The Forum for African Women Educationalists has launched a public fundraising campaign aimed at raising one billion Uganda shillings that it hopes to use to help disadvantaged girls get university education.

The Campaign dubbed “Nsidika Njake or  “Send a bright girl to university” hopes to use send over 400 girls to university if people vigilantly listen to the appeals of FAWE in the campaign.

The Chairman of Uganda’s Higher Education Scholarship Programme in the forum, Charles Mbire has told journalists at Sheraton Hotel in Kampala that they expect the public to contribute money just a small amount of 2,000 Uganda shillings by simply typing FAWE and then sending an SMS to 8889.

Charles Mbire

FAWE’s focus in assisting disadvantaged girls into getting education has always been in secondary school and primary school where they have seen over 4,000 students benefit from their Scholarships and go on with their studies.

Mbiire says FAWE decided to change strategy to also assist the girls to get university education because it had noticed that in the recent past more girls were failing disadvantaged to get government scholarships as a result of the increased competition for the scholarships and that the government scholarships have now become mainly a preserve of those from well to do families that send their children to good schools that dominate the government scholarships.

This is the first initiative where ICTs like mobile phones are being used by a nonprofit in Uganda to raise money to fund its programmes.

By Zakaria Tiberindwa, Ultimate Media