Our project provides leadership training for 1,300 teachers and 30,000 secondary students from 72 schools in the Iganga district of Uganda. It includes critical thinking and problem-solving skills, simultaneously building on academic skills- skills needed to effectively address real community issues. Our approach sets adolescents on a direct path to career success, while exposing and resolving the social issues that remain barriers to progress: social injustice, conflict, and gender inequity.
The Iganga district, with a median age of 16 and a population of half a million, leads Uganda in childhood pregnancy, domestic violence, and teacher and student absenteeism. The prevalence of HIV/AIDs is double the national average, and the female literacy rate is only 53.3%. While the women and children in Iganga remain the most vulnerable to abuse and poverty, they also hold the greatest potential to transform these statistics through a meaningful, supportive, and empowering education system.
This project develops leadership skills in teachers and students to address community issues by providing: online and on-site workshops for teachers and students to build a positive learning community driven by common goals, standards, and practices that includes conflict resolution, English language skills, gender advocacy, critical thinking, and problem-solving; a comprehensive training manual for English language literacy; and ongoing distance mentoring and progress monitoring.
The 72 schools engaged in this project will empower 1,500 teachers and 33,000 secondary students to make the transition from hesitant, early learners to confident, engaged citizens. These emerging leaders will use their problem-solving and critical thinking skills to identify and address problems in their communities, challenge attitudes and behaviors that perpetuate cycles of violence, poverty, and discrimination, and build positive lasting relationships with the community to sustain change.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
