In February 2008, UMECS Northern Uganda Education Program expanded its school sponsorship program to Amuru District on the border of Southern Sudan. “Amuru District was hard hit by the LRA war,” UMECS Country Director Charles Onencan points out “and urgently needs development assistance and support of its schools. Most people continue to live in high poverty displacement camps created during the war and most secondary school-age youth are not enrolled.”

New Amuru District students enrolled in secondary schools in Gulu in UMECS Northern Uganda Education Program.

UMECS selected 24 new students – bring our total number to 107 students in five districts - who were enrolled in partnered secondary boarding schools in neighboring Gulu district including at Sacred Heart Girls Secondary School, Sir Samuel Baker Secondary, Gulu Senior Secondary, Pope John Paul II College, St. Joseph’s Technical College and Gulu High School. Our Amuru students are regularly visited and mentored by UMECS Education Field Coordinator Anthony Ojok, a former headmaster. In Year IV, the Northern Uganda Education Program sponsors children and youth affected by war in secondary school through higher education graduation.

Newly selected Amuru students prior to enrollment in secondary schools in Gulu.

A brutal 21-year war displaced over two million people to squalid Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps. 200,000 people died, tens of thousands of women were raped and mutilated and more than 60,000 children were abducted and pressed into child soldiering and sex slavery. UMECS program provides, in addition to school fees, all school requirements including school uniforms, shoes, mattresses, and personal hygiene supplies, scholastic materials, mentorship and career guidance.

In addition to creating the new teachers, health care professionals, social workers, entrepreneurs and public servants needed to rebuild Northern Uganda, the program has a jobs creation strategy through technical and vocational education designed to create employers in the building and trades industry, agriculture and small and medium sized enterprises.

New UMECS student from Amuru District with her box of school requirements purchased by UMECS

“Our jobs creation strategy is designed to help reverse the brain drain throughout Africa,” states UMECS Executive Director Arthur Serota. “It is also essential that education be coordinated with community and economic development.” The Northern Uganda Education Program sponsors 107 students from Gulu, Kitgum, Pader, and Amuru Districts in Northern Uganda, and from conflict affected Katakwi District in Eastern Uganda.

New UMECS students from Amuru District with their school requirements.

UMECS Executive Director Arthur Serota, left, with Country Director Charles Onencan, center and Education and Research Fellow Joel Ojok, right with UMECS student Raymond Lubangakene, Senior II at St. Joseph’s College Layibi, Gulu. Raymond has been ranked Number 1 in his class for the past three terms.