A year ago, 13-year-old Salem was picking plastic bottles out of rubbish pits, selling them for whatever coins he could get. His mum was frying pancakes, cassava chips, and bolingo — a fried rice and cassava flour snack — to sell by the roadside, and Salem, the eldest of five, was going door to door helping her sell them. School fees had become impossible, so school had simply stopped.
What Salem wanted more than anything was to go back.
When our welfare team heard about his situation, they stepped in, and Salem started at Child of Hope Junior School. Since then, he's become one of those pupils teachers can't stop talking about — hardworking, switched-on, and always first to put his hand up. Earlier this year, he even qualified through a spelling bee to represent Mbale City at the National Spelling Bee Competition in Kampala. Not bad for a boy who spent a year entirely out of the classroom!
We asked Salem what Child of Hope has meant to him, and you can hear it in his own words in the video:
"Child of Hope gave me another chance to go back to school and believe in my future."
Salem doesn't have a sponsor yet — and that's where you come in. For £15 a month, you can be the person who makes sure his education never gets interrupted again. You'll get updates and photos of Salem throughout the year, and you might just spot him in one of our videos too.
The link to full details of our sponsorship programme is below — just pop "Salem" on the sponsor form. Thank you!