8th July 2005

MEETING POINT INTERNATIONAL - Uganda
Introduction letter

Dear Friends of Praha Kerpen,

How are you all? Hope you are all fine and having a nice time and in good health. My name is Kajubi Caroline; a social worker with Meeting Point International; the main responsibility entrusted to me is to take charge of foster children and to check on them frequently in their schools and homes, in order to monitor their developmental growth both at home and school. I work hand in hand with two social workers in the office; however there is Teddy Bongomin from Kireka (this is where your foster child resides) and Ocheng Rose from Naguru who are volunteers and they follow children on ground level. In other words they help us in locating children in their homes and the like.

My aim of writing is to update you on your foster child and to thank you for your kind consideration to accept and support Asio in her educational struggle. Asio's family hails from Katakwi found in eastern Uganda; however, Soroti was sub-divided and Katakwi where Asio was born became a district on it's own. Asio is healthy and still staying with her uncle during her holidays.

Asio's former school was Our Lady Consolata S.S.S and she has now joined Good Shepard's School for better concentration since it's a boarding school. At the end of last year, Asio was able to complete S.1 successfully and she is now progressing in S.2. Asio's performance is generally fair however, there is hope that when she gets used to the boarding environment, she will perform better. I have attached a copy of her first term report of S.2 to show you her performance. Asio is now at Ordinary, which is from S.1-S.4 therefore, she has to study up to S.4 to complete that level and she joins the Advanced level.

Good Shepard's school is found in Bweyogerere; Kiina Sub County in Waksio district. It's a Private, mixed boarding school meaning it has both girls and boys and all the children stay at school from the beginning of term till the end; that is to say, they provide accommodation and meals for the children.

Here in Uganda, schools are categorised into two that is Government-aided schools and Private schools. Government aided means the teachers including the head teacher in that particular school are on the payroll list of the government and therefore, their salary is paid by the government and for the Private schools, the administrative work that is payment of salary and all the like is all catered for by the school its self; the Government does not contribute any thing towards the day-to-day running of such schools but reserves the responsibility of maintaining quality and standards in these schools.

This school has 35 qualified teachers and the general performance of the school is good. On top of the teaching services, the school provides scholarships-Bursary to the best performing students and this has helped in the up lifting of the school standard because all students strive so hard to attain the bursary by reading so hard. The school further more provides support to very poor groups of children that is to say kids who do not have guardians at all.

I have attached a copy of Uganda's map to show you Asio's origin (Katakwi district), her school district (Wakiso) and her residential district during her holidays (Wakiso). All in all, this is what I had for you this year. Have a nice stay and I will keep updating you on Asio in the near future. Best regards from Uganda.

Yours sincerely
Kajubi Caroline (Social worker)