Child Sponsorship Update

Since many schools in East Africa have been closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic since March, the Fields of Life Child Sponsorship Team have continued to support our sponsored children, as well as their schools, teachers and families.

At the time of writing, many school children have not yet returned to their classrooms due to continued school closures. However, children in exam classes (Primary 7, Senior 4 and Senior 6) returned to school in the middle of October. On Thursday 4th February, it was announced by the Ministry of Education that children in Primary 6, Senior 3 and Senior 5 would also return to their classrooms at the start of March. Primary 4, Primary 5 and Senior 1 will return in April. Nursery schools and Primary 1, 2 & 3 will remain closed until June. We are adapting our support for each year group according to their return date and will ensure that children have learning materials while they are not in school.

At the time of writing, many school children have not yet returned to their classrooms due to continued school closures. However, children in exam classes (Primary 7, Senior 4 and Senior 6) returned to school in the middle of October. On Thursday 4th February, it was announced by the Ministry of Education that children in Primary 6, Senior 3 and Senior 5 would also return to their classrooms at the start of March. Primary 4, Primary 5 and Senior 1 will return in April. Nursery schools and Primary 1, 2 & 3 will remain closed until June. We are adapting our support for each year group according to their return date and will ensure that children have learning materials while they are not in school.

How your donations will continue to support sponsored children:

Fields of Life staff in East Africa have engaged with and listened to school communities and families about their lived experience of school closures and the difficulties that they have encountered. These discussions have informed and shaped how we will continue to support sponsored children and schools.

• Print and distribute learning materials for children who are not yet back at school.
• Provide solar lamps and exercise books to support sponsored children’s home learning. Solar lamps will enable children to study in the evenings and to continue to learn when not at school.
• Provide additional support for teachers as they meet small groups of children for community teaching sessions. Hand sanitizer will also be provided for these sessions. During these sessions, teachers will support children with the learning materials for home studying.
• Raise awareness about Child Protection through Child Protection Committees in villages and create wider awareness about Child Protection through local radio.
• As a result of the lockdown, many families face income and food insecurity which could prevent a child attending school and, for many children, school is where they received their main meal each day. We want to empower families to achieve sustainable food and income security so that their children can continue to be well fed and continue to attend school. We will support vulnerable families by distributing seeds and livestock and teaching parents about good sustainable agricultural practice.
• We plan to improve school infrastructure (such as building latrines) in a number of schools to help create a more conducive learning environment for when pupils return to the classroom setting. Where necessary, schools will also be supported to ensure that they are in line with the Government’s requirements for re-opening through the provision of desks to enable social distancing within classrooms.

We expect to reach the sponsored children in Fields of Life’s Partner Schools but we know that some children have moved on to other schools in other villages, we will do our very best to reach these children too.

We have adapted our support strategy in response to the changed situation in Uganda and we will continue to review our support strategy for each age group to respond to the Government’s policy to ensure children continue to receive an education. As each year group returns to school, the sponsorship support will revert to the support they received before March 2020.