For too many children in Uganda, Level P7 is the last they will see of formal education. Only those that have excelled academically are invited to attend secondary level schooling. Between our two orphan villages in Uganda, we have sent 85 children to secondary school. We are so proud of our children for this great accomplishment!
Of our Secondary 1 students, we had four that scored exceptionally well on their Primary Leaving Exams, allowing them admittance into the highest ranked secondary school in Uganda. God provided for us to be able to send them to this acclaimed academy.
God has really provided excellent opportunities for all of our other secondary students as well. After loads of negotiations and considerations, a great school in Uganda has agreed to take our children for a discounted rate. Had God not allowed us this, our children would not be able to attend such a great school. St. Lawrence Secondary School has accepted all of our entering secondary school children this year, and they will accept all secondary school children with qualifying scores in future years for this discounted rate. Our children are spread between two campuses, Crown City Campus and London College, each close to Kampala and less than a half hour drive apart.
St. Lawrence secondary school is rated a four star school, which is the highest level. Only 9 schools belong to this level, so this rating is a very high achievement. The overall pass rate for national tests is 100%, with more than 98% at London College and 92% at Crown City Campus scoring above national average.
They have excellent facilities with a campus of aesthetically pleasing architecture and manicured green lawns. The London College campus is set atop a hill overlooking a green plain with a cool breeze on sunny afternoons. The Crown City Campus is especially known for its creative architecture. On the grounds, they have a state of the art pool, computer labs, and library. They offer many extracurricular activities for the children, including various sports and academic activities. For those who highly excel in national exams, they offer incentives like scholarships and car rewards. Even the food is excellent! This campus will make a great second home for the children, and their minds are in great hands with the exemplified teaching and administrative staff.
St. Lawrence’s reputation for greatness and impeccable grounds make it a highly sought after school. Many of Uganda’s VIPs send their children to St. Lawrence.
The ability for our teenagers to attend school at St. Lawrence really lends well to the vision to raise today’s orphans into tomorrow’s leaders. They are not only able to get a quality education, but they are also now seated next to children of many dignitaries of Uganda. Their education will be highly recognized across the country, and they will be given the opportunity to rub shoulders with other future leaders of Uganda. Praise God for that!
To reward the children for this great achievement and prepare them for their experiences at a boarding school, our staff made preparations for days of character building, encouragement, and fun! Eve even flew in from the United States to spend their last couple of days together with the kids before they take this big step. Inspirational movies about courage, hard work, and honesty were shown, and games were played. They shared chats about hygiene, behavior, quiet time with God, and much more.
They also talked about more mature subjects, like sexual purity. Each of the teenagers committed to remain sexually pure and prayed a prayer over that promise, yearning for an intimate, pure relationship with God and thanking Him that purity is attainable through Jesus. Following this, they were each presented with a purity ring, a ring for them to wear as a symbol and a reminder of their commitment to purity. It was really a touching moment and easily the most pivotal of all of the events. Many of the teenagers cried in excitement of the precious gift they had been given, taking their promise, prayer, and personal commitment to sexual purity to heart.
On moving day, the students packed their trunks and prepared their things. There were small stacks of belongings spread across the main stretch at the Seeta orphan village as the children waited for the bus to arrive. When the bus arrived, there was hustle and bustle as the kids stuffed their trunks in any empty space on the bus. The bus was so full that you had to climb seats to get to the back as the aisle was full of luggage. When the bus was stuffed to its brim and all students were accounted for, it was time to hit the road. As the bus pulled out of the orphan village, the younger students ran alongside the bus, waving and yelling, “Goodbye. Good luck.” For many of these students, they are going to be away from their orphan village families for longer than they have since they have gotten there, though they will be visiting frequently for each school break.
The drive to the secondary school was a short one, less than an hour even in the large bus. When they arrived to the first campus, Crown City Campus, nervous butterflies and excited anticipation set in. The staff checked in the students at that campus and got them settled into their rooms. It was so wonderful to see the students helping each other out. It was just another example of the sense of family the children at our orphan villages have. To some extent, these children are better equipped to handle adversity considering they have so many brothers and sisters at the boarding school with common background to call upon for support and advice. Once they were settled, it was off to London College for the second group of students.
We are so thankful to God for the opportunities He has laid in front of these beautiful children. These children came from situations that didn’t even offer hope for the following day or week, yet here they are with such great opportunity and hope for the rest of their lives.
With increased tuition, room and board, and costly books and supplies, secondary school gets expensive! We are so very thankful that God has blessed us with the resources to be able to send these children to school. We thank God for the discounted rate at St. Lawrence, for without those negotiations we wouldn’t be able to send the children to such a prestigious school.
Also, we thank God for the wonderful sponsors that he has brought to these children. Thank you to all of the sponsors who have picked up extra sponsorship for their child’s additional school expenses. Without your support, we could not have provided this opportunity for our children. However, we have other children whose education is not fully sponsored. We pray that other sponsors will be able to pick up education expenses for these children through advocacy or personal sacrifice. In addition to regular sponsorship, it takes $750 per year to send these children to secondary school. That breaks down to $250 per trimester or further to $63 per month. Could you consider helping provide such opportunity for one of these children for $63 per month?
Because of Calvary,
Jackson Senyonga
Christian Life Ministries
