Hand in Hand (charity no. 1069976)

Since 2007 The High Level Early Childhood Centre in Uganda has been providing nursery and primary education to local children who are unable to afford school fees. The centre also cares for some orphans on site.

After careful consideration Hand in Hand decided to adopt this project in October 2011. Esther Mugamya has been instumental in helping to establish the High Level Early Childhood Centre with a group of local people from Iganga. They realised that there was no nursery provision in the vacinity so initially established a nursery class. It soon became clear though that there was also the need to provide primary education for those families that could not afford the school fees at local schools. Now operating up to P5 the primary school has 89 children.

Facilities are very basic but there is a committed team of teachers that have often worked without pay who are trying to give these children a good start in life through the basic need of education.

The centre is also meeting the needs of some of the orphans in the area. Some children stay with committee members whilst others are being cared for at the school.

The community has assisted the project by bringing food supplies when they are able and contributing funds which has enabled the centre to purchase the land the school is on.