The Pandemic and The AIA Scholarship Program

2020 started out with a lot of excitement, hope, and plans. We had all written down our year’s resolutions and were all fired up to take on the new decade. Little did we know that we were headed for one of the greatest global challenges ever witnessed. The first case of the COVID-19 virus in Uganda was recorded on March 21st, just weeks after the start of the school term in the country. But by this time, the entire world was already experiencing the first global Pandemic in a century.

The pandemic put the world at a standstill, the AIA secondary scholarship program was no exception to this drastic pause. We had set in motion all the necessary plans to send hundreds of young students back for their first school term in early February. In fact, by the time schools were closed in Uganda, all Action in Africa (AIA) scholarship students had already reported back to school.

The closure of schools came as no surprise to anyone. The fear, uncertainty, and grim air that loomed on the streets of Uganda and every other part of the world necessitated it. But the Scholarship program was not only affected by the lockdown in Uganda but by the devastating health crisis in the USA and all over the world as well, which threatened the lives of all the people that support us. World over, humanitarian aid was cut because of the Pandemic and that affected the funding for the scholarship program as well.

These memories remain fresh in most of our minds because this was not like anything we had seen before. But we had to find a way, we had to continue within the extreme but necessary limitations of the pandemic, and we did.

Action in Africa proved once more that it was a friend to the community in Nakuwadde. AIA supported some of the families in the community with food and other necessities to ensure their survival through the pandemic. It also provided remote learning kits, tools, and resources to the students in the community during the pandemic to ensure that their education continued even during the lockdown.

As of February 2022, schools are now open again in Uganda, and in most parts of the world, the pandemic is largely behind us although the threat of similar situations continues to linger. That is partly why we introduced a more robust medical outreach program to improve the health of the community. But the light at the end of the tunnel is here, we are back now and we hope to continue receiving all your support in building back the program after the devastating effects of the pandemic.