Kuwait govt to aid 100 varsity students

The government of Kuwait, through the Islamic University in Uganda (IUIU), has pledged 100 scholarships to needy Ugandan students who have failed to continue with their university studies due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

This was revealed after a closed-door meeting between IUIU officials, a delegation from the Kuwait government agency, Direct Aid International (DAI), and the Islamic International Charitable Organisation (IICO).

Speaking to the media after the meeting, DAI country director Abdalla Nouvelhada said the education sector is among the areas which were most affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We know that several students have failed to return to school, not only in universities but also in lower levels because their income status at home was affected by the pandemic and the parents are struggling to cope,” he said.

Mr Nouvelhada added that although they have been supporting students annually with scholarships, this time they are focusing on those who had already joined the institution.

“Through these scholarships students will be travelling abroad and others will study from here, depending on their learning programmes,” he said

IUIU Rector Ismail Gyagenda said the university has been collaborating with the Kuwait based organisation for more than 10 years and this time they wanted to consolidate the relationship with a memorandum of understanding (MoU).

“The MoU includes, scholarships for students, capacity building for our staff, doing charitable community activities which include provision of iftari during Ramadhan and sensitisation of the community about Covid-19 pandemic,” he said

 Mr Gyagenda added that since they are a learning institution, their major product is education, so they are interested in working with the international organisations to uplift the standard of their education and to help the youth to get equip with skills.

“The emphasis is going to be on education training and post graduate, providing scholarships and after the graduation students have to volunteer so that they give back to the community and that spirit will be the multiplier effect of such collaborations,” he said.

He added: “We have been getting these scholarships annually but this time we have focused on poor students but when things get better we shall go back to our usual procedure.”

Scholarship

The emphasis is going to be on education training and post graduate, providing scholarships and after the graduation students have to volunteer so that they give back to the community,”  Ismail Gyagenda, IUIU Rector