Flight Training
Scholarship Program
This flight training scholarship program aims to utilize strategic partnerships with Air Serve and Zozu Project to capitalize on existing programs to train recent High School graduates in aviation.
Air Serve needs pilots, and engineers, they own hangers at a Kampala airport that could house students. The scholarship program would fund candidates from Arua, Uganda to attend flight training that will take them through to the Commercial Pilot Certificate or a Certificate in Engineering. Zozu and Air Serv are registered 501(c)(3) and NGOs in Uganda.
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Arua, Uganda, is a 9-hour bus ride from Kampala, so like most remote areas in Uganda, some supplies are delivered by aircraft, usually Cessna Caravans. Like in the United States, many commercial pilots in Uganda are retiring, and Uganda is facing a pilot shortage. Students at the Solid Rock Primary and Secondary School in Arua see pilots flying Cessna’s and making supply deliveries. Some of the students want to become pilots or engineers to help their community. However, most students live with families in the local community who are subsistence farmers making less than $2 a day. This scholarship program would help bridge the economic gap to allow select students who test high in math and English and are interested in a pilot career or engineering career to afford to go through flight training in Kampala.
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Air Serve International provides humanitarian services through aviation, with its international offices in Kampala, Uganda led by Managing Director Henk Boneschans. Danielle Payant is the Director of Partnerships and Programs here in the US. Through a Conrad Hilton grant, Air Serv has purchased a flight simulator that will allow pilots to build hours at a much-reduced cost. An initial donation to the flight training scholarship fund was made by Ms. Carol Cogley, an active Santa Clarita Christian community member, and a general aviation enthusiast.
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