In their 16 years teaching children in the slums, the school has developed some remarkable programs to address the deep needs of, not only the children in their classrooms, but the youth and adults in the surrounding slum area, densely populated with 14,000 people.

Harriet and her siblings were some of those identified by the school as in need of help. The school appealed to their donors and the local community for any help they could offer, and people came forward with clothing and money to pay the rent for Harriet’s small slum home.  Once the children were in school, the staff began the process of matching them up with a local older woman in a ‘granny’ program, whereby elderly people living alone are matched up with children living alone, to offer stability, love and guidance. Life for Harriet’s young family has not been mended overnight, but they, and hundreds of students like them, are in a far more empowered position to support themselves in the future because of the work of this school.

The school asked Crossroads to send a container of goods to help their work in this Kampala slum. They needed more text books, exercise books and books for the teachers, computers, recreational equipment, school uniforms and other clothing that can be given to the poorest children, and others in the community, and more. The goods that we were able to send helped the school continue its existing programs, and also reach its goals for expanding their work to establish an orphanage for the most vulnerable children, enhance their programs in adult literacy amongst the students’ parents, and a more comprehensive handicrafts program for the older students.