Hello! I’m Emily Cheer and I’m the founder of Joy of Learning. I first fell in love with Uganda in 2015 when I spent three months volunteering at Sanyu Babies’ Home in my gap year. I went on to study Psychology at Aberystwyth University, but in the summer holidays I returned twice to Uganda, and began to think about making a longer trip at some time in the future – as when the time came to fly home, I never wanted to leave Uganda! After graduating I spent a year working as a teaching assistant in a special school. This gave me loads of valuable experience and also enough money in the bank to buy a one-way ticket to Uganda! I left the UK in August 2019, telling everyone I would be away for somewhere between 6 months and two years.

I have always had an interest in working with children. I’ve volunteered in many different settings – Brownies, Sunday school at Church, in special schools, at a day nursery and at a respite service for children with profound special needs. I have also done lots of babysitting and worked as a part time nanny. All these have been great experiences, but nothing has had quite as much impact as volunteering at Sanyu.

Sanyu Babies’ Home is a magical place. The children arrive in such awful circumstances and conditions, but the overwhelming feeling at the home is joy. It is a family, for however long or short a time each child needs it. I love to be surrounded by the organised chaos of Sanyu, watching children grow up from tiny newborn babies to big strong toddlers and seeing them go home to their forever families either through reuniting with existing family members or adoption.  I love to see them all grow up with their own distinct personalities and develop their own ways of saying ‘Mama Emily’.

During this longer stay in Uganda I started thinking about our reunited children. I often ask about them as I love to hear how they are doing back home with their families. The story is often the same: the children are loved so much and are happy and settled with the family but are not attending school due to expensive school fees and requirements. This is how the idea of Joy of Learning has been born.