God Bless You, My Lovely Friend: A Uganda Child Sponsorship Story

Twelve-year-old Nantale is a bright, kind and athletic girl who lives with her family in a rural community of Uganda. She is ambitious and wants to go into law when she graduates. But before a sponsor started supporting her education, she was a very different girl.

Nantale was embarrassed.

It was her first day of school, but she didn’t look like the other kids in her preschool class. They all wore crisp, clean uniforms. She wore her regular clothes, which were torn and ragged and stained from the red dirt roads of the village where she lives in rural Uganda.  

Nantale shied away from playing with the other kids. She was quiet and kept to herself.

Although she proved to be a good student, she started missing class. Her parents couldn’t afford to pay her school fees. Nantale knew she might have to drop out at any time.

That’s when she and her family learned about a special program that would help her stay in school. She learned that kind people from across the world would help pay for her school fees, supplies and uniforms — expecting nothing in return.

“She remembers clearly when the news was announced that Holt was recruiting children for education sponsorship,” shares Tinka Murungi, Holt Uganda’s sponsorship coordinator. “She could not wait to be recruited.”

When 7-year-old Nantale became a Holt sponsored child, her life began to change — at first in small, tangible ways. Through the support of her sponsor, she received a new, pressed uniform to wear to school. She received school supplies — unused pens and pencils and gleaming white notebook paper just waiting to be filled with drawings and math equations and first written words.

She used to shiver through cold nights on her family’s small farm, arriving at school tired in the morning. From her sponsor’s monthly donations, her social worker purchased a soft blanket to keep her warm at night.

A blanket. A pencil. A uniform. These small gestures were anything but small to Nantale. They lifted her self-esteem and helped her focus on her studies.

But in addition to these material gifts, Nantale’s sponsor gave her a gift that would change her entire outlook on her future — a school scholarship to cover her required school fees and assure her education. With this gift, Nantale felt something that she had never known before: a sense of stability.

Like many children living in her community — and in poverty around the world — Nantale didn’t know how long she would be able to stay in school. At any time, her dream of an education could be shattered.

Barriers to a Child’s Education in Rural Uganda

Nantale’s family lives in a small farming community where they work as subsistence farmers — living off what they can grow on their small plot of land. In Uganda, farming communities take up about 71 percent of the land and make up 84 percent of the population. Years of war have devastated an already inadequate infrastructure in these villages, leaving gaps of all kinds — gaps in healthcare, gaps in education, gaps in access to fair and safe lending to help families rebuild their businesses and their lives. For the children of these communities, an education is no guarantee and depends on mainly two variables — whether they have access to a school, and whether their parents can afford to pay the fees required for them to attend.

Fees to attend a primary school in Uganda range from about 150,000-215,000 shillings — or $40-$60 — per child per year. School supplies and uniforms often triple the cost of school overall — with an expense 300,000 shillings, or $86, per child per year. If children need to attend boarding school, which many do as schools are so inaccessible, the cost is about 3-4 times as much. But in a community where a family may earn at best 10-20,000 shillings per month, this cost is too steep to afford on their own — particularly when a family has more than one child, which most families in Uganda do.

I thank you my sponsor for loving and supporting me. Because of you, my sponsor, I receive everything I need for my school. My mother is also happy for your support. We pray for you always.” — Nantale

Nantale is the fifth of six siblings. But unlike many children in her surrounding community, she lives with both her parents. Many children in Uganda have lost one or both parents to conflict due to armed fighting among ethnic groups or the HIV epidemic — leaving elderly grandparents or an older sibling to care for them.

Another reason children lose their parents is a lack of affordable medical care for families living in rural poverty. Accidents, especially road accidents, are common. Even if they survive, the consequences can be catastrophic.

When Nantale was 8 years old — less than a year into Nantale’s sponsorship journey — both her parents were in a devastating accident that left them both with fractured legs. In a more developed country — with a broader social safety net and greater access to advanced medical care — they would likely have recovered from their injuries. Instead, they both ended up permanently disabled.   

“They were likely treated at a Holt-supported health center in the community,” explains Malia Robello, Holt’s senior program manager for Uganda. “It’s also very likely they didn’t heal properly — even if they did have surgery —because they both needed to work and care for the home soon after the accident.”

Although Holt does on occasion provide medical care for parents of children in our child sponsorship program, funds are limited and primarily reserved for life-threatening cases.

“And typically,” Malia says, “for the children.”

Today, Nantale’s father walks with a walking stick and is not able to work the way he did before the accident. Her mother now supports herself to walk — but she can’t walk long distances.  Where before they struggled to support their children, now they faced even greater obstacles.

“Their disabilities created a significant barrier to earning an income,” explains Tinka.

Thankfully, when a child enrolls in Holt’s child sponsorship program, their whole family is empowered with resources and support to help them become stable and self-reliant.

In the rural villages of Uganda, Holt leads savings groups that teach parents, particularly mothers, how to earn money and save together. Through financial literacy training, these women are learning as a community how to make and sell goods, grow crops, buy and raise livestock, and become businesswomen in the hopes of better supporting their families.

When Nantale was enrolled in Holt’s child sponsorship program, a Holt social worker visited the family and identified ways to help them overcome the challenges they faced. Her mother soon joined a Holt savings group and received training in how to run and manage a small business. With start-up funds from Holt donors, she soon started a business that she could manage despite her disability.

“I learned how to make pancakes, which I sell in the market to get money to support our children,” her mother shared with Tinka. “I also save in the savings group. I am so happy because of Holt.”

Through Holt Uganda’s family strengthening program, Nantale’s mother also learned ways to improve her children’s health and nutrition, and gained parenting skills that strengthened her bond with her children.

“I am now a better parent. I used to be tough on my children, but now we share together,” she said. “They no longer fear me.”

Child Sponsorship Creates Generational Change

Through Holt’s child sponsorship model, families like Nantale’s are empowered to earn the income they need to support their children. But the primary way sponsors empower families and communities to overcome poverty is to educate future generations — starting, first and foremost, with their sponsored child.

Today, Nantale is 12 years old. She is in her fifth year of Holt child sponsorship. And she is at the top of her class.

“She is always the best in her class,” Tinka shares. “She enjoys school life and wants to become a lawyer after her studies. She says that she wants to be a lawyer to provide justice for poor people in the community.”

When Tinka asked Nantale’s mom what she would like to say to her sponsors, she broke down in tears.

“To Nantale’s sponsor, I want to say thank you so much for choosing my daughter,” she said. “You came in at a time when I had lost hope. We were not sure about keeping her in school. You brought joy to Nantale and our entire family. Because of you, our family is lively and hopeful. Nantale is now assured of her education. She is more confident, now socializes with other children, and tells me she works hard at school to make her sponsor happy. She is always the best in class. You have opened a brighter future for Nantale and our family. I only pray that our good Lord blesses you.”

Nantale also wanted to express her gratitude to her sponsor.

“I thank you my sponsor for loving and supporting me,” she said. “Because of you, my sponsor, I receive everything I need for my school. My mother is also happy for your support. We pray for you always.”