Our Summer Appeal restarts support for vulnerable young people in Uganda

Samira is is preparing to sit her Uganda Certificate of Education in November 2026.

Help Samira – and hundreds like her – reclaim their future in Uganda

After two years on hold, the Universal Fund is once again supporting young people in Uganda. This summer, we're raising £60,000 to keep it that way.

When you give to the Universal Fund this summer, you help young people like Samira stay in education, learn a trade, and build a safer, more hopeful future.

Since 2002, the Universal Fund has transformed the lives of hundreds of vulnerable children and young people through our partner, Mildmay Uganda Hospital. The Fund identifies orphaned and vulnerable young people already in the hospital’s care; from households affected by poverty, bereavement, disability and serious illness - including HIV, and gives them what they most need to move forward: access to education, vocational training, or an apprenticeship.

Your gift helps a young person who has already been through so much to stay in school, gain skills, and begin to earn a living.

An initial £10,000 raised from UK supporters earlier this year allowed Mildmay Uganda to bring the Fund back into operation this spring. Around forty households have since re-entered the programme, with young people once again completing their education, gaining apprenticeships, learning trades – and, crucially, beginning to believe in their futures again.

Our summer appeal aims to build on that momentum: sustaining the Fund for the next three years, extending support for secondary education and vocational training, with the further goal of reinstating support for primary-age children for the first time since the pause began. Without this support, many of these children will simply not be able to stay in school.

Samira's story

Among those supported by the Fund is Samira, who grew up in the Wakiso District of Kampala, one of eight children raised by her mother alone. Like many young people facing hardship, she left school to work as a housemaid to help support her family.

“I always wanted to become a lawyer,” she says, “so that I could defend the rights of vulnerable young mothers in my community.”

That ambition was thrown into doubt during Uganda’s COVID-19 lockdown. With schools closed and support hard to access, Samira had to leave school to work as a housemaid in order to support the family. She found herself facing an unplanned pregnancy.

“I felt I had disappointed my mother and lost my future,” she recalls. “I did not know what would happen next.”

For a bright, determined young woman like Samira, leaving school felt like watching the door to her dreams slowly close.

She was identified by community health volunteers working with Mildmay Uganda and referred to Mildmay Uganda Hospital, where she received antenatal care throughout her pregnancy and safely delivered a healthy baby girl.

Through the Universal Fund, she was subsequently enrolled in apprenticeship training and reintegrated into formal education. She is now preparing to sit her Uganda Certificate of Education exams this November.

It is a second chance she never thought she would have and it is exactly the kind of opportunity your support can create for many more young people.

What we can achieve with your support

£150

You could help to fund six months of vocational training or an apprenticeship, turning practical skills into income within a short time.

£250

could give one child a full year of primary school: the foundation everything else is built on.

£320

could give one young person a full year of secondary education, at the stage where falling behind is hardest to recover from.

Whatever you can give, whether it is a one-off gift or a regular monthly donation, will be put straight to work supporting vulnerable young people to stay in education and training.

Regular gifts, such as a monthly Direct Debit, are especially valuable. They allow the Fund to plan with greater confidence between appeals, so that when a young person like Samira needs help urgently, the support is already there.

Ready to help a young person reclaim their future?

If Samira’s story has moved you, please consider making a gift to the Universal Fund today. Your support will help more vulnerable children and young people in Uganda stay in school, learn skills, and step into adulthood with hope.

Some of the many children whose education has been protected by the Universal Fund since it began in 2002.

To find out more and to donate

Support Our Summer Appeal