Our Story

Fredrick Kayiira, the Founder of Initiative for Mtoto wa Shule (IMS), a Right to Education non-profit organization, dropped out of school Six times before eventually graduating in Social Work and Community Development at Kyambogo University. In 2016, Compelled by his own education experience, Fredrick was motivated while at the university to start a community education project that was offering free mentorship and education awareness to out of school and at-risk children in Kamwokya Slums. The COVID 19 lockdown worsened the dropout risk among the marginalized children in rural and urban slum communities of Uganda, after the closure of schools for 2 years. The school dropout crisis widened the urgency for immediate response to accelerate learning during the lockdown and a sustainable solution to mitigate the long-term impact of the lockdown on ability at-risk children to excel in their education and complete school. This prompted Fredrick to mobilize his friends and start IMS during the peak of COVID lockdown on schools in April 2021. During its first six months of operation, IMS provided rapid community-based education response to over 350 children affected by the lockdown in Kamwokya slums.

Since then, IMS continue to develop and implement innovative solutions to the school dropout crisis with a vison of becoming a dropout prevention centre that work to see no child dropout of school in Uganda.