On a tiled porch in Makindye the gift is still in its packing: black backpacks, stacks of exercise books, satchels, a carton of school shoes turned on its side. Then the children pick them up.
Girls in uniform hold the new black pairs at chest height, a toddler sitting in front of the row. Boys take bags and books while staff clap. A student at the office door is given a backpack and a pile of counter-books as if the term had a shape you could carry.
Fees keep a child in class. A bag, a pen, and a pair of shoes keep her there through the mud of the walk. This is what a donor’s gift becomes on a Tuesday — not a speech, a shoulder strap.
The same mercy sometimes leaves the school gate as a household kit: yellow jerrycans, a blue bucket with a name written on it, bedding rolled for the walk home. Water, a bed, a bag. The child and the house she returns to are both the work.
From the field
The photographs and films of this story.
Education
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.
Education
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.
Shoes, clothing & hygiene
Bags, books, a box of shoes
The porch before the handing-over: backpacks, exercise books, satchels, a carton of black school shoes. Dignity is packed, then given a name.
Shoes, clothing & hygiene
Black shoes, a whole class
Girls in uniform hold up new black school shoes on the Mercy School tiles. A child who walks to class barefoot is not lazy. She is waiting for a pair. This is that morning.
Education
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.
Sanitation & water
Jerrycans, a bucket named Maria
Three children stand with yellow jerrycans, a blue bucket labelled Maria, rolled bedding and a backpack. Clean water and a bed are the same mercy when a household is starting over.