PRojects directory

Masaka School

Strategic Focus: Education, Emotional and Social support
Where: Uganda

Masaka School was built by HOPEHIV in 2004 funded by a trek to the North Pole by a UK fundraising team led by HOPEHIV founder Phil Wall. The local community in Masaka had identified a large number of children who could neither hear nor speak and needed a safe place to learn that was tailored for their needs. Masaka School now serves up to 100 vulnerable pupils who all have severe hearing and speech impairments. Cultural perceptions about their disability can lead to widespread stigma and discrimination.
Some families disown them and leave them to fend for themselves. For many, Masaka School is the first place where they learn to communicate with others. Masaka School is educating the community about the children’s abilities and has also secured government endorsement and partial funding.

For more information on this project please download this [ document ]

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We see hope in Cosma.

Cosma is 23. When he was 19, he was living in Kampala, Uganda and because he hadn’t finished school, was only able to get casual jobs. His pastor told him about Net2Work, an IT skills course run by HOPEHIV partner Oasis. After he finished the course, he and a fellow graduate opened an e-academy at their church. Oasis spotted his potential and asked him to be a trainer for the new Net2Work course for former child soldiers in Gulu, in the war-torn north of the country.

Cosma told us, ‘This work in Gulu has given me joy and hope. I was initially fearful of coming to Gulu as I had heard all these stories of the atrocities. When I arrived the students seemed rude but I saw they were just traumatized young people who needed me to build a relationship with them.’ Cosma uses part of his salary to pay his younger brother’s school fees. In 2008 one of his 150 Gulu graduates became a teacher at the newly opened Net2Work academy for former child soldiers in Pader.

Find out more about Net2Work.