When a child gets an education it is able to get a bright future and see their dreams come true. When a child goes to school, it will not need to work in the stone quarry anymore and beg in the streets for food. It will have access to jobs, will be able to earn an income, escape child marriage, early pregnancies and be better educated about their health in order to avoid illnesses such as HIV contradiction. Education is the key to fight poverty and deceases. We are working with communities who fled from the war in Northern Uganda to areas in Kampala and Jinja and live in extreme poverty. Many children lost their parents and those who still have them cannot afford to send them to school.
22STARS is a Public Benefit Foundation, founded by Stella Airoldi in The Netherlands after she met Susan Laker and Aidah Wafula in 2009. Susan is the best example of the impact an Education can make on one persons life and their community! We use Education, Entrepreneurship and Local leadership to empower children and their families to rise above poverty. We created within our sponsorship program long-term sponsorships for 310+ children in Uganda and also run several community development initiatives including a Nutrition Project, Livelihood Project, Eye-Care and Health Project and our holistic After School Project and Small Business Training and Micro Loans Project for 65+ families.
The 22STARS project
Education, Entrepreneurship and local leadership!
Kampala is the vibrant capital of Uganda and Jinja is nicknamed the adventure town for adrenaline junkies. While both cities are great to visit, they also have a few areas that need support to build themselves up. 22STARS runs their projects in the poorest areas of both cities.
In Kampala, the project is located in Acholi Quarter, an internally displaced camp where post war victims from Northern Uganda live. The people speak Luo, have a different culture from the people in Kampala, are traumatized by war and are discriminated against by locals. They live around a stone quarry, where kids as young as 3 years’ crash stones to earn money for survival.
In Jinja, the project is located in Danida/Masese Village, where also displaced people from the war from Northern Uganda are living, but overall there is more a mix of people who came from all sides of the country and ended up here due to lack of money. You will find all kind of languages in this area and most people work in small factories and belong to a church group which gives them hope.
In both places you hardly find houses with running water, neither electricity, but these areas are still a micro town on its own! They are full with little stores, tiny cinema’s, bars, vegetable stalls, hairdressers and everything else you would find in a small town. The place is full of life!
The members of 22STARS are made up of strong women and men, who had overcome many challenges in their life. Most of them are illiterate, don’t speak English, are affected by HIV/AIDS and fled from war and abusive households. But their will power to fight for a better future for themselves and in particular for their children is amazing!
Some of our team members are still a bit shy, while others are proud and confident. But they have one thing in common: they all carry a big smile. When we asked them what they need most, they told us education! Hence through education and entrepreneurship we want to make an impact!
We are sending 320 children to school and we help 65 families with small business trainings and micro loans so they can become self-sustainable. Uganda is such a beautiful country and we want to open the doors also for them to discover the country they are living in, have a stable income, a sturdy house and daily food on the table.
We want to double our impact by 2020 and need your help to send more children to school and to train more of our team members valuable skills. Not only your donations make a direct impact, but also computer skills, mathematics and English is very valuable for our organisation! And of course if you visit us in Uganda, dancing, handcrafts, photography, singing and yoga classes are more than welcome!
