Slovenská katolícka charita (SKCH) through the project Adopcia na diaľku® and thanks to adoptive parents—Slovak donors and benefactors—currently supports hundreds of children in four countries: India, Albania, Vietnam and Haiti. The nearest country where the charity will be removing illiteracy and supporting education (not only of HIV-positive) orphans will be Uganda. Last weekend, the whole world observed International Literacy Day. SKCH actively works to eliminate illiteracy and support education through the project Adopcia na diaľku®. SKCH general secretary Radovan Gumulák explains this decision: “Almost half of the conflict-affected countries are the homelands of children who do not go to school. In sub-Saharan Africa, about 10 million children leave primary school every year. And those who do attend it usually have problems with counting, reading, and writing.”

Recently, with the results of its survey, the African group Uwezo drew attention to the fact that although the amount of education provided and the number of schools in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda are increasing, quality is stagnating. “Sometimes it is not necessary to spend more resources on the logistics of education—such as counting newly built schools or bought desks—but to consider whether there are qualified teachers in a given region and, ultimately, whether the children are able to read and write. Their ability to focus on studies, however, depends directly on whether they are healthy and well fed. If they suffer from AIDS, they lack a sufficiently varied diet and have to walk several kilometres on foot to school—it is very likely they will not manage the curriculum and will remain illiterate. The charity is trying to address this situation in northern Uganda through a development project funded by the proceeds of the Lenten coin-box campaign,” added Gumulák.

Slovak donors and benefactors regularly learn from the website www.charita.sk how funds from the Lenten coin-box campaign, which took place in Slovakia for the first time this spring, are used. Until the end of June, monitoring and the selection of dozens of children who should enter the center were carried out in the northern Ugandan city of Adjumani. The situation in this area is not simple (in the past this area was afflicted by a prolonged civil war; today almost every family has been affected by the HIV virus and AIDS). Lay missionary and SKCH collaborator Margita Kačányiová says: “The house for dozens of Ugandan orphans has been completed; work is currently under way on the completion of a house for international volunteers and charity collaborators. The center in Adjumani will consist of an orphanage, school, clinic, kitchen, and there will also be a place for prayer and spiritual renewal.” The charity plans, after completing the center for HIV-positive orphans, to expand its longstanding project specifically to the Adjumani area—the Adopcia na diaľku® project—so that these orphaned boys and girls have education ensured