The seven year program will see the Forum for Women Educationalists -FAWE, through its national chapters, implementing several key programs to enhance education access for marginalized communities, with a focus on young women, individuals with disabilities, and refugees.
According to the Executive Director FAWE Uganda chapter Susan Opok Tumusiime, the 27 million dollar funding marks a new phase of their partnership with the MasterCard Foundation towards the elevating of over 1,800 young people in Uganda.
Opok explains that FAWE Uganda has for the past seven years been implementing the program’s first phase in partnership with the MasterCard Foundation that started in 2017.
At the launch of the second phase, Opok noted that during the first Phase, Uganda recruited 334 participants including 208 young women and 126 young men on the program of which 271 have completed and graduated from the program and of these 225 participants have secured formal and informal employment.
According to Opok, following the successful implementation of the Higher Education Access Program (HEAP) in Uganda, and the MasterCard Foundation Scholars Program in Ethiopia and Rwanda during the first phase, the extension of the partnership between FAWE and the Foundation now includes 10 countries across Africa citing Ethiopia, Ghana, Liberia, Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Senegal, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
On her part the Executive Director FAWE Africa, Dr. Martha Muhwezi, says that under the new phase they are planning to ensure that the program is linked in the seven additional chapters, alongside scaling up in Uganda.
“FAWE is delighted to once again have an opportunity to partner with the MasterCard Foundation on this exciting and fulfilling journey. We hope that we will effectively change the life trajectories of young women and men in Uganda and ultimately our great continent,” says Dr. Muhwezi
Among other programs implemented by FAWE is the Higher Education Access Certificate program that was designed by the National council for Higher Education as one of the pathways to access higher education if not on merit.
Opok, the team leader of FAWE Uganda chapter says over 1000 young people, female and male have benefited directly from the HEAC program from the different higher institutions including Busitema University, Gulu, and Jinja School of nursing among other institutions that have already adopted the HEAC program.
Meanwhile, the Executive Director National Council for Higher Education –NHCE Mary Okwakol, explained that HEAC is the fourth avenue to access higher education for students who have fully completed A-level or its equivalent but who may not have attained sufficient grades to enroll for a diploma or degree program .
Okwakol however, asked institutions of higher Education to desist from designing programs that are not certified by the education ministry for their students to access higher education .According to Okwakol this will be a wastage of time for the students enrolled on such programs.
Tom Aredo, the finance lead of MasterCard Foundation, says that the foundation has for years enabled thousands of young people to be empowered into decent employment through education.
According to Aredo, the extension of seven years of the partnership fosters second phase opportunity for the marginalized young people across Africa.