The Meheba Scholarship Fund provides educational scholarships to refugee youth and young adults who live in Meheba and are otherwise unable to afford schooling. Believing strongly in the power of educated individuals to advance their communities, FORGE provides scholarships to promising individuals to attend secondary school. The scholarships cover the cost of tuition, books, pens, uniforms, transportation to and from school, and a small amount of pocket money for miscellaneous expenses. The ultimate result of investing in the education of these promising individuals will not be fully appreciated for years and even decades. By helping communities overcome the achievement gap that so many displaced youth and young adults fall into after fleeing war, FORGE is confident that these scholarships will yield results that will be magnified over time as FORGE scholars put their knowledge and skills to use by helping to advance their home communities.
With the knowledge and skills gained through formal education, every Meheba scholar stands a better chance of gaining employment and advancing themselves, their families and their communities. The value of an education for an individual displaced by war is immeasurable. Beyond providing someone with reading, writing and mathematical skills in communities where illiteracy rates run high, education opens up a world of possibility in an environment severely depleted of hope and healthy aspirations.
Scholarships from the FORGE Education Fund are available to refugees from Angola, Rwanda, Burundi, Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. FORGE sponsors an approximately equal number of boys and girls to complete secondary school, and chooses academically promising students who are also often at an extra disadvantage as orphans. To date, FORGE has procured scholarship funds for 21 secondary students and 12 post-secondary students.
• Providing merit-based scholarship to students who excel in the classroom and whose families cannot afford to send them to school.
• Offering extra tutoring services through community volunteers and academic counseling from full-time FORGE staff.
• Working with school administration to keep track of scholars’ academic progress
• To provide secondary school scholarships to talented refugee youths
• To carry out a process of community-building through ensuring that new scholars are chosen by a community selection committee comprised of refugee leaders and local schoolteachers
• To ensure that scholars are making academic progress and successfully passing all their classes
• To provide additional tutoring services to scholars to supplement their schoolwork
