UG 09 – SIRIO: GIRL CHILD SPONSORSHIPS

The project SIRIO 2024 is implemented in a small area of the Karamoja Region in northern Uganda, specifically in Matany in the Diocese of Moroto, where the Comboni Missionary Sisters have been working since 1963 in the fields of education, health and, in particular, the professional empowerment of women.

Some guidelines stemming from a decade of experience have been fed into the drafting of this educational project; they are of paramount importance for a proper assessment of each individual request for support. First of all there is the involvement of and successive collaboration with relatives, teachers and the respective parish priests. These guidelines have been very often foiled by the aid offered by Non Governmental Organisations in our area: their policy is to assist the pupil with everything he or she needs; nevertheless, primary school children are excluded from their programmes and many of the students benefiting from their help belong to families that are not enduring economic hardship.

Hence the urgency to set up the SIRIO project to assist 100 primary school children, considering the large number of them that we see always roaming in the street and who are exposed to various risks, mainly those of child labor and sexual abuse. To these little ones we would like to add 20 totally orphaned girls to help them build a better future by obtaining a professional qualification.

• To remove a higher number of children from the street to protect them from the risks to which they are exposed there
• To ensure quality education for poor but deserving students
• To ensure a better future for girls through vocational training

Direct: 100 children and 20 complete orphan girls

Indirect: their families and society as a whole

Referent sister: Sr Rosaria Marrone