What can I do?

What can I do? What can you do? The comment I received from my last post was really, really good. So basically, I took from her comment a few things. Often as Americans we are told to just throw money at a problem in order to solve it. That the church in the United States tells us that we must share God's love to the world through our actions, which then means donating money to the church. Invisible Children is giving the general population a different option than just giving money.

The Kony2012 videos give an easy way for the average person to feel part of doing something. Calling up our congressmen and telling them to solve this problem, the problem of the LRA in central Africa. Just so that I am clear, I think Kony and the LRA are people who have committed evil atrocities against humanity and they should be punished for their actions. I have simply been asking, if it is always the job of Americans to fight the bad guy when there are thousands of people in the countries the LRA operate that know the situation better than we do. (You can read my first post here and my second post here)
So the question is, what can we do? What can the average outsider, American, Brit, etc. do when we hear about these terrible things going on in the world? What can one person do to make a difference? My response is based upon how involved you want to be.

1. Donate Money. I know, I know- you want other ideas. But this is the first layer of involvement. You hear about a need, you want to be minimally involved (unless you are Bill Gates) and you donate money to a reputable organization. Donating money to an organization is helpful- even the $20 a month donation. My friend Rachel who has worked in the Horn of Africa just blogged about this: which you can find here. You will eventually become bombarded with needs and organizations requesting donations. Which leads me to point two.

2. Find a problem, issue, country, people group, topic and stick with it. Learn everything you can about the topic. Be a walking advocate about the issue. Know the facts, know the problems, know the complexities of the issues. You can be more effective in solving a problem, if you become focused. Essentially, it becomes your "hobby" so to speak. When you get together with friends, they ask you how you are doing, what you are doing, etc. This is the avenue to start sharing about the issue you care most about. There is a fine line between being obnoxious with friends and family, and simply sharing with what you are most passionate about. In this research, you know which organizations are work hands-on to adress the problems. Then you can be an informed donor and confident that your money is going to a good place.

3. Do what Invisible Children does. Flood the mail box of your congressmen about your issue. If you know what is happening on the issue you are passionate about, then you know what is happening in politics and how it links. Why do you think we have American troops in Uganda? It is because enough people of the general public wanted them there and congress listened.

4. Find other people who are passionate about the same topic. Form a working group to share information, access resources, and creatively come up with ways to be part of solving a problem. Bring in guest speakers and experts.

5. Find a local problem and volunteer. The US has some major problems and sometimes it is easier to become involved in solving a local problem.

If we choose one topic we are passionate about and do everything we can to change the current situation (donations, volunteerism, government advocacy), then when we hear the million pleas for help we can confidently decline and focus our energy on the topic we are passionate about and know that change can come about as a result of it. We can not solve every single problem or we will be pulled in so many directions, but we can focus on one thing and hopefully see change. Invisible Children chose the LRA. What will you choose?

Kony2012 Part Two

Invisible Children's follow up video was released today. I'm still formulating my opinions and will post a follow up. But in the mean time, below is the video to watch it.



Or you can find it here.

Focus on Community Schools

This past week I walked through the sugar cane fields, past the coffee trees, and through the leaves of past seasons. I moved from home to home, recruiting people to come and share their opinions of the community school in the village. At each home, I was warmly welcomed and the many greetings were paced back and forth.


Grandma of a few of the children who attend the community school.

A few days later, I found these friendly faces surrounding me as they shared their passion for their children and the education in which they receive. They told me they want their children to be doctors, lawyers, teachers, and tour guides. Never once did farming make the list of professions. They told me that they don’t send their young children to the government UPE (universal primary education) School because it was too dangerous for them to cross the main highway (which is true, many children are killed every year by cars because they failed to step out of the way) and that the teachers only cared about a select few. They told me that at the very least, they want their children to know how to read and write in Lusoga and English and to be able to calculate math problems.



This week, the faces of twenty men and women, mostly grandparents who are looking after their children’s children, shown brightly. They are proud of their children, proud that they have a school in the community that meets their needs.

Community schools are common in Sub-Saharan Africa. They meet in churches, mosques, under mango trees and in mud huts. The community recruits the teachers, figures out how to feed their children, and pay the salary. As the international community continues to advocate for UPE, communities do the same- but in a different manner. They actually make it work.

What a week!

What a week! This week has been packed full! I thought that the end of the school year here in Uganda would free up more time, and somehow I am a bit more busy.

This week I have been working with one of the schools to push through a proposal to send 60 children and 4 teachers to a literacy camp. It is a great opportunity for them to spend time in books, learning how to read, and how to teach literacy! I am so excited about this opportunity for these children and teachers to soak in books!

In addition to this, my mom came to town! I went down to pick her up from Entebbe. We stayed at a fabulous hotel! Let me tell you, it was a wonderful break! I had amazing curry, spent the evening reading, and then took a car to the airport to wait for my mom. In the car, I met a man from Kenya who was there picking up a friend. It turns out, that we have mutual friends from Food for the Hungry. What a small, small world!

It has been a busy few days introducing my mom to the people I work with in each village/site. She made village scones, met some teachers who are working on the above literacy project, ate Ugandan food at a friend's home, had a dress fitting for a Ugandan dress, had her first ride on a bush taxi, went to the market, and enjoyed the first five episodes of season 4 Chuck. (I love Chuck...).



It is great to have her here, seeing my life and work. She has jumped right into life in Uganda and has no fear in trying different things! :)

Dancing

This past Thursday I went to Bulbandi to celebrate the end of the term and to say goodbye to the teachers. It was a glorious day!

The sun was so bright; the sky was blue and the clouds puffy white. Everywhere you look the rain has brought its magic to the land and as a result it is green. I was fortunate to sit in the front passenger seat on the way the way there and the way back. As a result, I didn’t have my typical view of African heads. Instead, I was able to watch the beautiful country roll by as I traveled to the next district (state).

On this ride, I realized (again) how beautiful this country is! The rolling hills full of maize, sugar cane, and tea plantations remind me of the drive through Wisconsin. It is this soothing rhythm of the fields swaying in the wind, the farmers working, and the children running about.

Arrived at my destination, stopped to buy some soda (FYI: I am sorry to admit I have officially converted from pop to soda) and the on my way to the school. This time, I directed my boda-boda driver where to go.

At the request of my teacher-friends, I also brought a mzungu cake- a nice, moist, chocolaty cake with real frosting. They LOVED it! They LOVED it! Well, it wouldn’t be too hard to impress these Ugandans with cake since their version is rather dry. We sat and reflected on the term, what they have learned, what they have accomplished, and their desires for the future.
After the students had completed the day’s exams, they assembled and began signing and dancing. Here I sat, under a tree, with a front row view of their performance. Picture small, Ugandan children, with their dirty school uniforms, mismatched sweaters and sandals, dancing and singing. I have often tried to figure out how to explain Ugandan dancing and singing. It is really quite difficult. Therefore, I have a short video which I will try to post at some point. My internet is just a bit too slow!


After the afternoon quickly passed, I had to leave. However, before I did I had a quick dancing lesson from the children. - A lesson on how to shake your hips properly. Let’s be honest, a white American really cannot shake her hips as well as any Ugandan in the world. However I had a lot of fun trying! One girl came right up, we were facing off, shaking, laugh, smiling, with a circle of children around us. Oh so much fun!

Back on my boda-boda to return to my taxi, back in the front seat, back to town. However on the way back, I realized that I felt at home. Being able to master transportation, on your own, in a new city/country is one way I mark my transition into a new place. Be it navigating the freeways of Southern California, or the skyways of Saint Paul, the Metro in D.C. or the taxi/boda-bodas of Uganda. Every time I realize I have mastered the transportation system, I feel content, happy, and glad to be where I am.

Education Questions

There are a few questions running through my head these days about education and rural Uganda.
1. How do you increase the capacity of a school when there is such a high teacher turnover rate? For example, not even a year ago my organization sponsored a workshop on lesson planning. Today, only one teacher is left from that workshop.
2. Child-centered learning requires access to materials. Of which many of the schools I work with have very little. Picture dirt floors, wood benches, blackboards, charcoal used as chalk, no books, no electricity, a few pencils to share with the students, and old notebooks. How can you train teachers in child-centered methodology despite their limitations? Even if someone supplies these materials, they do not last long.
3. How can local village schools be grafted into the larger understanding of education, specifically government monitored education?
4. Universal Primary Education is fabulous. I am complete supporter. However, it does not reach the poorest. You still have to pay for school fees, books, top-up teacher salaries and uniforms, to name only a few things. Besides a never-ending dependency of child-sponsorship, how can these children get to school?
5. How can girls who have reached puberty stay in school and not leave for one week every month?
6. How can you train children in agriculture plus the normal academic subjects? Once a child is educated through secondary (high) school, the likelihood of them returning to their farming roots is very small. The job, in their eyes, is beneath them. Yet there are few jobs outside of farming.
7. How do you increase the quality of education so that the information children receive will help them in the long-run?

If anyone has any answers, let me know.

School Competition

This past week, I had the honor of being a judge for a school competition. If you have ever seen the movie War Dance, it was very similar. It is the year-end celebration and competition of songs, poems, traditional dancing, skits, instruments, and teaching of lessons.

It was incredible to watch, with a front seat, the children performing. As time progressed, there was probably two-hundred to three-hundred people surrounding the area, watching their children. The skill these children have is incredible and I feel honored to be apart of it. Unfortunately, it is difficult to describe the experience. So below are pictures that will help you get the idea of the event!



The day started out with welcome songs and dances from the children.



One child is sporting her American pride with her foot wear.





Cold drinks were provided for the crowd.


Drums were beaten for the dances.





And the children focused intently on the various competitions.


Some dressed up in costume and performed skits based on traditional stories.


Finally, the evening ended with this little man beating the drum and everyone dancing!

The Report Card is in for Education in Uganda

This week a report came out from Campaign for Education, and many other major supporters, addressing the 60 countries where it is the worst to have a child in school. Unfortunately, Uganda made the list. Not only is it the worst place for a child to get an education in East Africa, it is the eleventh worse in the world.

This week in the newspaper there was an article about the government disputing the validity of the study, saying that they were asking questions of the students that were too difficult and not at level. Perhaps they are right, the questions were too difficult for their students- but compared to global standards, they should not be.

Education is a messy situation in this country. In 1997 Universal Primary Education (UPE) was implemented for a maximum of four children per family, and in 2002 laws were passed for all children to have a free primary education. I wish that “free” were actually the case. Uniforms, books, food, dormitory, and paper/writing utensils are not free. Thus making what should be a free education difficult to attain for the poorest of the country.

Uganda has put into place measures to increase the education level their children receive. Therefore, to be ranked so low in this report is not only a blow to their ego but it is discouraging to see that the efforts they have taken have not increased the quality of the education significantly (at least to global standards).

When I read this article and the conversation about the results, my heart is pained. Over the course of years, much of the issues addressing the developing world do not affect me the way it use to. Development practitioners become numb to the problems as the years pass by. For whatever reason, this report got to me. Perhaps it is because I work with schools, teachers, and children on a daily basis. It is not only a statistic, but it is much more tangible.

I work with the children who cannot read the alphabet in grade three. I work with the children who cannot solve a basic division problem as well. This report is based on government and private schools. I cannot imagine what the statistics would look like if they surveyed non-formal community-based organization run schools. The schools that I work with!

Perhaps this report only reinforces the need to continue the work that my NGO, Fount of Mercy, is doing! Working with teachers and schools to increase their ability to teach the national curriculum well. To give children who will never have the opportunity to go to college, let alone secondary school, the best primary education they can get. I work with teachers to increase their ability to teach, but really so the children gain a better education. One in which is their human right and will better their lives for years to come.

Here are some key statistics in regards to the importance of education according this report:
• The cost of failing to provide a good quality education for all children in poor countries could be as much as $70 billion a year, due to lost economic growth.
• No country has ever achieved continuous and rapid economic growth without first having at least 40% of adults able to read and write.
• An adult who has completed primary education is likely to earn 50% more than an adult who has never been to school.
• A single year of primary school can increase the wages of people earn later in life by 5-15% for boys and even more for girls.


For more statics and information please download the report here: http://www.campaignforeducation.org/docs/reports/1goal/1Goal%20School%20Report.pdf

Teaching under the Trees

Today I spent the day in at one of my favorite site locations. Just a preface: I like each site and organization I work for. They all have very distinct personalities, work, and goals. Each day I am excited to see how the day’s work will unfold.

However, I especially enjoy going to one of my schools, located in Bulabandi. After a long taxi ride into the next district (state), and a daring boda ride to the village- which includes avoiding potholes, going over huge dirt piles that remind me of dirt-bike racing, and then through a footpath that is surrounded by fields- I arrive at the school. Before I have a chance to pay my boda driver, the children swarm. They sing songs of greetings, while simultaneously mob me for a hug. After the initial attack of children, the teacher organizes them and they begin to sing a bit more. The ones, who have decided I am their best friend, stick close. There is absolutely no way to describe to you how wonderful these children are. My heart fills with joy- yet I know their lives are not easy. One little girl, Gloria, never leaves my side. She is in nursery (preschool) and is as cute as a button, although incredibly shy. The teachers will tell her to go home (since nursery is only half-day) and yet she silently refuses. It is only when I am done with lunch and we are about to begin our teacher-lesson does she leave. I will take a picture of her sometime soon.

While I enjoy the children, my main role is to work with the teachers. After a lunch of poshu (boiled maize flower) and beans, we dive into the material. Today we talked about learning styles, took a quiz to find out our own learning style, and then brainstormed ideas on how to teach lessons to meet the needs all learning styles. These teachers are very enthusiastic about learning new concepts around teaching and also to improve their classrooms. They are good with the kids, get along well, and are enjoyable to work with. They are still feeling me out, figuring out who I am and what kind of relationship will become of my bi-monthly visits. I hope someday, to be (to some extent) grafted into their school and community.

While our conversation on learning styles continues, I cannot help but look around and be amazed. We sit under a large tree, out of the sun, talking about children and teaching, while the schoolgirls play a version of handball/cricket and the boys play soccer. It is quite picturesque and I truly feel blessed to be here.