Education Uganda Project #34500

Give Early Education & Hope to Ugandan Children

by Act4Africa

Project Report | Aug 27, 2021
Vaccines for Teachers Bring Hope

By Madelaine Johnston | CEO of Act4Africa

Kathy's Kindergarten Pupils Singing, May 2021

Thanks to the GlobalGiving community and other supporters, Kathy’s Kindergarten in Mayuge has provided high-quality early years education to hundreds of pupils. We are so proud of our early years teachers Jennifer, Grace, and Joan who educate the young learners with great care and enthusiasm, breathing hope into their lives.

Sadly, Covid19 has impacted the education sector in Uganda to devastating effect. Over the past 2 years, schools in Uganda have been closed more than they have been open. According to a report by the African Development Bank, Ugandan students have missed out on more days of school than children in almost any other African country (second only to Ethiopia). During the Ugandan national lock-down in 2020 our kindergarten teachers reached each pupil with home-learning support and vital food supplies for the most vulnerable families.

In May and June 2021, during a brief window in time in which Covid19 restrictions were eased, our teachers reached all 60 of our current Kindergarten pupils with catch-up learning. We also ensured that each pupil completed and passed their mandated end of year exam to allow them to move up to the next year of education, a major success!

On 11^th June the government of Uganda announced a new national lock-down which lasted for 42 days. During this time, not only were all school closed, but strict travel restrictions meant that it was difficult for the majority of people living in Mayuge District to earn a living, farm their fields, or access markets. For people who live hand to mouth even in usual circumstances, this meant that each day was a fight for survival.

Now that the lock-down restrictions have once again been partially lifted, our Kindergarten teachers are able to contact Kindergarten pupils and their families in Covid19-safe ways. However, our kindergarten remains closed, along with every other school in the country.

A glimmer of hope can be seen on the horizon. Recently a limited number of Covid19 vaccine doses have arrived in Uganda and the national government has declared they will prioritise vaccinating school teachers. Our kindergarten teachers have been invited to have their first dose of the vaccine, and we hope that all teachers in the country receive their vaccines soon. Only when all of the nation’s teachers are vaccinated will schools be allowed to reopen. This process is likely to take months to complete, but we look forward to the day we can once again welcome our young pupils at Kathy’s Kindergarten.

One parent’s quote says it all “Kathy’s kindergarten is the best school have ever seen in Mayuge, the teachers are exceptional, the teachers have made my child to love school and it has boosted her mentally.”

Thank you again to everyone in the GlobalGiving community who supports this vital work. We couldn’t do it without you!

Kind Regards,

Madelaine Johnston
CEO of Act4Africa UK

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May 6, 2021
Find out what we've been learning in lockdown!

By Jennifer Akullu | Lead Teacher

Khadimarah, Kathy's Kindergarten pupil

Greetings from here in Uganda, it’s been a while since you last heard from us but we are delighted to tell you that we are doing fine amidst the pandemic and the children are doing well too.

Here is a quick update about what is going on.

Since the government has not yet opened schools officially for pre-primary classes, we proactively initiated a group learning model, the model enables children to come together and learn in groups and also have teachers assigned to the groups on different days. The group model has helped us achieve a lot with the learners even with the short duration of time that we spend with them.

In our various groups we get to learn different things among which includes counting and identifying numbers, social development for example knowing our environment, knowing our friends by names and also knowing the people who help us while learning, we also learn health habits like washing hands, keeping our bodies clean and knowing the foods we are supposed to eat to support our growth and development.

The learning groups have brought out the best of children like Khadimarah in the picture above.

From what Khadimarah and other children shared with us, they learned various skills like cooking, molding using clay and decorating cards using eggshells and leaves, isn’t this beautiful?

In our various groups we also get to share stories towards the end of our day together and the experience is awesome, we love it and the children love it too, we get to sing songs in our groups, to end the day joyfully.

While sharing our stories about the lockdown, Khadimarah told us that she learnt how to cook during the lockdown, and she also loved playing dodge ball during the holiday. Meanwhile, when the world seemed locked down the children’s brains weren’t locked up to stop learning!

Our children made us to know that they loved doing the home learning packages we gave them, ’my mother used to help me do my work but I missed school so much” says Sarah.

We love and missed our children so much and right now every minute with them in their various groups counts, we love learning together, dancing and sharing every minute with them is a joy.

Our parents do appreciate what we are doing in our specific groups because besides just learning we get to grow in socializing.

We are so grateful for what you always do to support our children, we know for sure that we are always in your minds says Dianna, Mummy of Ebenezer.

Group learning in the community

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Jan 6, 2021
Teachers' home visits keep children's learning on track

By Jennifer Akullu | Lead Teacher

You will know from previous reports that, in line with government guidelines and COVID-19 lockdown, Kathy's Kindergarten was sadly closed for most of 2020. However, thanks to your donations, our teachers have continued to support the children at home: initially providing them with home learning packs and regular visits to check on their health and wellbeing, providing food aid when necessary to keep up with their nutrition. More latterly, the children's home learning has been boosted through 1:1 tutorial visits from our dedicated kindergarten teachers.

Act4Africa’s Ugandan Lead Teacher, Jenifer Akullu tells us:

“The program of food distribution started in May where children would be given eggs, sugar, flour and milk directly taken at home for them to share with their families and during these out reaches of food distribution teachers realized that the pupils were missing a lot as most parents did not have the time or skills to help the children. Their early achievements in class would easily get to zero since next year is far and this prompted the school to adapt the home learning program for pupils of Kathy’s Kindergarten. The teachers organized a learning program in pupils’ homes, after consent with their parents and this was supported by both parents, Act4Africa and teachers making the exercise easy to roll it out.

"Teachers visit pupils’ homes upon appointment prior to the visit. The 3 teachers would be assigned different homes with packages to guide the pupil’s learning. This has been a routine activity for the children and teachers which has helped strengthen the teacher child relationship, keep pupils learning and improving their ability of class work execution. This program has been a great success as the children’s performance in tests and class work is so good. We believe that by next year we shall have automatic promotions to those who will have scored up to the school pass mark next year.

"These learning programs have basically been a one-on-one teaching and parents are so grateful for this initiative that has kept children busy and learning from their own teachers and at a free cost unlike other children who has been receiving such learning from other teachers from different schools at a cost.”

Peter, a father said, “Thank you so much teachers for your tireless support to our children, I love the love you have for our children and how passionate you teachers are about teaching these children of ours.”

Olivia, a mother, exclaimed, “You people are a real deal, my son is so blessed to have you people as his teachers, thank you so much Act4Africa and Kathy’s Kindergarten for being my child’s saviour during this pandemic, my child has not missed a thing about learning, thanks to you.”

Meanwhile we got to hear from our very own kindergarten child himself. He delighted us with his words: “My teacher is a super-hero, my school is the best in the whole world, because my teachers follow me up to home so that I can learn, I want to be like my teacher because she loves teaching me and my friends.”

His mother also continued by saying “You people feel my heart with greater joy because everything you do for our children is wow!”

We could not achieve this without your support, so thank you for providing these children with a "WOW moment" in 2020! We do not yet know when we can re-open the Kindergarten, but we do know that your donations will help us bring education to over 50 children at this difficult time. Please donate to give hope and education to the next generation.

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