KARC TO HELP 200 UGANDA ORPHANS

AFRICAN ARK PRIMARY SCHOOL MAIN COMPUS:ORPHAN ADOPTATION SCHOOL
African primary school Opposite St peters C.OU Nyakasanga Kasese Town in partnership with

The Prem Rawat Foundation | www. t p r f . o r g www. m a h a r a j i . n e t

TPRF PROVIDES MEALS FOR ORPHANS ATTENDING UGANDA SCHOOL

Meals enable homeless youngsters to continue their education

Los Angeles, December 8, 2010—The Prem Rawat Foundation (TPRF) is donating US$16,500 to provide lunches and clean drinking water for schoolchildren in a region of Uganda where 17% of the population consists of homeless orphans.

TPRF is supporting the efforts of the Kikimu Agriculture Research Centre (KARC) at their African Ark Infant Preparatory School in Uganda’s Kasese district, where a program with the overall objective of educating children brought in off the streets was launched in 2004.

The TPRF grant will provide lunches to about 200 children for one school year (three 60-day school terms). It will also fund the purchase of 5,000-liter plastic containers to harvest rainwater in this arid western region of Uganda, providing the youngsters with clean drinking water. “We are very happy to be able to help this program at African Ark Infant Preparatory School,” said TPRF President Linda Pascotto. “It is very much in line with TPRF’s goal to provide assistance in cases where self-sufficiency is the ultimate goal.”

School officials on the scene say they want to offer lunches not only to improve nutrition and fight off pangs of hunger, but also as a way to keep the pupils from leaving the school to roam the streets in search of a meal. Kule Noah, KARC’s executive director, said the lunches also keep the children more attentive in classrooms. In the past, Noah said, without a solid lunch, most students/pupils would not attend afternoon sessions.

Kasese, with a population just shy of 300,000 people, borders the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Rwenzori Mountains, and is home to the Rwenzori Mountains National Park, which remains a popular tourist destination. During conflicts in the region from 1996-2002, half of the district’s population was forced to take shelter in protected camps, with heavy losses to the adult population from war and infectious diseases. This initiative aims to provide life-sustaining nutrition for some of the children growing up without parents in this area.