One of Solomon's Children's key partners in Uganda is Community Support for the Education of the Children of Uganda (CSECU). Leaders of this organization were recently asked to comment on the relationship between poverty and education in Uganda. In response, they wrote the following:

Poverty is a multi-dimensional problem. The Government of Uganda defines poverty as a 'situation of perpetual need for daily necessities of life such as food, clothing and shelter'. It is also 'a feeling of powerlessness to influence the things around you, or a persistent lack of income and other resources resulting into inaccessibility to the basics of life such as food clothing, shelter, medical care, water and sanitation'. About 35% of the Ugandan population live at or below the poverty line. Poverty studies have indicated that the majority of the poor live in large families; many children, numerous widows, a high percentage of divorced women and numerous other household members. The expenditure of these poor households is mainly on food. Often, they lack assets and have low education levels, poor quality housing and poor access to basic social services.

Basic education is a fundamental human right and a component of well-being. Educational attainment has been identified as one of the essential approaches for combating poverty. Indeed, it is a core aspect in the Government of Uganda's development framework, the Poverty Eradication Plan (PEAP). Societies with low education levels are less likely to attain and maintain high levels of economic growth. They are also more exposed to corruption and political manipulation, as well as violence and civil strife, occurrences that undermine human well being and economic development (see for example, The Uganda National Household survey 2002-2003, published by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics).

About 14% of the children in Uganda have lost one or both parents. Sickness or calamity in families is one of the leading causes of school drop-out, second only to the cost of education, which is prohibitive to many poor households. This can even be true for primary education. Besides tuition costs, which are covered by the government under the Universal Primary Education program, there are other costs related to school attendance that can be prohibitive to households. These include scholastic material, school uniforms, lunch, and the opportunity cost of sending children to school, (i.e. schooling the children, as opposed to having them provide labour for household sustenance). Moreover, many children who go through primary education drop out thereafter, or in the middle of secondary education, again because of the same reasons. Secondary education is not sponsored by government in Uganda.

Ill health both causes, and is a consequence of, poverty in rural and urban areas. It reduces time spent in productive work. In Uganda, malaria and HIV/AIDS cripple people's productive capacities. Many children have been orphaned by HIV/AIDS and wars. Death of household breadwinners usually plunges many households into adverse poverty. In many cases the children become the immediate and most affected victims (dropping out of school, malnutrition and sexual abuse, child labour, and so on). Therefore all efforts to improve the livelihoods of such affected children, especially those geared towards improving their abilities to sustain themselves, are invaluable.

The members of CSECU are determined to address the above issues by providing educational support to disadvantaged children, especially orphans from poor communities. CSECU has a mission of mobilizing efforts to support poor households and the disadvantaged children therein, especially orphans, in ways that uplift their status and give them an opportunity to become dignified and self-reliant people. Among its objectives, the organisation seeks to provide educational support to disadvantaged children, especially orphans, from poor communities, and to train and support foster households to attain sustainable improved livelihood (in terms of income, health and hygiene awareness and access to governmental and NGO services). The organisation also aims to build and strengthen social networks between affected households and community institutions and to use the medium of our organisation to solicit support from other organisations for this cause.

CSECU runs a child sponsorship program, including paying school dues and providing other scholastic needs to the children. The resources for this are mobilised from individual contributions from the members of the organisation, as well as through fundraising from local individuals, organisations and companies, and where possible from foreign organisations and individuals as well. In addition, the organisation trains and supports foster households to attain sustainable improved livelihoods. The organisation also conducts research, to try to better understand the ways in which the supportive social networks disadvantaged families are already engaged in might be better utilized for poverty reduction. Our research also tries to identify the available but unutilised governmental, non-governmental and community institutions that could improve families' social support systems. We place great emphasis upon building and strengthening social networks between affected households and the relevant community institutions to enhance access to essential social services.