Quite often when we speak about gender, every one knows we are talking about women issues. Gender is a socially determined cultural perception of masculinity and femininity traits, habits, etc. It is the socio cultural, political and economic ascription of femininity and masculinity. It is a learnt behavior. It is learnt in the process of socialization or early orientation. It is a social anthropological concept as compared to sex, which is natural and unchangeable.
Gender can and should be changed by proper socialization and re-education of society. An important determinant of inequality in access to and control over societal resources and benefits is gender. Therefore, redressing gender inequalities should be an integral part of development policy, strategy and implementation
“We can do a lot more to involve women in business, they’re the closest in providing a solution concerning education, health, nutrition, and household development.”
International Policies on Gender
History testifies that it took a long time, tact, social support and political will to recognize women’s inequalities at policy level. The major policies that come up at international level on gender issues are:
- Convention on the consent to marriage, minimum age of marriage and registration of marriage
- Convention against discrimination in education
- Convention on equal remuneration for men and women works for equal value
- Convention on maternity protection
- International convention on economic, social and cultural rights
- Women’s voting right
- Declaration of the child right (Girls and boys)
- Convention on political rights of women
- Convention on the Elimination of all form of Discrimination against Women / CEDAW/ and others” (CRDA, 2007).
National policies on Gender
Ugandan women have suffered long years of inequality and discrimination in the context of cultural, socio-economic, and political relations as compared to men. Women and young girls were socialized to be submissive, to be passive, and to be seen as unequal in relation to boys and men. Part of the problem is women’s own self-perception and their own self-image, which is internalized through years of socialization and upbringing.
- During the periods prior to 1986 in Uganda, women’s organized activities were run mainly by very few non-governmental bodies. These Associations were, however, limited in scope, and only existed in the cities. They had little or no impact on government policies, laws, regulations or development programs.
- Promoting the interests of women was not so high on their agenda nor was it designed to influence government policies or help women benefit from development programs. As a result there was little improvement in the lives of Ugandan women, whether in the social, economic or political sphere, especially of those who lived in the rural areas.
- During the civil war of 1980’s Ugandan women made a unique contribution, both as fighters and as civilian supporters, to challenging and ousting the brutal and incompetent regime of the past leaders. Their participation in these events has helped to create the impetus for giving special attention to women.
- Soon after the downfall of the Obote regime, the democratic process in the country begun to grow when all people were given equal encouragement and opportunity to exercise their human and democratic rights. With this realization the government of Uganda has given priority to the speeding up of equality between men and women”.
Taking into account the historical legacy of inequality and discrimination suffered by Ugandan women, the Ugandan Constitution of 1995 recognized and guaranteed gender equality in social, political and economic terms. In order to ensure gender equality and equity, the constitution also recognized international conventions and considerable policies and legal procedures specific to gender equality have also been passed.
Some of the major points in the constitution with regard to women’s rights are:
- Equal rights with men in employment
- Equal rights to acquire and manage property
- Equal rights to participate in political decisions
- Equal rights in education
- Recognition of maternity related issue and the right to plan their family
- Protection from harmful traditional practices
- The right to affirmative actions to rectify and eliminate discrimination
- The right to full consultation in the formulation of national development policies affecting the interests of women
- The nullification of all cultures, customary practices and decisions which contradict with the provision on women equality
Statement of the problem
In Kamwenge District there is only one girlsSecondary school and the literacy level is very low for women which resulted from lack of non-formal education facilities.
Kamwenge women are actively involved in all aspects of their society’s life and are both producers and procreators. However the varied and important roles they play have not always been recognized. In most rural areas, women do not have equal opportunities, and they have lagged behind men in all fields of self-advancement. According to the information from the District Community Development office, women involvement in economic activities is insignificant mainly because of cultural constraints, high illiteracy rate, and lack of access to land and resources.
- Elder mothers had been victims of backward culture and legal rules. The male dominated system had marginalized the role of women on management and administration of matrimonial properties not only through culture and attitude but also by articulate provision of low. Moreover the statements to the effect that “the husband is the head of the family”.
As a result of such conditions elder women in Kamwenge are suffering by:
- Not having access to land (where land is a form of property which is most valued and basics for social status, for most of economics like Uganda.
- Are kept idle by depending their livelihood on support from their children, to survive and are living hand to mouth. And those with no supporting children are forced to shift to relatives.
- Most of them are abandoned and are suffering from poverty.
As Uganda household census of 2000 has informed, out of the total women population of Kamwenge, elder mothers consists of 12% and the number of destitute elder mothers is increasing from time to time mainly because of losing their children by HIV/AIDS.
In most of Ugandan rural areas, married women are economically dependent on their husbands besides, almost all of the household work and child caring activities are taken as the wives responsibilities.
In Kamwenge societies, it is culturally accepted that, the wives are under the rule and administration of their husbands and income generating activities are taken as men’s responsibilities. Even if women are equally capable of doing the outside work and the income generating activities, they are not given this opportunity. Even in some cases married woman do not have the right to limit the number of their children and to use family planning.
Out of the total number of women in Kamwenge about 93% are responsible for the house hold work including child caring and are wait the hands of their husbands for survival.
Since married women are economically dependent on their husbands, they kept on living by depending on their husbands even they are dishonored by him, in fear of losing the economical support from their husbands. As a result most married women accepted beating from their husbands and other violence.
Currently, there are credit facilities in most rural areas, but most women are not aware of what to do with the credits and are negligent of saving and credit facilities.
Adolescent girls face greater problems than even women in situations of violence because they have less access to low enforcement authorities to make a formal complaint; with more young women going out to work away from homes in the rural areas, and in the capital city, young girls face high risk of sexual abuse. Besides it is these adolescent girls who are in high risk of HIV infection, early marriage, unwanted pregnancy, rape and prostitution.
According to the information from Kamwenge District Education office, out of the total high school enrollment, girls’ enrollment is only 32%. Generally most of the rural girls in the district have the following limitations;
- Do not have equal access to education as their brothers, even if they join school, they do not have enough time to study, which influence them to have lower school scores than boys.
- They are responsible to assist their mothers in child caring and household work and knowing the household work perfectly is taken as a good requirement to be chosen as a good wife.
- They are looked at as a source of income by very poor parents and therefore forced to marry at an early age.
Women Skills Development project
Economic development is unthinkable without the participation of women, with this concern; V35RC has made Women empowerment and women Support program as an integral part of its strategic objectives. The community development project seeks to mobilize the community to address their own problem and enhance self-reliance with nominal external support.
Each development group will be assisted to discuss and determine how the interests of women are best safe-guarded. It is important those women’s concerns will be specifically addressed based on the outcomes of such discussions at various levels. As a response to the increasing burdens of women, V35RC has prepared this particular comprehensive project to be implemented in Kamwenge District.
Objectives of the women skills development project
The overall objective of the project is to enable women to share power, resources and status by increasing their economic involvement, awareness of their rights and access to resources.
- Increase women’s economic involvement by giving credit facilities for disadvantaged women with no regular income in the project sites.
- Improve the quality of life of destitute elder mothers through involving them in livestock rearing in the project sites.
- Expand programs of sexual education and family planning concepts for adolescent girls and for married women and mothers in the project sites during the project period.
Anticipated outcomes of the project
The expected outcomes of the project are the following:
- Destitute elder mothers will be self-supported.
- Disadvantaged women will be able to allocate their time on income generating activities and will be able to return their credit within 3 years and will be able to continue the income generating activity by their own.
- Increased women’s power by being economically independent.
- Increased women’s thinking and have idea of entrepreneurship and saving.
- The credited money will be revolved.
- Increased women’s awareness to their rights.
- Increased women’s awareness of family planning.
- Enhanced awareness of local community about gender issues.
- Significant reduction of women discrimination.
Sustainability of the project
As it is noted earlier, V35RC is going to be partner with local communities and stakeholders to implement the projects. Since the smooth phase out of the project is going to depend on the capacity building of local civil society organizations, they would be considered main partners throughout the implementation period. The project officers will work strongly with community representatives and credit associations to increase their capacity in community mobilization and resource mobilization. This would be done through various training and supports provided during the project implementation periods.
Microcredit investment 2040
How best can we help the poor rural women in Kamwenge? Simply answered, micro-credit is the most effective, flexible, and sustainable way to help lift rural women from the morass of poverty and disease.
More than anything, rural women need opportunity rather than charity. Throughout the history of man, no country, no region, no continent has ever developed without commerce and industry. These twin towers of progress, prosperity, and development are seriously lacking in Kamwenge area.
There is power of credit; the sway that credit has over progress and prosperity. You have it, you have everything; you don’t have it, you have nothing but poverty and misery. Kamwenge is in the throes of chaos today because Kamwenge people have no access to credit, and for that reason commerce and industry can not be engendered or fostered.
Kamwenge district can only develop through commerce and industry fuelled by investments in sustainable projects and enterprises. I have traveled the length and breadth of Kamwenge. And everywhere I go, I am confronted by many people, mostly women. They are not asking for a handout: a dollar to buy food for the day. I am rather presented with viable income generating plans in either agriculture or small scale business. I can attest to the fire in their eyes: the drive to succeed, the eagerness, the ambition. But alas, what is lacking is the start up capital.
In all cases, the amount of capital required to kick-start a viable business activity and enterprise ranged from $50 to $1200. And these are repayable loans. All they need is the empowerment opportunity conferred by these “micro” loans to take off to gainful productive economic activity that enables them to regain their basic human dignity, restore their self esteem; make it possible for them to take charge of their lives, and take care of their families.
Microcredit investment is all about how Your Money Works to End Poverty. You have the satisfaction of knowing that and live a much better life!
V40RC shall be supporting families every year to pull out of poverty! Microfinance has proved its value as a weapon against poverty and hunger. It really can change peoples’ lives for the better—especially the lives of those who need it most. With access to microfinance, the poor can move beyond day-to-day survival towards planning for the future. They can break the vicious circle of poverty. Microfinance is not charity. It is a way to extend the same rights and services to low-income households that are available to everyone else. It grows productive enterprises and allows communities to prosper.”
Even if you don’t have much money, consider investing just a little as a way of knowing you are helping other families to pull out of debt. If you have an investment portfolio, consider putting 10% or more into microcredit as a way of playing your part in creating a fairer and just world for all. By investing whatever amount feels right to each of us, we can and will build a brighter future for ourselves and all who share our world.
Micro-credit: What it is
Simply put, it is a system where by small amounts of money are loaned out to individual entrepreneurs, mostly women to either start up a business or expand an existing one. The amount of the loan varies from $50 to about $1500. For example, a woman may need to borrow $100 to be able to travel to the near by big city so that she can buy more provisions to stock up her store in the village. Because of her enhanced financial capacity, she is not only able to buy more products in quantity, but as well more in variety, and cheaper in price. The enhanced capacity leads to increased traffic to her store, more profit. As her business expands she pulls herself out of poverty. She is now able to feed her family well and send her children to school.
Micro-credit: The support
Apart from providing the endowment of funds to start up the loan system, V40RC will help clients horn out their business plans; provide business advice and counseling, encourage and promote peer support and solidarity among clients so that they all look out for one another. In this way the drive for each and every one to succeed is fostered.
One of the most important aspects of the Micro-credit project is the recycling of funds. The recipients of the funds are clients; the funds advanced are loan rather than donations. The loans shall be re-payable, in six months to a year. As the loans are repaid, they are re-loaned to new clients. This process of continuous re-investment produces a multiplier effect on each dollar loaned.
Micro-credit: Ripple effect
Another important aspect of the Micro-credit project is not only the positive impact that it makes in the individual client and her family, but also the ripple effect it creates in the community as a whole. The lion share of the loans will be made to women for various reasons. In Kamwenge like everywhere in the country, the women are the hub of economic activities: they are the bread winners; the market traders; the farmers; the heart and soul of the family and community. Women are more likely to re-invest their earnings in their businesses and their families. As the micro-businesses progress and prosper, families are lifted up from poverty; the communities benefit. Jobs are created; knowledge is shared; civic participation increases; women become recognized as valuable members of society.
Business creation provides that opportunity for people to have gainful employment, and people can therefore support themselves by providing shelter and food and health for their families. We begin to say no to poverty and begin to redeem the dignity of the citizens by virtue of creating business opportunity.
Sexual and Reproductive Health 2040
It’s not great being a girl
- During the year 2011 the number of candidates who didn’t turn up for the UCE exams in Uganda had increased from 4,848 to 6,339. Officials put absenteeism down to ‘early marriages and illiterate parents who do not value education.’
- Girls did worse than boys at science and Moths, and social subjects, and everything else except English).
- 10.2% of boys gained Division 1 compared to 6.6% of girls.
- 47.4% of girls gained Division 4 compared with 39.9% of boys.
One of the worst announcements of 2012 was the publication of a study by Makerere University School of Public Health, funded by the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). The study found that in Kampala 21% of female secondary school students between the ages of 14 and 17 have engaged in ‘transactional sex’ – providing sex in exchange for something, usually money. One in twenty has had sex with a relative for this purpose.
First-time sex for most happened when they were between 10 and 14, with 15% doing it for money and 12.3% being raped. One in five had conceived, with 21% of these having aborted and 16% miscarried.
Of the 54 schools sampled, 40 (74%) were private non-denominational, seven were government-owned, six were Christian-based and one was a Muslim school. All were mixed schools, while 61% of them operated both boarding and day sections.
‘Some children are raped from [in] their homes and intimidated into silence for fear of the parent’s refusal to pay school fees,’ said the deputy head of Kitabi Secondary School.
Last year a report called Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in Uganda showed that more than 500 children below the age of 18 had engaged in commercial sex both in and out of school in Kawempe Division of Kampala alone. It pointed out that entry into the sex trade is getting earlier. The trade includes children of eight to 13 whom middle-aged men find particularly attractive as they charge lower prices and are assumed to be free of HIV/Aids.
However, it’s also their older sisters we are concerned about. The stresses of secondary school life are bad enough without the need to go into prostitution to pay your school fees.
Overview of Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health
As the information from population reference bureau (PRB), more than a quarter of the world’s population is between the ages of 10 to 24, of these adolescents, the vast majority 86% live in developing countries. Besides this fact, adolescent worldwide lack basic information about their bodies and the power and means to protect themselves and make informed decisions about their lives. They become victims of early arranged marriages; early and unwanted pregnancies and births, sexually transmitted diseases including STDs/AIDS; illegally induced, unsafe abortions; female genital mutilation; sexual violence and exploitation; pregnancy associated morbidity and mortality; school dropout and overall curtailed life options due to early child bearing (Pathfinder international, 2001).
One of the most sensitive issues associated with adolescence is sexuality. They receive inadequate and untimely educational guidance and services that help them make the transition to adulthood. Often they are denied complete access to reproductive health information and services. With their limited knowledge about their bodies and their sexuality, they are vulnerable to sexually transmitted diseases and infections including HIV/AIDS, substance abuse, sexual exploitation and violence. Girls are further vulnerable and face higher risks due to their lower educational status and inability to negotiate on issues related to reproductive and sexual health.
Thus, it is not surprising when one encounters these facts:
- One in every ten births world-wide is to teenage mothers
- One in every six births is to young women aged 15 to 19 in least developing countries.
- Pregnancy before age 18 has many health risks and girls below age 15 are five times more likely to die in pregnancy or childbirth than women aged 20 to 24.
- At least one in ten abortions world-wide occurs to women aged 15-19 years and more than 4.4 million young women in these age group have an abortion every year, 40 per cent of whom are performed under unsafe conditions.
- Every day, 500,000 young people are infected with an STD most in the 20 to 24 years group, followed by those in 15 to 19 age group (UN Special Session on Children, May 2002).”
Synopsis of Adolescent Reproductive Health in Kamwenge
The lives of many Kamwenge adolescents are at risk because they don’t have the information, skills, health services and support they need to go through sexual development during adolescence and postpone sex until they are physically and socially mature, and able to make well-informed and responsible decisions.
The main issues in adolescence sexual and reproductive health include sexual development and sexuality including puberty, sexually transmitted diseases/HIV/AIDS and unwanted and unsafe pregnancies. The reasons that Kamwenge adolescents are at risk include:
Social and economic environment – For many of adolescents, sex is linked with coercion, violence and abuse-some times even by family members or adults with privileged relations. In many societies women are conditioned to be submissive to men, and they find it difficult or impossible to refuse early marriage, to space births, or to refuse to have unprotected sex with an unfaithful spouse or partner. Additionally, the social environment is critical to healthy adolescent development. There are key aspects of this environment which can prevent adolescents from engaging in unsafe / unwanted sexual behavior like strong relationship with parents, a connection to school and open communication with sexual partners.
Life and livelihood – In most communities of Kamwenge, the great majority of adolescents are poorly informed about sexuality and reproduction. Many believe that withholding information about sexuality and reproduction from young people will dissuade them from becoming sexually active. In fact, good quality sex education does not lead to earlier or increased sexual activity among adolescents. Adolescents need life skills in order to face the challenges of adulthood. Many adolescents are victims of exploitative sex because of lack of livelihood skills and opportunities.
Access to health services – Most Kamwenge adolescents become sexually active before the age of 20, but generally lack access to family planning services including appropriate contraceptives, prevention and care of sexually transmitted diseases, or pregnancy care. For many young people the opening times or locations of services make them inaccessible, or the care is beyond their financial capacities. In addition the judgmental attitudes of many health care professionals often discourage adolescents from seeking advice and treatment related to sexual and reproductive health.
The combination of rapid population growth and low per capita income typify the area’s extreme level of poverty. More than thirty percent of the population lives in poverty with majority falling below the poverty line. The area is characterized by an expanding youth population. It is estimated that young people age 10-24 constitute more than a third of the population. The economic and social situation in the area has seriously affected this group. Access to education and health services remains limited, particularly for young rural women, and unemployment is a problem, particularly among young people living in rural areas.
Kamwenge youth face a multitude of problems caused by poverty, traditional beliefs and misconceptions. As an age group, their material, social, health and reproductive needs have not been given the required attention.
Government policies and programs tried to address the needs of youth along with those of the general population though youth have special needs that require different policies and program efforts.
The reproductive health problems of young people in Kamwenge are multifaceted and interrelated. Childbearing begins at early age: More than 25 percent of the total births in the district occur among adolescent girls and young women.
Sexual violence and commercial sex work have become common phenomena among young girls. As a result, they have become primary victims of the HIV/AIDS crisis that has spread through out the district. In general, young people are at high risk of reproductive health problems aggravated by the overall poor socio economic environment and harmful traditional practices and which needs a timely and all sided interventions.
The project mainly will target on adolescents between the age 10-24 and the direct beneficiaries in the target group include:
- Adolescent females who are not yet sexually active (10 to 14 years)
- School and out of school adolescents and youths living in the project area.
- Those who are married and sexually active.
- Unmarried sexually active adolescents.
- Sexually active single mothers.
- Commercial sex workers.
- Sexually active inhabitants of the project area.
Kamwenge district is one of the highest-ranking districts in Uganda in reproductive health risks with a maternal mortality rate of 18 per 100 deliveries; trained personnel attend only 6 percent of birth and 42 percent of pregnant Kamwenge women have anemia. (Country Profile HIV/AIDS-Uganda, Dec.2003).
Besides, almost in all of the District areas, no clinical services tailored for young adults in the public sector though young adulthood is a newly acknowledged life phase in the country.
The prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Kamwenge District, among the age groups of 15-49 yrs is ranging between 8-8.4%. A total of 3400 persons are living with HIV/AIDS in the district of which 18 percent are children below the age of 14 yrs. (District Forum of PHAs report 2010)
According to the information from the District Health office, 83% of the people know about HIV/AIDS but awareness on the protection method is found rather low among the young people. Awareness on RH and HIV/AIDS among the youth is not satisfactory.
Generally, the Kamwenge Reproductive health issue is characterized by:-
- There is great difficulty for unmarried adolescents in accessing to reproductive health services.
- Most of the adolescents are too embarrassed to attend an open family planning or reproductive health clinic and they anticipate the negative attitudes they will experience from clinic staffers.
- Teenage pregnancies and adolescent ignorance of their sexuality and their reproductive right.
- Young women who become pregnant will be shunned by their parents and forced to leave home.
- Schoolgirls who become pregnant rarely return to school whether they are married or not.
- After pregnancy women’s decisions is mostly influenced by male partners.
Negative cultural practices coupled with poverty have a devastating effect on ASRH of young women of Kamwenge and sexually Transmitted infections (STI) are another challenge for young people in the area. And the problems will become aggravated if further actions are not taken.
As a response to the above-mentioned problems, V40RC seeks for potential solutions as to how the problems can be minimized (if not alleviated) through creating public awareness on Gender integrated ASRH and HIV/AIDS project. Therefore, V40RC will prepare Community Based Reproductive Health Facility Project to be implemented in Kamwenge district in partnership with the communities in the area, Kamwenge District Local Government and donor organizations.
V40RC will underline the importance of fighting harmful traditional practices and ASRH and HIV/AIDS awareness to achieve gender equity and improve health status of the communities.
General Objective: The general objective of the project is to reduce adolescent sexual and reproductive health problems and youth vulnerability to HIV/AIDS pandemic in the project area.
- Improve the reproductive health knowledge, attitudes and skills of adolescents in the project area.
- To bring behavioral change on 80% of adolescents in the district on sexual and reproductive health and other health related issues in the project area.
- Decrease youth vulnerability to HIV/AIDS by 90% in the project area
- Create a supportive environment for the adolescents on their right on safe sexual practice.
- Increase adolescents’ reproductive health services and programs by 75%.
- Increase communities awareness on adolescents sexual and reproductive health rights by 70%
Girls Education 2040
UVRC’s overall education goal is to strengthen capability of its education institutions and partner institutions in Kamwenge district to be able to provide best quality education that will produce quality learning achievements at all levels of education movement.
This is based on the premise that over the past years there has been evidence of educational reforms in Uganda. The reforms which have been formalized through legislation, have targeted primary education issues of quality, relevance, compulsory education and learning outcomes. These reforms have presented numerous challenges to the schools, parents and the founders of the schools like the church and to the government.
There have been unprecedented increases in enrollment of children in primary schools in Kamwenge and Uganda, over the last few years. But questions continue to be asked if these children are actually achieving the required learning and reaching desired levels of learning. Whether the schools are presenting a good environment for quality learning. And whether the stakeholders such as parents, founding bodies, local governments and partners are doing enough to reach the desired levels of education in their areas of influence.
What we believe in/motivation toward our education development
As Christians, we believe that God designed man as spiritual as well as physical beings, and our aim is to minister to the needs of the whole person. God made us in His image so He could shower His love upon us, and we could love Him in return. No matter what a person’s circumstances, we want them to know of God’s great love for them and His desire to have a personal relationship with them through His Son Jesus Christ.
We believe the right decisions about Life and Development-deciding what to do and what not to do are among the most important decisions in our education development. These are the same decisions we make everyday for ourselves and our families, and they are the same decisions behind every work that we do. And when it comes to education, our families, and our society, there’s simply not room for complacency.
We believe that teaching is a universal pursuit-everybody does it. Parents teach their children, employers teach their employees, coaches teach their players, wives teach their husbands (and vice versa), Christian leaders teach their parishioners and, of course, professional teachers teach their students.
We believe in teachers who spend an amazing amount of time teaching young people. Some of that time is richly rewarding because helping children of any age learn new skills or acquire new insights is a joyous experience. It makes one feel good-as a parent, a teacher, or leader to contribute to the growth of a child, to realize one has given something of oneself to enrich the life of another human being. It is exhilarating to watch a young person take from a teaching relationship something new that will expand his understanding of the world or add to his repertoire of skills.
But as everybody knows, teaching young people can also be terribly frustrating and fraught with disappointment. All too often, parents, teachers, and other educators discover to their dismay that their enthusiastic desire to teach something worthwhile to young people somehow fails to engender an enthusiastic desire in their students to learn. Instead, those who endeavor to teach encounter stubborn resistance, low motivation, short attention spans, inexplicable disinterest, and often open hostility.
When young people, seemingly without reason, refuse to learn what adults are so unselfishly and altruistically willing to teach them, teaching is anything but exhilarating. In fact, it can be a miserable experience leading to feelings of inadequacy, hopelessness, sheer exasperation and, too frequently, deep resentment toward the unwilling and ungrateful learner.
UVRC Education Programs will use a mentoring model of teaching, which was demonstrated by Jesus as He taught His disciples. He taught people; He fed the hungry, compassionately cared for those in need and taught His followers to do the same. Christian educators who follow this example can powerfully impact their entire church and community.
Education with UVRC
We are concerned with learning out comes of our children and the schools, where some schools especially private schools have kept standards and are progressively improving while some others have continued to decline both in academic performance, pupils’ enrolment and completion levels. In Kamwenge district completion at primary level is at just 25%. Where does their fellow 75% go? What economic activities are they doing?
Secondly, we consider a school as a hub for today and future community and society leaders where we expect society values to be at the forefront in everything we do. At UVRC we uphold society values for all the people which include; Peace, Mercy, Caring, Respect, Justice and Responsible Stewardship of God’s creation. These values and principles have to be nurtured into young people at an early time through appropriate forms of education.
Our Education Development Philosophy
Initially, UVRC has developed a philosophy of education development with three basic components.
First and most obvious is the emphasis on high-quality affordable education for rural children. With its booming information economy, Uganda is a land where a good education is often a ticket out of poverty, but it is also a land with extraordinary educational stratification: children with opportunity and means can get an excellent education, while the majority of children have access to poor schools. Rural schools are notoriously poor in contemporary Uganda.
Second is extra-curricular support for students. Children from poor rural backgrounds often lack the confidence, knowledge, connections, and family support needed to move into good careers. Therefore V40RC staffs are to take personal interest in students and assist in various ways, including providing personal counseling, persuading parents to keep children in school, and providing logistical support for graduates seeking employment or further training.
Third is to put in place strategies aimed at keeping graduates connected to their home areas. Helping rural youths graduate and move to middle class careers in the city only depletes rural resources unless the graduates remain closely involved with their home communities. UVRC will encourage graduates who have gotten excellent jobs in Kampala and elsewhere to intervene in children’s education back in the village. Graduates also will be encouraged to return to participate in village life, and offer advice and encouragement to younger students.
The goal of UVRC is therefore, to mobilize, and strengthen capacities of Society and other community leaders to work in their areas of influence to develop and strengthen Education interventions of the area.
Our Education Specific Mission statement is,
To provide best quality, accessible and affordable education services for all men and women in Kamwenge district.
A teacher who teaches well approaches students with humility and vulnerability, realizing that man-made merits pale in comparison to the great reality. This description resonates well with the method of seminary professor Howard Hendricks, who states that, “I, as a teacher, am primarily a learner, a student among students.” So, as Christian leaders and educators we are learners among learners in our education developments.
As education development workers we must always be learning, a process best facilitated by a natural wonder and reverence for the world around us. Christian educators, in particular, are called to cultivate an awe of creation, as all the universe was made through Christ and, even now, he sustains each aspect of its very existence (Col. 1:16-17). In contrast to prideful educators, Christ delights in the knowledge of the creation, and he willingly forfeited his superlative status to walk among us in it. Philippians 2:5-7 exhorts us to follow his example.
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
Therefore, out of reverence for Christ, we should also teach and educate in a Christian way. That is to say, we teach in a way that corresponds with the true nature of the universe made and sustained by Jesus Christ. Reality mandates that pride destroys and humility strengthens. Anyone who recognizes this law can certainly be a good educator, but Christians should be the very best educators. For only Christ can grant us the true humility necessary to count our students more significant than ourselves, preoccupying us with his glory rather than our own.
Girls Primary and Secondary Schools:
“Our girls have no female role models. There are hardly any female medics, engineers, lawyers, teachers, leaders and other professionals, and if girls don’t go to school, there will never be any. When they go to a hospital, they see no female doctors. If we continue like this, most of our girls will be illiterate and uneducated. Their husbands will get away with mistreating them because these girls are not economically empowered. They don’t know their rights.”
In order to overcome the challenges and create an environment where girls’ education shall be attained, UVRC will implement a girl’s primary and secondary school and later girl’s vocational training school and girl’s University in addition to supporting and implementing other education-focused programs. These schools shall have high consideration for students with special needs.
Conduct seminars for school children during holidays.
These seminars will aim at motivating children especially girls to go to school and even stay in school. They will focus at sensitizing children about the importance of education and other aspects that motivate children to stay in school. The seminars will be conducted at various levels where children will be gathered. These efforts will be reinforced with Go-Back-To-School campaigns to encourage those who dropped out but are in school going age to resume education.
Conduct in-Service and Refresher Courses for teachers.
UVRC will offer this service to all school teachers in Kamwenge district. The purpose is to equip teachers in these schools to be able to provide quality education which will improve performance of children in our schools.
Sensitize parents, community leaders on the importance of education:
This will take place in all communities of Kamwenge district. These seminars will be participatory and will essentially have an objective of mobilizing and empowering parents to take their children especially girls to school and keep them in school to completion.
Identify needy students for sponsorship in Vocational, Secondary, Tertiary and University schools
UVRC will implement a holistic approach to education. This activity will target students with good performance but from a poor background with no means and support them to completion of their studies.
Identify and support women and girls to go for professional training
The aim is to increase the capacity of the communities in different professional skills and create a wide range of role models for our young students. Key areas like engineering, medicine, agriculture, economics and theology/divinity will be considered.