Sponsor Clark

Clark hardly said a word in his first year of nursery school (called “Baby”).   He is just four years old, and while he may not talk much, his teacher says he pays attention and completes all his classwork.

His mother is illiterate and cannot find a job.  His father is mentally unstable and cannot work.  The family lives with the paternal grandparents who also cannot work.

Fortunately, the grandparents have a piece of land (referred to as a “garden”) on which they plant corn, tomatoes, beans and perhaps some greens.  The poorest of the poor are those without gardens.

Clark’s class has only twelve children. By keeping Baby class very small, the teachers have more time for one-on-one attention. That’s good especially for the six vulnerable children in every Baby class. In Uganda, fifty students in a class is common, and often there are more. Learning tends to be harder for children with difficult home situations, though some become our best students.

There is a danger to Clark’s situation.  Because work is hard to find, and the future looks grim, women sometimes walk away from a marriage and marry a new man in order to find security. The problem is that because of lingering tribal customs, the men rarely agree to take in a child that is not their own. It is likely that Clark’s mother may leave and marry a new man at some point. Clark would then be left with his mentally ill father and his elderly grandparents.

Sponsor him.