Queen Jewel Michaels, 15 years old, is the reigning Queen of the Miss Teen Pearl of Africa 2024 and Miss Teen of The Universe Uganda 2024.
Queen Jewel Michaels is an Ugandan child who is 14 years old. Her father is Major General (rtd) Michael Ondoga and her mother is Lucy Atekit Daxbacher Ondoga. Queen Jewel Michaels comes from Pakele Town Council, Adjumani District in West Nile and lives in Kyanja, Kampala as well. She studies at Vine International Christian Academy. At school Queen Jewel Michaels is a worship team leader, a vocalist, a guitarist and plays sports and games that include netball, athletics, table tennis and swimming. At Church Jewel Michaels is a Sunday School teacher to children.
In the beginning of 2024, Queen Jewel Michaels, started paying school fees for two little boys in Kirinya suburb in Kampala because they could not attend school due to household poverty. Today she has a long list of 30 children from Kyanja, Kirinya, Katakwi, Mbarara and Pakele who have not gone to school for reasons of poverty and limited parental capacity. Both boys and girls are out of school.
Queen Jewel Michaels joined the Miss Teen Pearl of Africa 2024 pageant to promote her compassion for under-privileged children. Jewel Michaels is focused on promoting education of those she calls Children in Special Situations (CiSS) for need to protect children and prevent children from negative branding of children. It is in this pageantry journey that Jewel Michaels came to the potential to implement her deep passion for Education for all children of school going age.
Queen Jewel’s decision is that all children should have access and complete Universal Primary Education (UPE) and Universal Secondary Education (USE). Queen Jewel Michaels realizes that UPE and USE that His Excellency President General Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, the President of Uganda launched decades ago is a great opportunity for Uganda’s children to learn, gain a skill and be productive and peaceful citizens. This opportunity is also a great opportunity because there are also technical schools set up under the same initiative by President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni to give teenagers opportunity for skills development to enable teenagers set up businesses to for income and food security.
According to Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB), in the last decade, over 1.2 million children drop out of primary school every year. From observation in living with children in the villages and in the towns of Adjumani, Katakwi and Kampala, children drop out of primary and secondary school because of lack of school fees, poverty, poor nutrition, child labour, early teen marriages, teen pregnancies and lack of sanitary pads for girls. In Adjumani District alone, the school completion rate is only 48% and therefore 52% of the children drop out of school before getting a certificate or a skill.
Worse still, more alarming statistics on school drop-out rate has emerged from Maracha Distsrict in West Nile: In the New Vision of January 2025, the District Education Officer (DEO), Mr. Edward Anduga reported that 93% of the children who enrolled in primary school class one in 2018 dropped out of school before completing the primary school cycle in 2024. He reported that of the 38,000 pupils (both girls and boys) who enrolled in Primary One in 2018, a mere 2,338 pupils completed the primary school cycle and for the Primary leaving Examinations (PLE) seven years later (in 2024).
This poor performance of children staying in school and completing school in West Nile region and in other rural districts in Uganda demands for a comprehensive intervention to ensure that children go to school, stay in school and complete school. Government and development partners such as the Jewel Michaels Foundation for Education can lead in mobilizing the community leaders and parents to be intentional about ensuring that ALL children go to school, stay in school and complete school both at primary and secondary level.
Also, during the pageant competition for Miss Teen Pearl of Africa 2024, Queen Jewel had the opportunity to visit the STARS Ministry in Luzira which is an education facility for children with special needs. She chatted with the children and provided sanitation kits for the facility. These children also fall under the category for CiSS support.
Queen Jewel visited the Uganda Education Wildlife Centre, Entebbe and made a video for the Miss Universe Pageant in India which showcased Uganda’s beauty and tourism industry. In collaboration with the NBS Teens Program, Queen Jewel had her first TV appearance to speak to teens about education and talent development. NBS also invited Queen Jewel to Standard College, and she collaborated with Uganda Printing and Publishing Corporation (UPPC) under the Office of the President and donated books to Standard College in Busega, Kampala.
Most recently in February 2025, Queen Jewel Michaels joined the Kyanja Neighbourhood Watch Community Programme Event to give school packs to children from poor households in Kyanja. From her own pocket money, Queen Jewel Michaels distributed school packs comprising: books, pencils, pens, mathematical sets and some candy. She was given the opportunity to address the children and community of Kyanja on how important education is and the responsibility of good parenting and community vigilance to ensure that children go to school, stay in school and complete school.
