Children of War going Back to School

8/25/2013 04:51:00 PM sendtheroths 0 Comments

Andrew and I are not parents, but we felt the weight of getting 50 of our peacemakers (former child soldiers) ready to go back to school this week.

Alain recording his name, age and grade level in school as we went from house to house or each child in our program.

Our team spent part of the summer sensitizing the children to the value of school and education, which many of them thought was not an option anymore for them due to lack of funds, being too behind or just lack of confidence.

But this August, the rubber met the road.

The GOF-C team traveled into the red zone for most of the month to interview the children personally and administer placement tests to see who is able to re-enter school.

We have three categories of children in our program:

• Children who are current in their studies and just need a little extra help. 
• Children who are 1-2 years behind and are able to re-enter school, but will not be successful with out some courses to catch them up. 
• Children who are 2+ years behind in school and have missed the opportunity to re-enter traditional schooling altogether, because they are too old. 

Our goal is to give all these children opportunity to get their high school diploma or GED.

We are thrilled that 50 out of the 100 children in our program are ready to continue schooling. This is a good start.

We visited this child who lost both of his parents in the war but stays with his grandmother.

Half of our children are too far behind to start school at this time. Many of them don't know how to read or write and lack basic math skills. So, we are developing literacy and mathematics courses to get them caught up. We feel that laying a solid foundation of math, reading and writing will open doors to options for higher education in the future.

Although we have provided school fees and uniforms for the children to start school, there are one-time costs for basic supplies such as pencils, pens, notebooks, and other necessary 'back to school' items.

In order to start the literacy and mathematics courses for the children who are unable to start school and to send children going to school more prepared, we will need an extra $5,500. This includes all the costs for a room with benches, tables, chalkboard and other items to make a conducive learning environment. Here is the link if you would like to contribute.
The Peacemaker Program is designed to reintegrate children who have come from armed groups back into the community. The three components of the program are

• The deliverance of Christ 
• Higher Education 
• Healing through the arts