Mirembe School
From Kivapedia
[edit] About Mirembe School
Mirembe School is located on the outskirts of Kampala, Uganda. It was founded in 1996 by Florence Kaluuba to offer psychotherapy counseling and vocational training for gainful employment. The goal of Mirembe School is to equip youth with developmental education for employment and life skills for survival. The students are almost exclusively girls from age 15-19 who have dropped out of school due to pregnancy and have been ostracized by their parents and family.
As of December 2007 up to 500 girls, 75% of whom are young mothers, have been trained and employed since 1996.
[edit] Kiva Friends Mirembe School Fundraiser
Kiva Friends learned about Mirembe School from a Kiva Fellows blog entry by Drew Kinder, a Kiva Fellow. Tremendous interest in Florence's work and school was generated and Kiva Friends kicked off a large fund raising effort to collect donations to send to Mirembe School.
Florence provided a list of items needed for the school which included sewing machines, desks, computers, books and other supplies.
The Kiva Friends gathered donations to a PayPal account and after several weeks of fund raising which generated an outpouring of interest and excitement among the Kiva Friends, the grand total raised came to $4,430 USD ($7,389,750 Uganda Shillings). On January 26 2008, Drew Kinder presented the check to Florence and Mirembe School. Drew wrote a Kiva Fellows blog entry about the event.
The Kiva Friends later received several emails and photos from Florence with sincere thanks and information about how the funds were used. The Kiva Friends members are thrilled and proud to have been involved in this positive group effort, which is one of several side-initiatives by the Kiva Friends forum members.
