The cost of Primary Education

Uganda primary education starts at around age 7. Unfortunately, many children never get to start on time due to: shortage of schools, poverty and lack of financial means to pay tuition, and sometimes parents need children to stay home to help with house chores or to work on the farm, or simply because some parents do not wish to invest in the education of girls. A typical day for a rural primary student can start as early as 5:00am and will involve doing house chores before walking about 5-6 miles to school, arriving home about 6:00pm to do more house or field chores, preparing dinner, and finally getting to bed about 11:00pm. The children who are without basic primary education have little hope for the future. They need help to get out of this poverty-trap.

The School Village Model

MMA is located in a village with population of 1000. Many of the children-as in most villages of Africa-live in extreme poverty. From an early age, they are subjected to hard work. They have to fetch water, carry firewood, dig in the field and help prepare the meals. The water used for drinking and cooking is dirty and unsuitable for human consumption. Oftentimes food is scarce. As a result, families are vulnerable to diseases such as, malnutrition, malaria, AIDS, etc. They need a chance to break away from this culture of poverty and sickness, malnutrition, broken homes and despair.

But the greatest tragedy of all is their lack of education. It is the greatest gift that we can all give to Africa. We believe that educating village by village, on a small scale, is the best way to tackle the problem of resource allocation as most medicine and money given to the central governments does not reach most villages. Educating the children-and the parents-will help them to break out of the cycle of poverty and bring hope where there is despair. By attending school, these children will be more likely to get better and earn higher earning jobs that will help uplift their families and ultimately the village. Breaking the cycle of poverty and illiteracy will make the village a better community for the next generation.