We have just returned from a visit to all the schools supported by Uganda Humanist School Trust and were delighted to meet the students that supporters are sponsoring at Mustard Seed Secondary School, Busota and Isaac Newton High School, Masaka.

It was a particular pleasure to meet Senior 1 sponsored students for the first time and learn about their family backgrounds.

Typical of our new sponsored students are Miriam and Timothy who attend Isaac Newton Secondary School. Miriam is 13 and has three siblings. Miriam’s father died and her mother earns a very small income selling basic goods in a village kiosk, but this is not enough to pay school fees. Miriam got the top grade in her Primary Leaving Exam and aspires to be a surgeon. She likes reading novels and is in the school choir.

Timothy is 14 and has 3 siblings. His family are subsistence farmers and have had a particularly difficult time as last year’s drought caused the harvest to fail and they had no other source of cash income. Timothy is the class monitor and likes playing football. On Sundays, he washes his clothes and revises his lessons. He got a very high mark in his Primary Leaving Exam and wants to be a doctor.

All the students we support are boarders and the girls are delighted with the new hostel that has just been built at Isaac Newton. Boarding keeps the students in a safe environment and provides them with three meals a day and study facilities in the evening and at weekends. Most come from extremely poor homes with no running water or electricity. The picture shows the home of one of our students attending Mustard Seed School.

Brian and Flavia are typical of the sponsored students at Mustard Seed, which is in a particularly impoverished rural area. Here too the harvest failed last year through lack of rain. All the sponsored students gained a first grade in their Primary Leaving Exam.

Brian is an orphan, his parents died in an accident. He and his seven siblings are cared for by their grandmother who has a small plot where she grows food for the family. There is no spare money for school fees. Brian is the class captain and is in the football team. He likes science subjects best and would also like to be a doctor.

Flavia’s parents are alive and manage to feed their eight children by growing rice and maize and rearing goats. She is the school time keeper and likes to read books. She is in the music, dance and drama group and helps to clean the compound at the weekend.

Despite their challenging background all our sponsored students are happy and healthy and are always smiling and laughing. They study extremely hard and have very high aspirations. They all expressed their gratitude to their sponsors for the chance they have been given to have a Secondary Education.

Additional sponsors needed

We urgently need additional sponsors so that we can offer scholarships to bright, needy students again next year. A full scholarship covers tuition fees, a place in the school hostel, food and school uniform. It costs £300 per year and can be paid in monthly instalments of £25. Some sponsors pay £150 per year, in which case two people provide for one student.

Scholarships are allocated at the beginning of the school year, in February. Sponsors are sent a photo and some background details of their student and at the end of each year they are sent their exam results. Ideally sponsors agree to support a student for 4 years and sometimes 6 years if they return to take “A” levels.

If you are interested in helping by sponsoring a student, application forms are available at https://uhst.org/donate/scholarships/ or, for more information contact scholarships@uhst.org or call Professor Hilary Hurd on 01782 750338.

By sponsoring a student you can totally transform the life chances of an underprivileged child.