Rationale seeks to improve access to education for vulnerable youth by building community-driven scholarship programs.
Rationale partners with communities in northern Uganda to develop scholarship programs for vulnerable youth. Our current partnership is with St. Jude Children's Home in Gulu, an orphanage and primary school that serves 137 children full time and cares for countless more. Northern Uganda has been marked by civil conflict for more than two decades, leaving only intermittent educational opportunities for two generations of youth. We are unequivocal in our belief that successful programs must originate from within the community being impacted. We see Rationale as a partnership between transnational communities uniting to provide an invaluable public good: education.
Our scholarship programs are built by providing direct scholarships for secondary and university students while simultaneously investing in community-run projects. These projects provide training and experiential learning for students while also generating income to provide additional scholarships. At St. Jude, we currently dedicate 80% of project funds to direct scholarships and invest the remaining 20% in a food security farm. Agriculture has been the cornerstone of economy in northern Uganda for generations, but many youth are growing up without agricultural skills as a result of massive displacement and protracted conflict. Rationale takes a holistic approach to education by directly supporting students in the classroom while also establishing a foundation from which the community's future leaders can gain valuable skills.
