Mercy For Life-Africa
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Pupils of Mercy School Makindye gather in the courtyard holding letters
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Mercy School — Makindye now, Mityana next

Education support

Mercy School in Makindye keeps orphans and children from the ghettos in class. Next: a bigger school on five acres in Zigoti Town Council, Mityana.

Education is the first mercy we learned to give because it was the first mercy we received. Director Nalubega Fausta was kept in school by a parish priest after her father died. Mercy For Life Africa now runs Mercy School in Makindye — classrooms, a courtyard, a choir — and pays fees so children stay at a desk. We walk teenage mothers back into class after delivery. The next chapter is a bigger Mercy School on five acres of land in Zigoti Town Council, Mityana. We do not run a distant scholarship bureau. We know the children. We visit the classrooms. We stay until the term is finished.

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From the field

This is education as it looks this week.

Every photograph and film here can be recaptioned, re-ordered, or moved to another ministry from the staff desk.

Education

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.

Video · Education

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.

Education

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.

Education

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.

Video · Education

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.

Education

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.

Education

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.

Education

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.

Education

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.

Education

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.

Education

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.

Education

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.

Education

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.

Education

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.

Education

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.

Education

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.

Education

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.

Education

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.

Video · Education

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.

Education

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.

Education

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.

Video · Education

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.

Video · Education

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.

Video · Education

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.

Video · Education

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.

Education

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.

Education

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.

Education

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.

Education

The same table, another day

Plates of posho and stew, bottles of soda, grins. School feeding is not a campaign. It is Tuesday.

Education

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.

Education

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.

Education

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.

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.

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.

Education

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.

Education

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.

Education

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.