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Learn for life in Kampala

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ART TO THE RESCUE - supporting slum children to transcend.

Seven-year-old Melina had never stepped outside her neighborhood of Kirombe, a large slum in the west of Kampala, Uganda (in East Africa). Home, for her and her friends evolves around this poverty-stricken and deprived environment - there is nowhere else to escape to. She is only exposed to horrific scenes of crimes, prostitution, domestic violence and other unimaginable vices unworthy of a child’s eye.

Melina attends St Martin primary school, a low-grade primary school situated within the ghetto, and you can judge from her literary struggles that she is not getting the best standard education. She fails to read a sentence in an elementary kindergarten English story book. Aside from the underserving formal learning avenues, there are no extracurricular activities that can supplement and enrich the mind development of this ‘slum’ girl and the many of her peers. From school, Melina goes straight to work with her mother in the little local  family food shop - you are left to wonder what the future of this ‘diamond in the rough’ is!

Melina’s first trip away from the slums came on November19th 2019, when she and a group of 30 kids from her community visited the Uganda National Museum located in the upscale part of Kampala City. The museum was exhibiting the best works of Leonardo da Vinci in an exhibition organized by the Italian embassy, and alongside the exhibition there was a children art works display. You could see the amazement in the eyes of these kids as they marveled at the mural paintings and the exciting interior of the museum. This trip also offered the kids an opportunity to learn about the culture and traditions of Uganda, thus creating a significant impact to their social empowerment as well as giving them an opportunity to attain exposure to visual culture. The animated conversations among the children on their way back home was enough to fill you with delight and at same time reveal the essence of this experience.

“Ever since Melina visited the museum, her attitude towards learning changed, she always relates to the bright colors of the art she saw and wishes to go on more trips that help her see things that are far away from Kirombe” Melina’s mother shared during a parent engagement meeting.

This trip was part of the Fun Art Learning program, which is aimed at providing visual art education opportunities for slum children in Kampala. These trips enable them to use visual art to express themselves, develop practical social and life skills, attain economically transferable visual art skills (that even may be income generating at a later time) and to educate their communities and raise awareness about their social challenges.



The Fun Art Learning Program’s main activity is providing slum children from 4 to 15 years with weekly visual art learning sessions.

Other program activities include:

Art educators’ pedagogy workshops; engaging educators to discover interesting community-based practices of introducing and teaching visual art. To help co-creating and expanding the children art program curriculum. 10 art educators go through the training annually.

The children benefit from local art exhibitions and showcases; this allows them to create their art works and present and showcase them to allow appraisals.

Cultural tours and visits; the children are exposed to cultural sites and events such as museums, theaters, embassies and festivals and develop their visual tastes through guided discovery.

Schools’ social exchanges and visits; the children are given opportunities to explore different social settings and interact with children from more affluent schools to share cultural experiences and educative interactions. 

Your immediate support will go a long way to also enable this year’s visit to the Uganda wild life center (zoo) where the children will explore the beauty of Uganda’s amazing animals before the schools reopen.

The money raised will also support the printing of 500 copies of the children’s own written story book entitled ‘My Covid-19 Story’ which tells the experience of the kids during the three weeks long lock down and curfew nights (see more here: https://youtu.be/tb3LhFc4Cvw). (Of course all our programs respect all the Covid-19 regulations that are in place.)

Finally, it is important to note that with your generous contribution, we will be able to run the weekly programs that reaches about 250 children in four slum communities, support the art educators, support exhibitions and buy art supplies.

Thank you so much from Melinda and all her friends - your generous support will be greatly appreciated.

Fundraising team (2)

Sofie Neseah
Organizer
Roppentzwiller
Daniel Sentamu
Team member

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