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THE VISIBLE CHILD SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM
Pioneered by Uganda’s Country Director, Jolly Grace Okot, the Visible Child Scholarship Program (VCSP) provides scholarships and mentoring to 585 secondary and 180 university students from Gulu, Amuru, and Pader districts. Some of the greatest needs and largest gaps in development in northern Uganda can be attributed to the region’s limited access to secondary education. To address this problem we created the VCSP, an initiative that develops the leadership and life skill capacities of promising students. Launched in 2005, the program focuses on increasing access to post-primary education, improving learning environments, and mentoring from local leaders. From just 100 secondary students at local schools at its inception, the program has expanded to include nearly two hundred university students. VCSP is currently the only program in-country managed and operated entirely by Ugandan nationals, a program quality Invisible Children Uganda is continually trying to replicate.To contribute to the Visible Child Scholarship Program go here.
WHO THE PROGRAM HELPS
Acceptance into the program is based on a combination of academic performance and level of vulnerability, with special consideration given to children who are total orphans, heads of household, formerly abducted returnees, those living positively with HIV/AIDS, or child mothers. Vulnerability is something that is considered for program inclusion because vulnerable youth are at a higher risk of academic failure. When students are coping with the birth of their own children or the death of their parents, they need mentoring assistance in order to keep academics a top priority. Although many students in the region are affected with post-conflict trauma and would benefit from scholarships and mentoring, VCSP chooses to work with the students who need the most individualized support.
After vulnerable and talented youth are identified throughout northern Uganda, they undergo a selection process that evaluates both their vulnerability and past academic performance. These children are then evaluated through a series of assessments at home and school before they are officially accepted into the program.
Once accepted, each student receives two things from VCSP:
1. A full paid scholarship that hinges on his/her academic progress
2. Mentoring from one of ICs full-time mentors
SECONDARY STUDENT STATS*
• 45% of students are girls; 55% are boys
• 91% of students are orphans—44.9% being partial orphans and 46.1% being
total orphans
• 26.1% of students are orphans because of HIV/AIDS
• 23.9% of students are orphans due to war
• 5.5% of students are members of child-headed families
• 4.3% of students are child mothers
• 13.7% of students have been abducted by the LRA at least once
*as of 2008
HOW THE PROGRAM WORKS
A VCSP mentor is an employed community leader whose purpose is to build a personal relationship with the student and provide professional follow up for each child. Through this interaction, VCSP mentors ensure academic accountability, encourage scholastic success, foster leadership skills, and provide parental and career-oriented guidance for each student in the program.
VCSP mentors receive extensive training prior to working with students. IC Uganda provides mentors with professional development training in areas of psychosocial support, child protection, and trauma counseling. We currently employ 24 mentors, and, on average, each mentor works with roughly 30 students. Monthly visits are made to every student’s home and school to ensure that the student receives the full support needed for their personal and academic success. When problems arise at home or school, mentors respond immediately and help students cope. When students achieve accomplishments—big or small—mentors are there to take notice, congratulate students, and offer up words of encouragement.
In addition to scholarships and mentoring, VCSP also holds sensitization seminars that educate school administrators, parents and guardians, and the community about the program and the need to support post-primary education. These sensitization programs take place through planned community meetings and radio programs.
Mentors help not only students, but they help parents and teachers as well. In addition to giving one-on-one student advice, mentors provide parents and teachers with information and ways to serve as positive role models for the students. Without vital current information about a student’s status at school, a parent cannot effectively support a student at home; without inside information about what a student is struggling with at home, a teacher cannot cater to a student’s needs. Mentors bind the parent-teacher-student relationship and ensure its strength by utilizing open communication and regular school and home visits.
To support an Invisible Children mentor go here.
ONGOING DEVELOPMENTS
In 2007, IC Uganda launched a pilot program to provide university scholarships to students who had successfully completed secondary school as VCSP beneficiaries. Similar to the application process for secondary school, students who wished to receive scholarships for university needed to meet the same level of academic performance and vulnerability. Originally, only four full scholarships were given to recent graduates of the VCSP. In 2008, the number of scholarships provided to national universities jumped to fifty-five, forty of which were offered to girls. In August of 2009, VCSP is proud to extend the scope of scholarship recipients by offering one hundred scholarships to girls not just included in VCSP, but any female graduating from secondary institutions in the eleven districts across northern Uganda. In addition to the one hundred new scholarships for girls, twenty-one additional university scholarships will be offered to boys in the region.
Currently 59 students are receiving scholarships to pursue either a diploma or a bachelor's degree. The majority of these students are attending Gulu University, but some attend Makerere University and various other Ugandan institutions. Last fall, one remarkable student of the program was awarded a four-year scholarship to Boise State University in the United States. To ensure the success of these students at the university level, they continue to meet with a mentor who specializes in psychosocial support through any personal or academic issues that may arise.
VCSP is also currently developing an extracurricular component to mentoring that involves hands-on, student-student involvement. The After School Program initiative helps senior level VCSP secondary students stay focused as they approach the start of university. The club helps students form football, volleyball, and netball teams at their former schools with other VCSP students. These clubs meet after classes finish and allow mentors to interact with their students in a non-academic setting. In addition to these sports clubs, we are also beginning academic clubs that will feature essay writing and debate competitions. Weekend seminars will be held to encourage the academic performance of scholarship beneficiaries, preparing them for exit examinations and further studies at the university level.
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