Twinlight Children’s Centre

NEDEAs school and boarding section is called Twinlight Children’s Centre and is the key stone of NEDEAs work. The school aims to provide quality education to disadvantaged children, orphans and children with HIV in the area.

The students in the school are a mix of paying and non-paying students, where the incomes from the paying students are used to support the fees of the non-paying students. This also helps to pay salary for the teachers and secure the quality of the education. Out of the six primary schools of Nakawuka village, it is the only one providing an opportunity to free education for disadvantaged children.

The school has nine levels, ranging from the youngest in baby clas and top clas to P1-P7, and is therefore a complete primary school. Due to the structure of the Ugandian school system, which is based on skills rather than age, children in the same class can be of different age.

Students are taught Math, Writing, Social Sciences, English and Nature’s Science. In NEDEAs school most of the classes apart from Lugandian writing are held in English. As English in one of the official languages of Uganda, the language skills learned in school are very important for the children later on.

Currently the numbers of the school are around 120 students, where around 20 are living in the school’s boarding section. When the new school building is finished, the school is aiming to provide 200 students with education and increase the number of non-paying students.

NEDEA operates with a policy that the best option is to find a family for orphans. This may in many cases be relatives, but the organization also cooperates with certain families of the village willing to be caretakers for children without families. Amongst these are NEDEAs chairman, Mulongo Wepondi Simon Peter. Students with the need of extra care or living very far from the school, stay in the dormitory of the boarding school.

In addition to ordinary subjects, the school also aims to teach the children sports and music. For many of the children this is a valuable opportunity to develop other skills and forget daily responsibilities. All children also receive lunch at school every day.