Forum for African Women’s Education - Uganda (FAWEU)

F

orum for African Women’s Education (FAWE), whose Uganda chapter was

established in 1997, is a Pan-African NGO promoting female education. In 2006 Mvule Trust entered an agreement with FAWE-Uganda (FAWEU) to support a high number of girls and some boys through the first four years of secondary school (S1-4). In 2007 Mvule Trust renewed the agreement, granting the NGO a total of 536,663,400 Ug. Shs. ($ 298,113), which made up 43% of FAWEU’s total scholarship funding for the year. The grant provided 868 girls and 208 boys (total of 1,076) with school fees and scholastic materials. These students attended 79 schools in 11 of Uganda’s most remote districts, where female education levels are particularly low. In addition to renewing scholarships for all beneficiaries continuing on from 2006, Mvule-FAWEU also enrolled 263 girls in S5, the first year of A levels (equivalent of 11th grade). Mvule and FAWEU sought girls who might be able to sit science subjects but found few with good enough O level passes to qualify: 93% of the Mvule-FAWEU A level students are taking what Ugandans call “Arts” combinations (mostly history-economics-geography), an indictment of their weak prior instruction in science. By the end of 2007 dropouts totaled 57 individuals or 5% of all beneficiaries: 91% of FAWEU dropouts were female. One third of the dropouts cited a lack of interest. Pregnancy accounted for 14%, illness 11% and marriage 8%. FAWEU encourages childmothers to return to school after giving birth.

Left: Mvule-FAWEU beneficiaries with Mvule’s Lois Nantayi and Fred Mwesigwa at Uringi SS in Nebbi district. These girls are among the 263 A level girls picked up by the Mvule-FAWEU partnership in 2007.

Annual Report 07 I 13

Left: The dormitory of Logiri Girls School in Nebbi. The girls bring their own mattresses and paraffin lamps. Most do not have sheets. Mvule Trust supplied mosquito nets but they are difficult to hang in such a structure.

Right: One of the girls’ dormitories of Otravu SS in Arua district: it has no electricity or windows. However, the girls like the coolness of this traditional hut. Boys at Otravu stay in a brick building with an iron-sheeted roof.

Left: Uneasy encounter: the beneficiary (on left) had dropped out of Otravu SS. Mvule intern Paula (back to camera) found where she was living and sought to understand why she had left school. A complex story of demotivation emerged. She said she was tired of digging to earn money for scholastic materials. Her mother had abandoned her and moved to marry a man in another district. The beneficiary seemed to be cohabiting with a boy from another school.

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World Vision

W

orld Vision is a Christian development NGO that seeks to address multiple

drivers of poverty, including illness, food insecurity, poor sanitation and lack of education. In 2006, World Vision oversaw the education of 294 needy Mvule Trust beneficiaries from the districts of Kitgum and Bundibudgyo. In 2007 Mvule hoped to increase this number by adding 40 girls at A level, 20 from each district. However, in Bundibugyo, World Vision could only identify 13 girls who had taken their O-levels and were eligible to continue to S5. In Kitgum 27 girls were found. In 2007, Mvule Trust awarded 183,596,400 Ug. Shs. ($ 101,998) to World Vision to support 330 pupils. Three students dropped out in 2006 due to pregnancy and one to marriage. In 2007 there were a total of seven dropouts. At the same time, of the 11 girls in Bundibugyo who completed their vocational training this year, two have already secured employment with hotels in the town of Fort Portal. Above: A World Vision beneficiary shares her life stories in a Mvule-STF sexuality-life skills workshop in Kitgum. She lost both parents in separate accidents on the same day. She has a baby.

Above: World Vision-Mvule beneficiaries from Burambagira SS in Bundibugyo district along the Congo border. Few girls pass their O levels exams in Bundibugyo and almost none pass in science subjects. These girls cannot board: their school is a day school and the only one in their region. The terrain is steep and hilly.

Annual Report 07 I 15

Adventist Development and Relief Association (ADRA)

A

dventist Development and Relief Association (ADRA) promotes

sustainable development by helping communities and vulnerable individuals, especially women, children, elderly people and the disabled. Founded in 1956 by the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, it offers support regardless of religious affiliation. ADRA Uganda has a particular focus on education. Through the Mvule-ADRA partnership, 20 students (12 boys and eight girls) from the severely disadvantaged district of Mayuge were enrolled at the well-regarded Nile Vocational Institute. In 2006 Mvule allocated 42,122,800 Ug. Shs. ($ 23,401) to fund in full the students’ courses in textile art and design, electrical installation, plumbing and sheet metal works, nursery teaching, catering and hotel management, and carpentry and joinery. Twelve of the students enrolled in one-year courses, which they completed in December 2006. Of the remaining eight, one girl just finished her tailoring course and is working with a designer in town, and the other seven beneficiaries graduated in November 2007. All the school fees were paid in 2006, so in 2007 Mvule only granted ADRA an additional 2,150,550 Ug. Shs. ($ 1,195) to buy trade tools for the graduates. Says ADRA representative Daniel Onyango, “Students have adjusted to working. They know that life is not just about receiving but also giving and how you see life.” Since all beneficiaries have now completed their courses, the end of 2007 marked the end of the MvuleADRA partnership. Mvule Trust is proud of the students’ performance and was pleased to follow their progress. Above: Daniel Onyango reports on ADRA’s beneficiaries at Mvule Trust’s 2007 implementers’ meeting. “Students are showing their skills,” he says. “Graduates in nursery teaching are going back to their community to set up schools.”

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Above: Mvule-funded students at Migyera UWESO Training Institute fill in their bio-data forms in 2007. Almost all are orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs) and have harrowing life stories.

Uganda Women Efforts to Save the Orphans (UWESO)

U

WESO is a Ugandan NGO established in 1986. It addresses education, child

protection, food security and economic empowerment. In 2007 Mvule Trust awarded UWESO 49,699,800 Ug. Shs. ($ 27,611) for 63 girls and 7 boys to continue studying at Migyera UWESO Training Institute (MUTI) in Nakasongola district. Three of the girls graduated this year, while three dropped out. The majority of Mvule-UWESO beneficiaries are extremely vulnerable, many affected by the northern conflict or emotionally damaged by family difficulties. “We had a number of children who were stranded. Mvule Trust came in at the right time. Many of these children look hopeless, they don’t have vision, they are just there,” says Frank Banyaruka, headteacher at MUTI. UWESO has now hired a psychosocial counselor for the school to address issues of student depression and poor academic performance. Says teacher and counselor Santa Marie Manyike, “Students look at coming to school as an end in itself. But we believe with time that their performance will be uplifted.” UWESO seeks to ensure that children truly benefit from their education. “Children get their O level and then they just melt in their villages,” says Banyaruka. MUTI’s solution is to combine the basic O level Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) with three years of vocational training, thus providing students with employment choices in their future.

Annual Report 07 I 17

Uganda Rural Development Training (URDT) Girls’ School

I

n 2007 Mvule continued to support pupils in URDT Girls’ School, one of the most progressive institutions in the country. This school in Kibaale district aims “to generate a pool of enlightened female leaders by equipping talented girls from economically poor families and their parents with skills, knowledge and attitudes to enable them to become well-rounded persons, able to develop themselves, their homes and their communities and to contribute to the development of Uganda.” URDT applies a rural development curriculum in conjunction with nationally required subjects, and also emphasizes a two-generation approach that targets parents and students. In 2006 Mvule Trust gave URDT 30 million Ug. Shs. to enroll 30 students in secondary school as well as funds to equip a science lab. A total of 60 million Ug. Shs. ($ 33,333) was awarded in 2007 to support the classes of S1 and S2. None of the sponsored girls have officially dropped out; one girl who became pregnant has been suspended with the expectation that she will return later to complete her course.

Left: The new house of the family of URDT student Phiona Antugonza, S3. Phiona built the brick house as her “back home project”. Every student is required to carry out a transforming project for their family. The Antugonzas used to live in a temporary dwelling like the one below left.

Below: URDT students receive English and science books donated by British volunteer Ellie Horrocks. Mvule organised her visit and paid customs duties on the books.

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Nyabyeya Forestry College

M

vule Trust currently sponsors a total of 49 students at the governmentrun Nyabyeya Forestry College in Masindi district. The beneficiaries had originally numbered 45 girls and 5 boys, but one girl was lost due to severe malaria. Since then, the mosquito nets provided by Mvule Trust have significantly reduced malaria at the school. A total of 16,642,000 Ug. Shs. ($ 9,246) was awarded to cover the 2007 tuition fees. In 2008 Mvule Trust plans to support 50 more students as well as those current students who complete their certificates in good standing and wish to continue on the “express diploma” track.

Above: The Mvule Trust beneficiaries at Nyabyeya fill in their bio-data forms in August 2007.

Beatrice Lajara of Kitgum (bottom right photo) is a 2nd year diploma student concentrating in biomass and energy technology. The sixth of eight children, her father and then her brother managed to fund her secondary education, but she depended on Mvule Trust to continue at Nyabyeya. She is an avid netball player, serves as the college’s choirmaster, and hopes to further her studies in energy conservation. “I chose the course biomass and energy technology because I like to preserve the environment by using as little as possible. We are teaching people to make improved charcoal stoves. There is less smoke. Women and children are not bothered as much to collect firewood. It is timesaving. The kind of stoves we are making, you do not need to go to the shops: people can build themselves.”

Left: Three students line up for identity shots. Says Mvule officer Lois Nantayi, “By the end of 2007 they were so changed. They no longer felt shy and inferior. Ninety per cent of the student guild are from Mvule.”

Left: Beatrice represents her college at the Mvule Trust implementers’ meeting in November 2007.

Annual Report 07 I 19

Straight Talk Foundation (STF)

S

traight Talk Foundation (STF) is a Ugandan NGO dedicated to health and development communication, with an emphasis on adolescents. Mvule Trust is located within the STF building compound, and the Trust works closely with STF staff on reproductive health training for beneficiaries. In 2007 STF received 43,484,000 Ug. Shs. ($ 24,158) for the sponsorship of 62 students in secondary and vocational schools. Seven girls at St. Monica Vocational School in Gulu graduated with diplomas or certificates in tailoring or catering, and were provided with beginning trade tools. In two years of Mvule-STF sponsorship, no cases of pregnancy have occurred. Three of the girls at St. Monica’s were pregnant at the time of enrollment, but managed to complete their courses. Two boys have dropped out: one suspended for initiating a strike in the school, and one who simply did not report back.“Taking these boys from the camps, who look at violence easily, and putting them in an organized school community, it is real fire,” says Godfrey Walakira, STF counselor/trainer. Like many other implementers, STF struggles with the disdain that students often exhibit towards vocational learning as well as the lack of realism that characterises adolescents. “Some cannot make a statement in English but they want to be a lawyer,” says Walakira. “You need to investigate their interests but also their abilities.” STF meets with beneficiaries every term to provide life skills counseling.

Name: Concy Adoch Age: 16 Home: Alakulum IDP camp Education: Keyo SS, Gulu, year S2

Above: The Kampala-based Mvule-STF beneficiaries after one of their termly meetings. Right: STF counselor Henry Nsubuga talks about life skills.

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Background: “I lived in the village for five years. We left the village because of war. I went to a primary school about two kilometers from the camp. I could not come to secondary school because my mother is a single parent. My father died of sickness when I was young; my mother is very old. I have six brothers and sisters. The last sister stopped at S4, she is already married. I am the only one studying. After my PLE, my mother said there is no money, I must stay at home. Actually, before Mvule Trust, I was just digging in the garden.” Aspirations: “I want to be a teacher at university. I want to teach agriculture because I like greens. Studying it now is difficult. I think if I put my effort on it, it will be ok.”

Left: Lily Ajok, a child mother, now trained in tailoring, receives her sewing machine from Mvule-STF in Gulu.

Below: Christine Lamwaka, who works for Mvule Trust and STF’s Gulu Youth Centre, talks to the Mvule-STF tailoring students as they receive their sewing machines. Christine remains in touch with them even though they are now no longer on bursaries.

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Nursing and health studies students

H

ealth workers are in short supply in Uganda. Few youth, especially girls, complete the necessary science requirements to pursue a nursing degree. Also, the tuition fees – approximately six million Ug. Shs. ($3,333) over two to three years - are too costly for most families to afford. To address this need, in 2007 Mvule Trust recruited 121 girls who had passed their O level science examinations and had been accepted to nursing school, but did not have the means to attend. Another 12 girls were funded to train as lab technicians, two as clinical officers and 19 as environmental health officers. Almost all of the students will study in upcountry schools, not in the capital of Kampala, as studies have shown that only people from th community trained within the community are likely to stay on to staff local health units. The only exceptions were three girls who were unable to pay for their final year of nursing at institutions in Kampala. In addition, Mvule Trust sponsored one male , Joel Siiwa, brother to a beneficiary at the forestry college. Joel‘s family had slowly been selling off their land to pay for his training at Ishaka Adventist Hospital Training School in Bushenyi district.

Interviews help to determine how needy a beneficiary is and how determined she is to study. Above: Director Cathy Watson reviews the papers of Doreen, 21, a new beneficiary at Lacor School of Nursing in Gulu. Doreen is the sixth of five children; her mother is a peasant farmer who earns a living by selling tomatoes. Doreen’s father was killed when the pickup he was riding in struck a landmine. He was on the way to harvest vegetables from his village.

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District Gulu Jinja Kumi Lira Mbale Moroto Pader Soroti Kampala

Bushenyi

Institution # students Gulu Clinical School 2 St. Mary’s Hospital Lacor 20 Jinja School of Nursing and Midwifery 5 Ngora School of Nursing and Midwifery 20 Lira School of Comprehensive Nursing 7 Lira Medical Laboratory Training School 11 School of Hygiene Mbale 19 St. Kizito Hospital Matany, School of Nursing 21 Dr. Ambrosoli Memorial Hospital Kalongo 40 Soroti School of Comprehensive Nursing 5 Mengo Hospital Laboratory School 1 St. Raphael of St. Francis Hospital Nsambya Training School 2 Ishaka Adventist Hospital Training School 1 Total: 154

Right: Jennifer Okori lost both parents to the rebels and was raising her six younger siblings by roasting cassava on the roadside and with some help from an aunt in Kampala. Mvule Trust will fund her nursing education at Lacor Hospital, Gulu.

Below: New beneficiaries at Ngora Comprehensive School of Nursing in Kumi district. Despite being unable to pay her tuition fees on her own, or even buy her uniform, Betty Atai (3rd row in the back, in white) had been coming to the school everyday since classes started in the hopes of hearing from Mvule Trust.

Left: Joel Siiwa, the brother of Immaculate at Nyabyeya Forestry College. He and his sister were about to sell their family land to fund his last year of nursing school. This would have deprived the family of their greatest capital asset.

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Direct funding and staff development

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vule Trust also provided 5 million Shs. ($2,778) worth of direct funding to two Mvule staff, two young foresters from Karamoja, and two peer eductors from northern Uganda. Mvule Project Manager Josephine attends evening classes in Kampala. Christine, who manages the Mvule beneficiaries in Gulu, attends weekend classes. The two peer educators in Gulu live on stipends of just $90 a month. Both support younger siblings. Angela funded her first term of secretarial studies with the damages she received after being beaten by a boyfriend.

Name and Employment

Course and Institution BA in Community Psychology Makerere University, Kampala

Scholarship Ug. Shs. 1,555,400 (yr. 2)

Amount U.S. $ 864

Josephine Abalo, Mvule Trust Christine Lamwaka, Mvule Trust

Degree in Education, Gulu University

1,326,000 (yr. 3)

737

Gabriel Okot Agiro, forester

BS in Agriculture, Uganda Christian University, Nkozi

400,000 (1st semester, yr.1)

222

Joseph Angobu, forester

BA in Development Studies, Uganda Christian University, Nkozi

350,000 (2nd semester, yr. 1)

194

Yusuf Odong-Piny, Peer educator, GYC

Degree in Education, Gulu University

900,000 (yr. 1)

500

Angela Anyait, Peer educator, GYC

Certificate in Secretarial Studies, Makerere University Gulu Branch

470,000 (yr. 2)

261

Left: Christine Lamwaka, a peer educator at STF’s Gulu Youth Center, checks up regularly on Mvule Trust beneficiaries in the area: “I normally speak with them about life planning skills, to respect the school administration, and how to live with other students and community members. Sometimes they look at me like a sister.” Christine receives a small monthly stipend from Mvule Trust.

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Other grant recipients Cornerstone Development Uganda

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ornerstone Development Uganda registered as an NGO in 1988 with the aim of bettering the lives of underprivileged children through education and character development. Director Tim Kreutter describes his organization as a “Christ-centered” program that is “trying to create a new generation of young people who can look beyond the conflicts that characterize so much of Africa today.” Cornerstone’s various programs include four schools: one primary school, two A level Leadership Academies and one secondary school in Nakasongola district. Currently, 400 graduates of Cornerstone’s Boys’ Leadership Academy have finished or are in the process of finishing university. Five graduates ran for Parliament in the last election. Having donated $ 25,000 for science labs in 2006, Mvule Trust donated an additional $25,000 (43,250,000 Ug. Shs.) to install solar power systems for classrooms, dormitories, libraries and science laboratories, as well as stock the academies with lab equipment. An entirely new lab was built at the O level school in Nakasongola. The grant also helped the girl’s academy to purchase energy-saving cooking stoves and erect a onehectare woodlot to cover the approximately one million Ug. Shs. the institution spends on firewood every term.

Above and Right: Cornerstone Academy’s newly-stocked science laboratories. For the first time girls and boys will be able to have their own lab stations for their science exam practicals. Left: Solar panels at Cornerstone Girls’ Academy. This allows the girls to read in the evening.

Annual Report 07 I 25

Hope Ward of International Hospital Kampala (IHK)

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or the second year in a row Mvule Trust has funded a bed in the Hope Ward of International Hospital Kampala (IHK), which provides free treatment to needy Ugandans thanks to outside sponsors. “If you work with people who can afford to pay for treatment and medicine, it’s different. But for those who cannot pay you still want to provide the best,” says Irene Maria Nassozi, senior staff nurse at the Hope Ward. “People come here fearing we will charge them for treatment. Even when they are discharged, they expect us to say something. We can say ‘No, just go home. You will be well.’”

Above: Molly Enzaru, 16, a beneficiary at Otravu SS in Yumbe district, suffers from scabies. The condition has left her self-conscious, anxious and reserved. She lives with her uncle, a peasant farmer. Below: The children’s section of the Hope Ward, decorated by children and local artists. Right: A physiotherapist at the Hope Ward helps Ivan, 15, with walking exercises. Ivan’s toe developed gangrene after he stepped on a piece of glass. He underwent surgery on his foot.

Mvule volunteer visits a FAWE beneficiary at home in Kisoro: mud and wattle 26 I Annual Report 07 house, poor bedding.

In 2007, Mvule Trust’s donation of 27,000,000 Ug. Shs. ($ 15,000)* made it possible for 43 patients to receive medical services for conditions such as cleft palate, malignant lymphoma, and infections associated with HIV/AIDS. In addition, Mvule directly referred four patients to the Hope Ward, three of which were student beneficiaries. The fourth patient, the mother of a Mvule Trust employee, suffered from cardiovascular disease that resulted in one leg and several fingers being amputated. She has since undergone physiotherapy, learned to walk using special braces, and returned home. *Recorded by auditors as 26,250,000 Ug.Shs or $15,208 due to exchange rate fluctuation.

Follow up on other beneficiaries from 2006 Kichwamba High School

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ichwamba High School is a private school with mostly students from peasant homes. In 2006 Mvule Trust granted Kichwamba 54,000,000 Ug. Shs. ($30,000) to facilitate the construction of a science laboratory and several fuelefficient stoves. The science exam results in 2007 were excellent, with nine students passing in Division. In 2006 Mvule also funded two of the school’s former students to continue studying. One of them, Margret Arinaitwe, was studying nursing when calamity struck her family. Her father had died of AIDS after she completed S4. While she was in nursing school her mother also fell sick. Mvule Trust granted her a total of 1.4 million Ug. Shs. to finish at Ibanda School of Midwifery and Comprehensive Nursing. Having completed, she wrote to Mvule Trust: “You have really made Kichwamba to shine and put it on the map of Uganda since it is always the best in science subjects due to Mvule Trust initiative of the laboratory…As I await my nursing exam result, I have been deployed by mission dispensary at Buhungiro and they are to pay me Sh. 150,000/= (about $80) a month which will help my sick mother and other siblings.”

Kyambura Gorge

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olcanoes is an ecotourism company with a site next to Kyambura Gorge, Bushenyi district. In 2006, Mvule Trust awarded the firm a grant of 10,000,000 Ug. Shs. ($ 5,555) to support chimpanzee conservation. With an area of just three square kilometers, the gorge is Uganda’s smallest, protected, natural habitat for chimpanzees. This particular chimpanzee population numbers only 17 individuals and remains isolated, primarily because of the pressures of human encroachment. Nicole Simmons, who is conducting her PHD research on this population, says, “We are looking at food availability in the area and trying to establish a greater forest corridor for them. Our population census showed that 20 chimps were lost over the last 10 years, and if they continue to remain isolated, they will all die out within a generation.” Mvule Trust’s grant allowed Volcanoes to buy solar panels and a motorcycle for Nicole (seen above with colleague Jimmy Bwambale), who uses it every morning to get to the Gorge to observe the chimps: “I am investigating the impact of tourists. My theory is that the chimpanzees react by reducing their food consumption and increasing their travel.” Annual Report 07 I 27

Other activities

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esides paying school fees, Mvule Trust works on other socio-economic difficulties that prevent students, especially girls, from completing secondary school:

• Lack of scholastic and boarding materials, such as paraffin with which to study at night, and basic necessities like sanitary pads. Some students supplement their scholarship funds through outside activities such as gardening, fetching water and selling items in the market. Those who do not may be tempted to have transactional sex for income (sugar daddies/sugar mommies). • Female students are under pressure to marry and have children. Parents often view female education as an unnecessary expense. Negative influences from peer groups may induce girls to have sex. Early pregnancy and/or marriage are among the greatest reasons for beneficiaries dropping out of secondary school. • Lack of understanding of sexuality, reproductive health and the transmission of Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs), particularly HIV/AIDS. • Traumatic past experiences, especially for those directly affected by social conflict in the north and northeast areas. To address these issues, Mvule Trust carries out monitoring trips, Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive health (ASRH) workshops and meetings with parents and community leaders.

Above: A counselor speaks one-on-one with a visitor.

28 I Annual Report 07

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Monitoring trips

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hile Mvule Trust receives regular updates from its implementers, monitoring trips are essential to gather the most up-to-date information and evaluate each student’s situation. Staff may spend up to 10 days at a time in the field, visiting an average of four schools per day. At each institution, a roll call is performed to compare Mvule’s records with current attendance information. After answering any logistical question that the adolescents have regarding their sponsorship, every student has to fill out a questionnaire and have his/her photo taken for the Mvule Trust beneficiary database. If a student is absent on the day of the monitoring visit, Mvule Trust relies on information from classmates and teachers and conducts a follow-up if possible. “Sometimes it is hard to get to their homes! Maybe their house is up there on a hill. You walk a long way,” says Lois Natanyi, Mvule Trust Data Manager. “Luckily most of the students are in class.” Monitoring trips allow Mvule Trust to directly address individuals’ dilemmas and reassess their level of need. When Mvule first met Phoebe Birungi, 11, she had been living alone for several years. “She didn’t know how to comb her hair. She didn’t know how to manage her menstruation. She didn’t know even how to read or count,” says Lois. Mvule Trust sponsored Phoebe’s secondary school in Seseme SS, Kisoro district, but to catch up with her peers she had to attend P1 classes at the same time. Phoebe has since risen to be one of the top ten students in her class. In 2007, three monitoring trips were Above: Mvule Trust distributes mosquito nets to girls at Muni SS and Maracha Domestic in Arua district. carried out to the following areas: • West Nile (Adjumani, Arua, Moyo, Nebbi, Yumbe) plus Nakasongola and Masindi districts: 580 students from 29 schools • Western region (Kasese, Bundibugyo, Kabarole, Kisoro): 400 students/26 schools • South (URDT Girls’ School in Kibale district): 60 students/one school

Annual Report 07 I 29

Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health (ASRH) training

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ith Straight Talk Foundation, Mvule Trust held five workshops of three to five days each to motivate girls to handle their sexual feelings, resist negative outside influences, gain confidence, and assume responsibility for their futures. The intimate nature of the workshops provided a rare chance for peer and personal counseling for the student. “These girls are very needy. They may even be out of place in their schools,” says Henry Nsubuga, a Straight Talk counselor. “You have to tickle their minds and make them look at the opportunities they have got, and not at what they are missing.” “The reproductive health trainings have created a new image in the students,” reported Joyce Martha Adong, a counselor at STF Kitgum Youth Center who supports the Mvule girls in Kitgum district. “So far, in the schools I have visited this term, students all open up to talk and seek individual counseling. They have a good spirit.” In 2007, Mvule Trust-STF held sessions of ASRH training in: • West Nile (Moyo, Adjumani, Yumbe): 94 girls from 7 schools • Arua and Nebbi: 87 girls/6 schools • Kasese: 77 girls/7 schools • Kisoro: 100 girls/7 schools • Kitgum: 40 girls/8 schools The Teso region workshop was postponed to 2008 due to heavy flooding.

Above: Beneficiaries participate in dancing and other energizer exercises during a Mvule-STF health training in Kitgum. Right: a problem tree for unwanted pregnancies, drawn by students.

30 I Annual Report 07

Girls’ fears included: mosquitoes, rape and defilement, and very fasttalking workshop facilitators. Their expectations included: learning more about boy-girl relationships, good meals, and advice on how to face the future.

Above: Beneficiaries work in groups to map out their fears and expectations for an ASRH workshop in Kisoro.

Left: Despite being extremely needy, beneficiaries in Kisoro were lively and engaged. “They did not show any selfpity,” says Lois Nantayi. Compared to girls of the same age in other regions, the Kisoro girls are less sexually active and have a later age of sexual debut. So far there has been only one pregnancy, probably a result of rape.

Annual Report 07 I 31

Parents’ meetings

M

vule Trust enlists parents to support their daughters’ education rather than undermine it. Females are often discouraged from pursuing their studies to help with housework, care for siblings, take on odd jobs to earn extra income for the family, and marry to fetch brideprice. Early pregnancy also hinders girls from completing their education. In October 2007, a Luo-speaking team from STF and Mvule Trust visited Warr Girls’ School, in Nebbi district, to speak with over 30 parents and guardians of Mvule-FAWEU beneficiaries. The dialogue revealed that many parents do not consider education a priority and are unaware of some of their children’s additional needs, such as scholastic materials, which are not always provided for under the scholarship. Parents proposed taking a more active interest in their children’s academic progress, and forming a parents’ association to help put away money for their children’s textbooks and other expenses. “At the beginning of the workshop some parents did not understand about education. But at the end they really appreciated and saw the benefits,” says Jackie Abongowath, a young journalist working with Straight Talk, who comes from Nebbi. “My own cousins are married -- at 12, 14, 15. By 16 some have two children. By age 16 you cannot find a girl in her parents’ home. Only boys.” “Parents say of girls who are not married ‘You are not filling our dreams, you are only filling the latrines’.” - Rebecca Amongin, a Mvule beneficiary who dropped out of Lwala Girls in S2 when she was forced into early marriage.

Left: Mvule volunteer Jackie Abongowath speaks with the mother of a Warr student beneficiary. Jackie, who is the only girl from her village in Nebbi to attend university, aims “to be a role model” to other young girls.

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Additional effort: Child-headed families

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n early 2007, Mvule Trust assisted the actress Natalie Portman to help eight orphans whose parents had died of HIV/AIDS. The eldest children in each family, themselves still adolescents, had been left in charge of their siblings. They lived in cramped conditions, lacking mosquito nets, mattresses, bed sheets and blankets. One family did not have a toilet. Through STF/Mvule Trust Ms Portman bequeathed 4,497,765 Ug. Shs ($2,955) to the NGO AIDS Widows Orphans Family Support (AWOFS). Seven of the orphans – four boys and three girls, aged seven to 16 – are now boarding at Mt. Carmel Senior Secondary School in Kayunga, while Trevor Lwanga is at Mummy’s Pride Nursery School in Nsambya. A verification trip on 4 November 2007 revealed that the children are struggling with their studies, as this is their first term back in school after prolonged absences. Julius Lubega, 15, said “I went to primary school in my village and finished P7. But I missed one year because of school fees. For one year I was digging bananas and cassava.” Mvule Trust looks forward to collaborating further with Ms. Portman to help these eight children.

Left: Natalie Portman meets an AIDS orphan during an advocacy trip with the microfinance organization FINCA. It was during this visit that she learned of Mvule Trust.

Below: Lois Nantayi speaks with Nicholas Damalira, 17, who stopped in P3 when his father passed away. Nicholas, who is HIV positive, declined to go back to school. He asked Mvule Trust to help him in his small income-earning activities, such as mending shoes. Below: the children go back to school.

Annual Report 07 I 33

Implementers’ meeting

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epresentatives from all nine of Mvule Trust’s partner institutions, as well as a few sponsored students, gathered at Cornerstone Ranch from 30 November to 1 December 2007. The meeting shed light on the implementers’ varied approaches to education and the common challenges they face. Strongly emphasized were the continued importance of funding children’s education, the effectiveness of advising students by fostering personal relationships, and the immeasurable difference that education and encouragement can make in the life of a child.

Above: Participants of the 2007 Mvule Trust meeting. Said STF trainer Godffrey Walakira,“The beauty of us coming together is that all of us have different models.”

Headmistress Mary Wadada attended the implementers meeting with one of her top students, a Mvule-FAWEU beneficiary. She recounted the story of taking over as headmistress of Kaberamaido district’s Lawala Girls’ School in 2004 in the aftermath of student abductions by the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army. “It was a real pathetic situation,” she says. “It was challenging to convince parents to send their daughters back to school.”

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Finance

Annual Report 07 I 35

Finance Mvule Trust 2007 expenses by category

Appendix A: Legal and administrative information

36 I Annual Report 07

Appendix B: Mvule Trust organogram Founders Arcadia

Trustees Directors Project Manager

Database Manager

Driver

Volunteer

Implementers: Schools and NGOs / CBOs

GOALS FOR 2008 • Continue supporting all of the young people sponsored in 2007, as well as ensuring complete funding for the 154 students recruited this year for nursing and health science. • Provide comprehensive support to all implementing agencies and closely supervise their progress. • Enhance the efficacy of Mvule Trust’s activities through monitoring trips, meetings with parents and ASRH training. • Increase efficiency by providing more students with direct funding.

Above: 2007 Mvule Trust staff. From left to right: Fred Mwesigwa (driver), Katherine Manchester (intern), Lois Nantayi (database manager) and Josephine Abalo (project manager).

Annual Report 07 I 37

Above: Bellas Ben Omia, a 19-year-old in S4 at Kuru SS, in Nebbi district, was first in his class for all three terms. He is a complete orphan.

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Annual Report 07 I 39

Name: Oringa Charles Age: 22 Home: Alere IDP camp Education: Gulu Community Vocational School Class: Brick-laying and Concrete Practice, year 2 Background: “I lost my parents, I am now staying with my grandmother and grandfather, so if they fall sick I have to care for them. Like this year, I reported late because they are sick. In 1995 my father died from HIV. In 1998 my mother died from motor vehicle accident. My father was a teacher. My mother was a peasant farmer. We are only two children, the third died. For me, after P7 I joined secondary school for one year. Second year there was no money for term three so I dropped out. My auntie paid for term one and term two, but she had to pay for her own children joining secondary school. In the camp we are stranded, we don’t have something to do.” Aspirations: “I like to get a job, will be somebody like a civil engineer because it is very marketable. Long ago we were at home, but now we are studying, we will be free.” UK address: 25 Ross St, Cambridge CB1 JBP, Uganda Address: PO Box 22366, Kampala, Uganda

40 I Annual Report 07