Sponsor a child
Sponsor a child in Uganda.
Walk with one learner in Makindye, Kampala — school fees, visits, a name, a future. Mercy For Life Africa is the house that stays.
What it is
A priest paid one girl’s fees. That is still the whole idea.
After her father died, Nalubega Fausta was kept in school by Father Dominique Maebe. That gift is why Mercy For Life Africa exists. Sponsorship today is the same mercy, passed on: a child in class, a family held, a uniform still worn.
The One Together family already walks with almost every child in the programme. There is still room. We do not put children in a catalogue. We know them. Write to the house, and we will walk with you.
How to begin
Three steps. Then the house knows your name.
1
Send a gift
MTN MoMo, Airtel Money, Equity Bank, or PayPal. Monthly is how a child stays in class.
2
Tell us it is sponsorship
On the Donate page, write “sponsor a child” in the note. Or WhatsApp the house with your name.
3
We walk with one learner
Staff in Makindye match the gift to fees and visits. Write mercyforlifeafrica@gmail.com if you want a named child.
Questions
If you came looking for a child to sponsor.
How does child sponsorship work?
You give toward school fees and scholastic materials. The house in Makindye walks with that child — visits, a name, a future. It is not a distant bursary. We know the children.
How much should I give?
UGX 150,000 (≈ US$50) is a contribution toward a child’s school fees this term. You can give that, more, or monthly. Write to the house if you want to walk with one named learner.
Can I sponsor from outside Uganda?
Yes. PayPal (MercyForLifeCorp) and Equity Bank (SWIFT EQBLUGKAXXX) are on the Donate page. Then email or WhatsApp so the house knows you want to sponsor.
From the field
The children who write back.
Letters, report cards, a courtyard in Makindye. This is what sponsorship looks like when a term is paid.
From the field
A peace lesson under iron sheets
At Mercy Schools the chalkboard is Romans 12: live at peace, refuse revenge, respect culture, share a meal, sit with the elders. The children wear the pink shirts. The floor is packed earth. The lesson is the neighbourhood they will inherit.
From the field
The whole room, learning peace
The same Mercy Schools classroom, filmed from the back: pink shirts, packed-earth floor, Romans 12 on the board. A shorter look at the lesson the children will inherit.
From the field
The same room, the same children
A still from that classroom — teacher in pink, pupils in Mercy Schools shirts, exercise books open on desks that have already seen many terms.
From the field
The map on a back, in class
A volunteer sits among secondary students in the official Africa-map shirt — food, hygiene, beds, medical, hope, houses, sanitation, education, dignity — while a teacher works the board.
From the field
A fish on a tray, a whole class leaning in
Science in the yard: a teacher in the pink Mercy shirt holds a tilapia on an orange tray while the children crowd close — uniforms, grins, a lesson they will remember with their hands.
From the field
Maria writes home
Nalule Maria of Mercy Schools–Makindye holds her end-of-term report and a letter to Ross Hoffman. She is eleven, in Primary Seven, sitting her leaving examinations in November. She thanks him for caring for her since she was small, and says she wants to come and see the family she has only known by faithfulness.
From the field
Maria, in the classroom, with her letter
Nalule Maria stands among her classmates holding the report and the letter to Ross Hoffman. You can see the desks, the bags, the room that a sponsorship actually pays for.
From the field
The same girl, years on
A short before-and-after: Maria as a small child holding a letter, and Maria now — waving from the school doorway in a white shirt. Sponsorship is not a moment. It is a childhood.
From the field
The courtyard, the whole house
Mercy Schools–Makindye on a bright morning: cream uniforms, letters in every hand, staff in the Africa-map shirt, the One Together mural on the wall. This is the school the fees actually pay for.
From the field
Letters on the steps
The same morning, closer in. Children hold thank-you pages and drawings on the school steps — red pillars, cream shirts, a girl in yellow at the centre. Sponsorship here has handwriting.
From the field
Mercy School sports day
Four boys in Uganda and club kits stand under black and yellow balloons at a Mercy School sports day. Fees are not only a desk. They are a childhood that still gets to play.
From the field
Crested crane, painted faces
A girl in a flag-cloth dress and a boy in a crested-crane shirt, faces painted in black, yellow and red. National days at Mercy Schools are part of the same mercy that keeps them in class.
From the field
Thank you for paying my school fees
A pupil of Mugwanya Preparatory School, Kabojja, holds a letter dated 22 August 2026 — Mercy For Life Africa, P.O. Box 34575, Kampala. He looks at the camera and says it plainly: thank you for paying my school fees and taking care of my family.
From the field
Ssekitoleko Timothy writes to One Together
Ssekitoleko Timothy of Mercy Schools–Makindye holds his end-of-term result slip and a letter that begins Dear One Together. He thanks them for school fees and for pens. The report is dated 2026. The signature is a heart.
From the field
Lunch in the timber classroom
Mercy School children in orange sit at low desks with plates and soda. Fees keep a child at a desk. A meal keeps them there through the afternoon.
From the field
The same table, another day
Plates of posho and stew, bottles of soda, grins. School feeding is not a campaign. It is Tuesday.
From the field
Desks on packed earth
The room is finished enough to learn in: timber walls, a chalkboard, exercise books, a teacher in the white polo leaning over a boy’s page. Mercy School, as it looks this term.
From the field
Favourite subject, on the board
Mercy Schools shirts, open books, a teacher at a chalkboard that says favourite subject. The floor is still earth. The lesson is already happening.
From the field
A teacher over two pages
Two boys in pink polos, a teacher in the Mercy Schools shirt, exercise books filling. This is what school fees buy: a person who will stand at the desk until the sum is right.
From the field
The whole class on the floor
Orange uniforms, number chairs, a wall of handwritten charts. Some lessons happen at desks. Some happen sitting close enough to hear the smallest child.
From the field
The map on a back, in class
A staff member in the official Africa-map shirt stands with a pupil and a mother in a classroom of alphabet charts. Education here is a household, not a department.
From the field
A circle on the porch
Pupils sit in a ring on the Mercy School steps — orange shirts, sandals in a pile, the One Together mural behind them. Assembly here is a porch and a listening seat.
From the field
The same porch, another talk
A teacher on a stool, children on the tiles, shoes off. Mercy School is small enough that a whole class still fits on the steps.
From the field
Before, and after a desk
Seven children, numbered. Above: a compound, no uniforms. Below: the same seven holding result slips in Mercy School shirts. Sponsorship is not a moment. It is a childhood.
From the field
Najjemba Betty, UCE 2025
Najjemba Betty holds her letter to the house after the 2025 Uganda Certificate of Education. Geography an A. A first grade. The child a sponsor kept in class is now a candidate who passed.
From the field
Nassolo Latifah writes home
Nassolo Latifah of Stella Maris College, Nsuube, holds her UCE letter dated 15 February 2026. She thanks the house for the fees that carried her through senior four, and she is aiming at A-level.
From the field
Nantongo Shanitah, first grade
Nantongo Shanitah holds her own page: a first grade at UCE, a thank-you to the person who paid, and a promise not to let the house down at A-level. That is what a fee, paid on time, grows into.
From the field
Maria, with her letter in her hands
Nalule Maria of Mercy Schools–Makindye holds her report card and the letter to Ross Hoffman. Eleven years old. Primary Seven. The same girl the films are of — still, so a sponsor can see her face.
From the field
Letters in the courtyard
Cream uniforms, backpacks, pages in their hands. Sponsorship is a child who can walk into the yard on a weekday and hold the term up to the camera.
From the field
The pile in the yard
A knot of children in the compound, every face a grin, a plastic car behind them. This is what the house is for on an ordinary afternoon: children who still get to play.
From the field
A gown at the Mercy Schools door
A Mercy Schools teacher stands in her graduation gown against the office glass — Africa map, blue stars, the house behind her. The children who stay in class grow into the adults who keep the house.
From the field
Gown, porch, the whole school
The same graduate, on the Mercy School porch, buried in children. One Together on the mural. Sandals in a pile. A qualification that still belongs to the courtyard that raised her.
From the field
A bag, a stack of books
Staff put a black backpack and a pile of exercise books into a student’s hands at the Mercy School office. Fees keep a child in class. A bag and a pen keep her there through the term.
From the field
The whole step, new bags
Learners on the Mercy School steps with backpacks, books, and a box of shoes at their feet. This is what a donor’s gift becomes on a Tuesday: a bag a child can walk to class with.
From the field
The boys, with their bags
Staff clap as the boys hold up backpacks and exercise books on the Mercy School porch. The gift is not a speech. It is a bag that will still be on a shoulder in July.
From the field
The whole school, in orange
Mercy School Makindye on a bright morning: orange dresses, visiting friends, the One Together mural, a sign that says education is the greatest treasure. This is the campus the fees pay for — and the reason five acres wait in Mityana.
From the field
Fractions, a visiting hand
A visiting friend writes in an exercise book while two Mercy School girls in orange watch. Naming Fractions is on the wall. Sponsorship here can look like a lesson, not only a transfer.
From the field
Toys against the black gate
Toddlers of the house sit along the gate with a yellow truck and a racing car. Fees and food keep them. Play is how you know a childhood is still being had.
From the field
Mercy Daycare and Kindergarten
The road front of the school: Mercy Daycare & Kindergarten, under the words In God We Trust. Registration is in progress.
From the field
Administration block
Mercy For Life Africa painted beside the office door. This is the house of the organisation, already standing.
From the field
One Together Inc Block
The storeyed house already over the courtyard. This is not the new classroom block.
From the field
The same block, from the yard
Balconies, the stair, and the paved court in front of the classrooms already in use.
From the field
The play yard
A merry-go-round, a spring horse, brick paving. The children already play here.
From the field
Canteen and water
The canteen, the water tank, and the play frame beside the painted walls.
From the field
Year 3
“At school we care one another.” A classroom already in use on the painted compound.
From the field
The courtyard
Brick paving between the classrooms. A child crossing the yard the school already has.
From the field
A temporary room, from the corner
Plywood, timber and iron sheet on the land next door. A block wall beside it. This is shelter for a lesson, not the permanent block.
From the field
Children already inside
The temporary classrooms on the new land. Desks are in. Children are seated. Class did not wait for the permanent block.
From the field
A walk along the temporary rooms
The row of temporary classrooms on the neighbours’ land: plywood walls, iron sheet, red soil, and children at desks.
From the field
A teacher at the board
Science on a green board, in a room of timber and block. The lesson is happening while the permanent block is still a drawing.
From the field
An exercise book open
A Mercy School pupil writing in class. The desk is real. The room around it is temporary.
From the field
Geography of Africa
A map of Africa on the board, under an iron roof. The children are studying in the rooms that hold them until the block stands.
From the field
Marking, then the class waves
Books open, a teacher marking, then the children of the class turn to the camera. Lessons are already underway.
From the field
A peace lesson under iron sheets
Mercy Schools shirts, a packed-earth floor, a peace lesson on the board. This is class in the rooms we have.
