Invisible Children’s Legacy Scholarship Program (LSP) mentors reach out to students in a variety of ways, like monitoring the academic performance of students, helping them improve grades, and giving them the tools to live responsibly.

It’s a big job, being there to help students through the challenges they face academically and socially, so mentors have refresher trainings once every three months so they will be ready to deal with the issues their students are facing.

During the most recent training, the mentors were able to discuss counseling and guidance, psychosocial support and gender-based violence – topics that they need to understand in order to provide their mentees with the best possible support.

Kristie, the psychosocial officer for Invisible Children, explained that though counseling and guidance and psychosocial support might seemingly appear to be the same, they cover different areas of a student’s life. “Counseling and guidance aim at one’s career goals whereas psychosocial support is much broader, it involves one’s physical, spiritual and emotional growth,” she explained.

Mentoring requires being able to engage students and encourage growth in all aspects of life, to do everything possible to equip students to be the future leaders of Uganda. Students are admitted into the LSP program based on aptitude for academics as well as level of vulnerability. Overcoming those vulnerabilities with the help of a mentor places students on the path to success.

Last week, the Legacy Scholarship Program (LSP) held its third inter-regional volleyball tournament under the theme “sport as a tool for mentoring.”

It was a one-of-a-kind tournament that saw students from LSP’s Pader and Gulu program areas converging onto one pitch. The students displayed skill, talent, determination and perseverance as they battled it out to win the trophies.

Gulu Central High School and Sacred Heart School scored the most points, taking the boy’s and girl’s trophies respectively. For the Sacred Heart team, this was a special win: it was their third time winning the tournament, meaning they took the trophy for keeps.

“I started playing volleyball when I was in senior four, it’s then I released I wanted to take it on in the future,” said Geoffrey, an LSP beneficiary who was awarded best player in the boys category. “Volleyball has never interfered with my academics, in fact it helps me be fresh before reading my books.”

Sports may be viewed by some as a waste of time, but is indeed part and parcel of an individual’s growth – physically, mentally or socially. The LSP mentors believe that sports teach discipline and build a strong connection between students as they learn sportsmanship and cheer on their teams.

The LSP is encouraging extra curricular activities like sports to be given time in schools, producing well-rounded and healthy scholars.

-Germina