Slogan
‘Building Dreams’

Mission
To bring smiles to children of the world through the development of their schools.

Who we are
Rainbow is a small charity based in Karatsu, Japan that raises money and awareness for children in developing nations. Rainbow works closely with its sister charity Aiding Conservation through Education (A.C.E.) in developing schools in Uganda.

What do we do?
Through our sister charity A.C.E. we:

1. Build classrooms of government schools in Kisoro, Uganda.

2. Provide a source of water for school children so that they can clean themselves, wash their hands, and are able to drink at school. This means children are hygienic and this prevents sanitation related diseases.

3. Provide schools with teaching material like books, pencils, and notebooks so that children can learn. Supply sports equipment so that children can play the sports they love.

4. Furnish classrooms with desks and chairs so that children don’t have to sit on the floor.

5. Offer the opportunity to sponsor children in Uganda so that they have a chance to go to secondary school.

Why do we do this?

The majority of the rural population of Uganda live in poverty, according to the UN Development Programme Uganda comes 154th out of 177 countries in the Human Development index. The literacy rate is only 66.8% for over 15 year olds, and the average life expectancy is 49.7 years (2005). However, of those who live in poverty ($1 a day) then the literacy rate drops to 33.2% for adults over 15 years old (Human Poverty Index 2004). The area where we work, Kisoro, in south-western Uganda is an area where people are living in severe poverty, living a hand to mouth existence.

Our work is to provide people who are in poor rural areas with a quality education so that they have the opportunity to climb out of their poverty trap by receiving an education.

A simplified way to look at this is:

Education = Job = Better Life  End of poverty

No education = No job/poorly paid job = Probable life of poverty

Schools in Uganda
Many schools in Uganda are under-funded, under staffed and the structures are of poor quality. This means that many classes have over 150 pupils due to a lack of classrooms and teachers. In a situation like that, children do not receive the education that they deserve.

The work of Rainbow and A.C.E. is to address this by:

• Building classrooms so that the numbers in each class drop to teachable levels.

• Providing the water tanks, so that children can have access to water in school.

• Providing desks and materials so that children can learn.

How do we do this?
Our success is based upon our relationship with the local schools, and the local community.

We work with them to identify their needs for their school; from there we raise the funds for that need to be addressed. This could be in the form a classroom, a number of new desks, or a new latrine.

We employ local builders thus providing jobs to the local community. They feel great pride in developing their own community, and thus encourage others to do so as well.

Where we are involved
Rainbow’s work is in Kisoro a nine hour journey south-west of the capital of Uganda, Kampala. Kisoro District borders Rwanda to the south and the Democratic Republic of Congo to the west, and is a trading post with these two countries. Mountains stand over 3400 metres high and hills dot the landscape, to the north is the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest where half of the 700 mountain gorillas left in the wild live. To the east are the hills of Kabale, and the Bakiga People.

Most of the people in Kisoro are farmers, and cultivate potatoes and beans. In fact, many children that Rainbow helps survive on just beans and potatoes as their staple diet.