Education is a priority for the people in Dzaipi and the refugee settlement. For them it is the key to break the cycle of poverty and hope for a better future for themselves and their children.

Children and youth, in fact, face many challenges in accessing quality education. Families often cannot afford to enroll their children in school because of high school fees and lack of financial resources to pay for uniforms and other school material. Moreover, overcrowded classrooms, with up to 70-100 students, and scarce and low-quality school feeding, do not allow a conducive learning environment.

Children below the age of 18 represent 61% of the total refugee population in Uganda, children in preschool age are 30% of them.

The number of children out of school is high for several reasons: on the one hand, parents and guardians have limited financial resources to pay for school fees, uniforms, feeding and school materials, on the other hand few classes are available compared to the number of children in school age.

In spite of high costs and the sacrifice needed to send children to school, parents are aware of the importance of education for children and youth to succeed in life and have a future outside the refugee camp.

Holy Family is a community preschool built on church land in Pagirinya refugee settlement.

Heart Ministries helped renovating the school, and is currently s contributing to the payment of the teachers' salaries and school materials, and supporting the school feeding program. Parents contribute to the school expenses with school fees, according to their financial capacity, and with in-kind contributions towards the pupils' school feeding program.

The school has 4 class rooms and hosts 160 children from 3 to 6 years of age every year. Children from the settlement attend school every morning from Monday to Friday and get a nutritious meal. The school employs 8 teachers, 2cooks and 2 guards.

Youth in Dzaipi, both Ugandan and South Sudanese living in the refugee settlements, face many challenges in completing secondary education. School fees are very expensive and often unaffordable for families, who are also unable to provide the required food contribution or buy uniforms, school material and books, so many of them drop out of school. Given the current economic situation in the country, school fees also keep increasing each term. 

Students who manage to stay in school, often walk long distances to reach the schools and have to work in the fields to help their families get enough food, so they have limited time to study once back home; households usually have no power, so it is impossible for them to study at night. Both obstacles affect their school performance.

In order to address the situation, Heart Ministries has started sponsoring youth to complete their secondary education in local schools.

Every year Heart Ministries provides financial support to cover school fees, materials, uniforms, and feeding to about 25 youth. Each of them is supported until completion of the secondary school cycle, provided they pass to the following grade.

Students and their families are engaged throughout the period they are sponsored: youth are followed by a mentor and they commit to attend school regularly and to volunteer during school breaks in some of the sisters’ services; parents commit to provide a financial contribution according to their capacity and to the to meet the tutor once per quarter to follow up on their children’s progress.

Each year new students, both girls and boys, are enrolled in the program after an attentive screening and keep in the program until graduation.

Schools are chosen based on the interests of the students and their location: schools nearby Dzaipi are prioritized to avoid families incurring additional costs for transport and/or accommodation.