New Life School

When we began working with orphans in rural Uganda in 2002, we immediately recognized the vital importance of education in the lives of our children. Apart from outside assistance, most would drop out of school at a young age. Therefore, keeping our children on course educationally has been a primary objective of our program from the outset.

In rural Uganda, however, most children sit in classrooms with more than 100 other students, sharing one teacher and a few textbooks for the entire class. In short, we've learned that providing our children with a quality education involves much more than simply keeping them in school.

For this and other reasons, Covenant Mercies decided last year to make a more direct investment into our children's educational care by establishing a private school in the Nagongera region. We broke ground on this project in September 2008, and our first three buildings (two classroom buildings and one administrative) are now fully functional. Construction has been ongoing at New Life School throughout 2009, resulting in the addition of science labs, girls and boys dormitories, and leveled grounds for playing fields. Next year, we hope to add a library and a kitchen/dining hall to our ever-developing campus. With a total estimated cost of approximately $450,000, this is by far our most ambitious project to date.