Dear friends of the MiekFoundation,
THANK YOU for your very generous support to our MF in 2021! Because of the continuing Covid pandemic, again a year that was completely different than any of us could have expected. This note provides a short overview of our activities in the past year as well as an outlook of what we hope 2022 will bring us: health, new energy and lots of opportunities for the wonderful girls and their families in Uganda!
Looking back at 2021
COVID kept hitting Uganda very hard. The country was in lockdown most of 2021 and so were the schools (75+ weeks in total since the start of the pandemic). Although vaccinations have started, so far, unfortunately only a small percentage has been vaccinated.
During the year we continued shaping the new approach that we developed together with our very experienced local partners Andrew Musoke and Patricia Mucheri (Senior Advisors at SD Advisory Limited, a boutique consulting firm with a mission to build the capacity of community-based organizations to address neglected service delivery gaps within their communities) and Betty Walakira (founder and executive director of the NGO Health Child that focuses on creating safe and secure environments for children and their parents so that girls can experience a safe and fruitful childhood and that they grow to become responsible and productive adults in their communities).
As you may remember, our new approach is based on three core access points through which we reach the young girls in Schools; within their Communities where they live, have their homes, churches, youth groups, local businesses; and where they access services such as the Health Facilities within their community where they may go to seek treatment or counselling safely. This holistic approach is critical as reaching children in just one of these areas could be unraveled by deficits in another area.
About a year ago we decided to focus on one of the Bussi Islands, an archipelago of small islands about 25 minutes by boat of the coast off mainland Uganda in Lake Victoria. Despite the continuing Covid situation we had impact in a few areas:
- Education: Unfortunately, following the strict Covid measures, the girls that joined the boarding schools in Kampala in the beginning of the year had to return to their villages on the Bussi Islands in the summer again. Through our local partners we encouraged them to participate in online education as much as possible. All girls we supported so far are now preparing to return to school in January 2022, i.e., none of them will drop out as a result of either unplanned pregnancies or the need to work and earn money to support their families which is great news!
- Emergency aid: Through our local partners we were able to provide emergency aid (e.g, food) to the families of the girls we support and their communities: the severe economic circumstances made life even more complicated for the local communities. MF supported the girls and their families by sending relief goods during Covid.
- Safe Centers: Together with our local partners we further developed the Safe Center concept which is focused on providing the girls we support as well as a significant group of other children on the Bussi Islands. In this safe environment, we aim to provide additional school support (critical to cover the gap created by the pandemic) and life lessons (focused on avoiding teenage pregnancies).
Looking ahead at 2022
Our initial focus in 2022 will be to resume and further anchor our initiatives in the local communities before launching new ones. This implies the following:
- Schools: We will make sure the girls go back to the boarding schools as soon as possible. The latest planning from the government is that this will happen in January …. fingers crossed! The MF will further, as of January, start supporting 5 additional girls to start their education. Once the ‘machine is running again’, we will consider adding even more girls to the group of girls going to school due to the support of the MF. Like before, we will support the girls during their entire school period (primary and secondary school i.e., up to 10 years). Once the schools are open again, we will also re-connect with the schools and look for ways to support the schools themselves, for example by connecting teachers in Uganda with teachers in the Netherlands through exchange programs and by providing them with education materials.
- Community: Now that we have launched the first safe center (approx. 50 children) together with local community leaders, we will continue shaping the curriculum and anchor it even stronger in the local community so that, over time, these centers can scale and be more self-supporting (i.e., work with reliable and skilled local people). The objective is to create a safe environment in which they will get additional education, life skill building, adolescent health information, music, arts and crafts, sports and dance. Over time, the safe space will also support holiday apprentice programs such as partnering with a local crafts shop or a sewing atelier that can provide apprentice opportunities for the girls.
- Health: Depending on how the Covid situation progresses we will continue providing ad hoc and emergency support if and when needed.
Despite another tough Covid year, we are very excited about the impact we are having with the MiekFoundation and the potential we have to make a real and lasting difference in the lives of the girls that deserve our support so much! We are confident and hopeful that once the situation gets better in the course of 2022, we will be able to substantially increase our impact together with our partners and the local communities on the Bussi Islands.
The commitments we are making to the girls and their families require significant financial resources. We are immensely grateful that so many of you have again supported us so gracefully in the past years. It makes a huge difference to have this great community of friends and family of the MF that support our work in Uganda. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts, with a big smile on all of our faces when we think about the wonderful person after which our MIEKFoundation was named!
We wish you and your loved ones happy holidays and a fantastic and healthy start of the new year! Thanks again for your support so far and we hope the girls of the Bussi Islands can count on you again in the future!
With love,
The MiekFoundation
