A challenging July

It is time for holiday at Kikooba Infant & Primary School as the second term is already finished! July was an overwhelming hard working month for teachers, students, and me. As it was the end of the term, teachers and students were busy with reviews, tests, official exams, corrections, and final reports. In the garden, you could see children run through subjects out loud and teachers with red pens in their hands concentrated on marking thousands of papers. In the meanwhile, I was planning and managing different workshops and training for the teachers to make them into practice, following up Mondo Child Support Program and the Kikooba Solidarity Farmers Group, trying to organize everyone's time in the best way possible. 

Training & Workshops

Good School Environment

What is a good school environment and how can we create it? Teachers and I reasoned on this topic. Firstly, through non-formal activities, they reflected on the strengths and weaknesses of the school sharing them with the team. Secondly, through group discussions, they tried to find possible solutions for the main problems to start the third term in the best way possible!

First Aid Training

I am so proud to have succeeded to work together with the Uganda Red Cross Society. We organized together a full-day-training for Game Master and Welfare teachers who could learn and practice the do and don´t of first aid, the life triangle, and how to react in case of drowning, fracture, bleeding, stroke, dislocation, burns, suffocation, insect bites, and poisoning, and how to use the items of the First Aid Kit I provided to the school. Everything was possible thanks to the use of microfinance supported by Mondo through the EUAV program.

Nursery Workshop

I could work in partnership with Miss Harriet, a teacher from Kampala who is focusing on helping nursery teachers to understand better the importance of their role in the growth of children and how to be organized is necessary to reach their teaching objectives. Using the Learning Framework for Early Childhood Development book, teachers improved their knowledge about the learning framework (competencies and related activities), how to read it, how to do a termly scheme of work, lesson and daily plans, and self-evaluation. 

Follow-up

Mondo Child Support Program

A lot of the children in the school come from vulnerable families and are struggling to pay the fees. In May 2019 sending organization NGO Mondo started with the Child Support Program in Kikooba Infant & Primary school that is supporting 100 students. This month, I was working together with the School Director to check children's health and their academic performances, and meet children´s parents to have some updates on their family background and issues. 

Kikooba Solidarity Farmers Group (KSFG)

KSFG is a project initiated by the previous EUAV. Kikooba Infant & Primary School purchase goats or pigs which will be borrowed to the school community families. The families rear them giving the first production of the borrowed animal to the school. The second production will belong to the family, the third one again to the school, and so on... In this way, the school will generate some income besides the school fees, and also the families will have an income to be able to pay for the education of their own children. In July, I visited all the project´s families to check on their borrowed animals and how is their economic situation after 2 years. 

Birthday Parties!

On the 20th of July, I turned 30! It is some years since I am abroad on my birthday and being far from my family and friends is always more difficult on that day. Besides that, teachers and student organized me a wonderful birthday party. After the birthday song, speeches, dances, and the cut of the cakes, everyone enjoyed the friendly football match between teachers and students. I had to bet that students would win!

Party never ends! When I came back to Kampala, I enjoyed this special day with Villa Mamu´s family by organizing a delicious barbeque.