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orphan girls attend school at exactly the same rate (93.8%) during childhood, there is a 10.8%
difference (83.0% vs. 72.2%) during adolescence. This is striking to me, and probably merits
extra attention to our female orphans in Hoima.
Secondly, there is a factor of poverty. There is a substantially big difference in school
attendance among orphan and non-orphan students who are part of families in the lower 25th
percentile of the socioeconomic ladder in Uganda. For non-orphans in the lower 25th percentile,
80% of girls attend school during their adolescences, with 74.5% of boys attending school.
Astonishingly, these numbers drop to 45.5% of female orphans (a drop of 34.5%) and 37.5% of
male orphans (a drop of 37.05%).
These numbers are very important to the cause of the Hoima-Uganda Education
Foundation, as they illustrate a level of need for these students that stretches beyond the current
scope of the program. While this research did not contain any answers for why the situation is
the way it is, it perhaps warrants a further investigation on H.U.E.F.s part into the life of these
orphan children and their families. This perhaps illustrates a population that, once Hoima begins
to see the educational results it sets out to achieve, will seemingly be at risk of having their
educational process prematurely ended.
The ability to enroll our students in quality secondary schools and help them at least
move one step higher on the educational ladder is vital and noble work, but H.U.E.F. must look
ahead and be prepared to face the next challenge that comes. One suggested strategy for dealing
with these potential issues is creating a feedback system with the families who take in orphans
and trying to help them meet their needs. This does step outside of the scope of what H.U.E.F.
currently sets out to do, but the aim of this would be to achieve the same ends. Another potential
strategy in dealing with this potential issue would be to keep these children as one of the primary
focuses of further sponsorship drives, highlighting their need and the need of their adoptive or
single parent families in helping these children create a brighter future for themselves and
Hoima. The goal here would be to provide their families with the necessary economic support to
allow them to keep these children in school and building towards a better future for the
individual and their family.
While this issue is not one that requires the immediate attention of Hoima, given the
educational enrollment rates of children are similar at this age, this problem certainly has long
term implications for our students. I would recommend, personally, that H.U.E.F., if possible,
find a manner in which to keep close tabs on these students and their families, providing extra
support for a very vulnerable population.