Project
Coloma Orphans, Uganda
Sponsorship programme for orphaned girls at Coloma Primary School since 2010.
The sponsorship programme
Seven years of guaranteed schooling
Since 2010 Rotary Club Sittard has organised the sponsorship of the education of orphaned girls at Coloma Primary Boarding School near Mbarara, Uganda. So far 103 children have taken part in the Coloma Orphans Programme, 61 of whom have completed their education. Since 2025 the programme has also been open to other children from very poor backgrounds.
Anyone who wishes to can sponsor one or more children, as an individual or as a company or organisation. The programme is expressly open to participants from outside Rotary; by now more than half of the sponsors are not members of a Rotary club.
Every sponsor commits for seven years, so that a child never has to leave school halfway because the money has run out. The fixed annual contribution is € 300 per child, fully tax-deductible in the Netherlands.
Every year sponsors are informed about their child's progress, and of course you also receive some basic information about “your” child.
Coloma in numbers
Angel arrived at school in 2015 as a very shy, fearful child, poorly dressed, barefoot and malnourished. The school gave her a bed, clothing and school materials. In her first years she hardly spoke. In primary 4 it turned out that she was good at sports: she joined the athletics team, became sports prefect and a member of the school council. Her results improved and in the top class she was among the ten best of her class. In November 2022 she passed the state exam, and since 2023 she has attended a secondary boarding school — a chance she would never have had without a sponsor.
Visiting Coloma
Rotary Club Sittard keeps in close contact with the school. In 2009, 2014 and 2020 members of the club and their partners visited the school. Sponsors and other interested people are always welcome to see for themselves what is done with the sponsorship money; in 2017 and 2018 sponsors who happened to be in the area visited Coloma.
In turn the sisters visit the Rotary club when they are in Europe on leave or for fundraising. All sponsors are invited to those visits.
Photos of Coloma
Questions, or interested in becoming a sponsor?
Please get in touch. We will gladly tell you more about the programme and the children.