This project will fund a part-time teacher and provide program materials to teach our Uganda school's fifth and sixth grade students to become leaders and role models. Because many of the school's children come from families who lived in northern Uganda internally displaced persons camps for 10 to 12 years as a result of an internal war, they are prone to violent behavior and lack good social and leadership skills. The playground will be a good platform to practice leadership skills at school.
These students have experienced violence as a result of the war, and perhaps continued domestic violence within their homes and community. They have had very few positive role models in their lives and most students are not aware of what good leadership is or how it can make their school a better school. When we asked especially the younger students at school what they liked least about school, many said they hated fighting and children who were mean at school.
This project will train the older students at the school on leadership and social skills topics, and ask them to reflect on and devise programs where they can show positive leadership to the rest of the school to help reduce fighting and encourage a positive learning environment. The playground can serve as a visible focal point for the children to try out their new leadership skills.
In the long run, the playground project and teaching the older students social and leadership skills will result in a drastically improved learning environment at the school which will result in higher attendance rates, ability to attract better teachers to the school and most importantly allow our students to perform better. This will result in more students progressing to better secondary schools which ultimately will give them more choices in their future careers.
