Our last year has been full of joys and frustrations. The pace of life is slower in Uganda and so things move more slowly than we are used to. However we have been able to do some good things with your support. We have:
• written a 2 day training workshop for heads and teachers on ‘ the health promoting school’, which has been delivered to staff from all 61 schools we worked with;
• written a maths training workshop for infant teachers and trained our colleagues how to deliver it;
• expanded our ‘health promoting school’ training to a 3 day ‘child-friendly school’ training with the addition of sessions on gender and peace. We took it to the district of Katakwi, an area which is still suffering from the effects of recent civil wars, to deliver it.
• visited all our schools in Kamwenge to give follow-up and support on previous workshops on HIV/AIDS awareness training;
• mentored headteachers on how to improve their schools
• trained staff on alternatives to corporal punishment, something which is still happening in schools despite a government ban
• showed teachers how to use child-friendly methods of teaching when faced with large classes – they average 55 in number and can be over 100 in the lower ages.
Most of these activities have been subsidised by the monies that you very kindly donated, either through our Just-giving site or directly. Thank you again. A particular enthusiasm of ours has been hand-washing – dirty hands are the most common cause of illness and death in children and a simple thing like washing hands after every visit to the toilet can make a dramatic difference to children’s health and so to their learning.
During our visits we have been shocked by the number of orphans and vulnerable children in schools. Sometimes up to a quarter of the pupils are orphans, mostly due to the devastating impact of HIV/AIDS. We have therefore been working with a very switched-on Ugandan called Guildo, who has set up a counselling group for such children in our schools using trained volunteers. He struggles with finance to allow him to visit the rural schools, support the volunteers and pay for a drop-in centre in Kamwenge. We were able to provide some finance and means of transport whilst there, but would like to support him financially now. If you would feel able to help us with this group we would be pleased to talk to you in more detail about the work it does.
A group of orphans and vulnerable children in a group discussion
Precious, one of the volunteers, counselling a pupil at a school
Precious seeing a child in the drop-in centre
With best wishes to you all for 2011.
Sabrina and Geoff Slide
