Educating Poor and Special Needs Children

While Uganda has a public education programme, about 20 percent of children aged 6 to 12 do not attend primary school, according to UNICEF. Many don’t have the opportunity to get an education because they are orphans or street children, or because they have disabilities that their families and schools are not equipped to address. Schools are understaffed, and they often fail to serve the children they are supposed to educate. The Serve a Smile Foundation helps ensure that otherwise overlooked children in our communities have what they need to learn and thrive.

Education opens the door to a bright future and enables children to develop as individuals and experience togetherness with their peers, no matter their background or home circumstances. We enable children to get an education so they can escape the negative impact of illiteracy, and so they can release their creativity and open their minds to enlightened ideas. By allowing them to reach their potential, we are also strengthening their communities.

Children are our promise of tomorrow. An educated child is a pillar for the family, the community, and the nation at large. Where there are educated children, there is hope.

Our Impact

The Serve a Smile Foundation has been partnering with Kateera Biikira Primary School in Kiboga, Uganda, since January 2022. With about 75 students, including 18 special needs children, this rural boarding school struggles to provide its students with basic necessities and educational materials. In our first year working with the school, we provided food, clothing, shoes, books, geometry sets, pens, toilet paper, soap, and feminine hygiene products to supplement the school’s meager supplies for the children. But after conducting a needs assessment and touring the school dormitories, our goal is to expand our support to include mattresses, bedsheets and blankets.

Help us Meet the Challenge

Please join us in working diligently to increase access to quality education for the children of Kateera Biikira Primary School and, eventually, other unprivileged children and struggling schools in the poorest areas of Uganda.
Together, we can remove barriers to education for:

Orphans with no access to education and support
Children whose families can’t afford to provide for their education
Schools in rural areas that lack professional teachers, school nurses, infrastructure, books, and other critical supplies.