Spotlight on Gladys
Gladys is from the village of Putuke, about 20 km from Kitgum in the far north of Uganda. We met Gladys in 2015.
We immediately saw that Gladys is a very talented and bright little girl, but her parents were unable to pay for her to go to primary school.
In May 2022, Gladys loved getting a new teddy bear, from Guildford Cathedral Fair Trade, to replace her old one, which was burned when her home was burned down.
Thanks to the kindness and generosity of the Guildford Cathedral Fair Trade team, Gladys is now at a wonderful boarding school in Kitgum.
Being a boarder is very important because it means she can concentrate on her education and doesn't have to spend hours fetching water, cooking and caring for her younger siblings.
We are not a child sponsoring charity and do not intend to become one! However, we are a charity that wants to give the best possible start in life to the children who attend the five nursery schools we support.
Thanks to the amazing interest in our projects and people asking about sponsoring children - like Veronica in the video below - we have started a very simple child sponsorship programme, which works like this:
When we travel to our nursery schools we see children who stand out from the crowd, either because they are full of energy and are very sparky, or because the teachers tell us how clever they are. When someone comes to us saying they would like to sponsor a child, we know which ones would do the best.
It costs £300 a year for a child to attend primary school. The schools are government run, meaning the education is free. The £300 pays for their board and lodging and their school uniform, bedding, food etc.
We ask that sponsors commit to sponsoring the child for the full 6 or 7 years (sometimes the children have to repeat their first year because they are so behind the standard of the other children who have benefitted from a better nursery education) the child will be in primary school and that the £300 is paid in one payment every February.
This is very important for the school and for us! For us because we do not have the resources in place to manage and chase payments (we run Seeds in our spare time) and for the school because £300 can be used for major projects like building toilets and so the money works twice as hard. If the payments are small then the money is eaten up in day to day expenses.
The payment is made as a donation to Seeds for Development so we can benefit from the GiftAid if you are in the UK. The GiftAid money is used to cover additional expenses like transport for the children and also for the parents so they can visit their children.
We don't really ask for sponsorship of children through our nursery schools because it doesn't seem fair for a few tiny children to benefit when the need is so great! However, if you would like to sponsor a child through their education starting at nursery school, we also ask for £300 a year for the child. This money goes towards the payment of our teachers and feeding all the children porridge.
If you would like to sponsor one of our brilliant children and change a family's life forever and are happy to make the commitment of at least 6 years, we would love to hear from you.
