S4S Update: New Textbooks!
Science books for our partner schools!
The money you all raise is split over the six basic areas of implementation at our partner schools. One of these areas involves supplying our partners with scholastic material. S4S is committed to providing the schools with the supplies they need to give their students the best possible education. One of our biggest goals is to fill the classrooms and libraries with all the textbooks the schools require to teach the Ugandan curriculum. Last week, S4S sent an order to several publishing houses in Kampala for literally thousands of science books! When delivered, all of our 11 partners will have every chemistry and physics textbook they need, meaning that S4S has hit another one of its exit targets. Using funds from Round 4, S4S hopes to be able to purchase enough books for the remaining five core subjects. As of now, our partner schools lack the books needed to teach these five subjects well. Thanks to all of you who have donated books or dollars, your support is translating into real opportunity for your Ugandan peers.
S4S Update: New Building for Atanga’s Teachers
The changing face of Atanga features the foundations of a new administrative building (foreground) and two IC-built classroom blocks (background).
Atanga is a relatively small school, and until two years ago it consisted of no more than one dilapidated shack surrounded by a few trees. Students now attend class in new classrooms and study in well-equipped laboratories. The IC impact at Atanga has been huge: S4S has invested over $370,000 in new classrooms, latrines, a power system, and teacher capacity development workshops. With that said, the students at Atanga still have basic educational needs that have not yet been met; even after all that IC has done at the school, more projects await.
The top of this year’s School Project Priority List for Atanga was a request for a new Administration Block. In our struggle to raise Atanga’s performance to a nationally competitive level, catering for the teachers and administration is equally as important as supporting the students . Only good teaching spawns effective learning. The new administrative building will be two stories high, with new offices for the Head Teacher and his support staff, as well as a huge staff room for all the teachers. The foundations are done, and soon construction on the walls will begin. Before we know it, Atanga will be yet another step closer to achieving the nurturing educational climate it is striving to create. This transformation is taking place because thousands of students around the world are banding together for Atanga!
On the Ground: VSLA Group Profile
Members of Oberabic’s VSLA group wait for their weekly meeting to start
The village, Oberabic, meaning Five Mosquitos in Luo, is not unlike the hundreds of other small villages carpeting the countryside of northern Ugandan. Subsistence farmers separated from one another by vast swaths of farmland are its residents. Its roads are mottled paths tunneled by head high grasses. Its nights—electricity and light bulb-free—are cloaked in deep, penetrating shadows when clouds float thick. There’s no bustling town center. No large restaurants or modern internet cafes. Because they pull their livelihoods from the earth beneath their feet, season by season, many people in Oberabic exist on the fringes of a money-based economy, relying on bartering and infrequent money-based purchases to survive. Which is why, on this day, the meeting taking place is more remarkable: farmers who have never done so before are pooling their cash, balancing financial ledgers, and taking loans.
S4S Update: Three Down, Three to Go!
Three Ugandan teachers—Ketty, Robert, and John—have been awarded two-year visas to the US
If you’ve been following this website, you know that six Ugandan teachers will head to the US for one month of team teaching in December under the S4S Reciprocal Teacher Exchange. We’re ecstatic about this upcoming trip because we’ve never brought Ugandan teachers to the US in this capacity before.
Yesterday three of the selected teachers were called for interviews at the US Embassy in Kampala. It can often be difficult to obtain an appointment for the visa interview, and the interview itself can be very challenging. In order to grant a visa, the US Embassy has to be assured that the people intending to travel, in this case our Ugandan teachers, have every intention of returning home. The three candidates traveled to Kampala overnight and sat for interviews in the early morning. After an almost disastrous start (one candidate forgot her passport!) all three got the opportunity to sit before an immigration officer and tell their story. After an agonizing couple of hours, the S4S team learned that all three candidates had been successful and were awarded two-year visas!
Invisible Children Uganda has good ties with the US Embassy, thanks in part to the great work our teams do on the ground in Gulu, but primarily from the efforts of everyone involved in the global IC movement. Without the continued publicity from your support, our teachers might not been so successful. Plans are underway for the remaining three selected teachers to sit for interviews. Keep your fingers crossed!
S4S Update: Girl’s Dorm Rising at St. Mary’s
Last year St. Mary’s Lacor School asked for a girl’s dormitory. S4S, with the help of thousands of students across the world, has combined forces and raised enough funds for a new two-story girl’s dormitory. Work is well underway on site: the walls of the first floor are done, and the huge task of casting the second floor’s concrete slab has started. Within two weeks, S4S expects the walls of the second floor to have taken shape. Before we know it, the S4S engineers will be capping off the roof. Seeing the building grow day by day is incredibly exciting!
Security of the female students and their access to education are concerns for the entire school community at St. Mary’s. In years past in Uganda, young girls have been pressured into leaving school at an early age to help at the home and start families of their own. Historically, African communities have regarded the women in their ranks as second class citizens; however, after huge efforts to sensitize communities, girls and women are becoming empowered through local and national programs. This hard-earned empowerment and the shift in the way society sees women is playing out in northern Uganda. The new girl’s dormitory at St. Mary’s Lacor was requested by the entire school community, and as such, is a prime example of how the community has shifted their traditional ways of thinking toward a more equality-based mentality.
Thanks to all those who are continuing to raise funds for St. Mary’s Lacor. Your efforts are making a huge impact!
S4S Update: 2nd Girls Dorm at Gulu High
The walls of Gulu High School's second IC-built girls dormitory are getting higher and higher with each passing day
Last month S4S signed the contract for the second phase of construction of a new girls dormitory at Gulu High School. The winning contractor is now on site and making rapid progress; walls are rising from the recently finished foundations. This project will utilize most of the funds raised for Gulu High from last year’s S4S tour.
The new dormitory will stand side by side with the existing girls dormitory completed under Round 2, with a third dormitory planned for 2010! When complete, the three new buildings will provide safe and modern living facilities for 576 female students. These dormitories have become S4S signature projects in the region, raising the bar for secondary school development in the North.
For those of you fundraising on the behalf of Gulu High, keep up the efforts—the girls are eager to move in!
Another S4S Project Completed!!
Two new Ecological Sanitation Latrine Blocks at Atanga SS
Today the S4S engineers visited Atanga SS for the final inspection of two new Ecological Sanitation Latrine Blocks. Latrines may not sound all that exciting to you guys, but the smiles on the faces of the students who get to use them indicate that these projects mean the world to them! The completion of this project means that Atanga SS are even closer to their optimum latrine ratio and that S4S are closer to yet another one of their exit targets. These blocks were completed using funds from your efforts last year, and will have a huge impact on the water and sanitation needs of the Atanga SS community. By utilising a relatively new and wholly environmentally friendly technology, S4S have built a facility that will last for decades not years,
While one contractor was finishing up with work on the latrines, another contractor has moved onto site for the construction of a new Administration Block. This new building will be two stories high, with new offices for the Head & Deputy Head Teachers, Bursar, Director of Studies and a huge staffroom on the first floor. This project is so big the contract for it’s construction has been phased into two parts to make the project manageable for the S4S engineers who are responsible for ensuring the quality of the work is the best possible. Phase one is due to be completed in Jan 2010; keep an eye on the S4S Blog for future updates on this epic project!
Making headlines: Teacher Exchange program shared with all of Uganda
Our six lucky teachers pose with Country Director Jolly Okot and the S4S team
The New Vision, One of Uganda’s leading daily newspapers has caught wind of our intention to send six teachers from Gulu to the US! The headline wrote “US Schools invite Gulu Teachers” while the article announced the six lucky candidates to the rest of their nation. Invisible Children Uganda rarely makes it into the national press – other than in the classifieds for our ever growing team – but today recognition was given to not only our teachers who are gearing up to travel in December, but also all those in the US who are making our programs on the ground possible. As our programs gain more and more supporters in the west, it is imperative we start sharing our progress and news with the greater Ugandan community, after all, over 90% of our staff are Ugandan working on behalf of their compatriots – todays article was certainly a step in the right direction!
The S4S team arrives at the Awere SS original site to begin construction of the new Girls Dormitory!
The S4S team and contractors stake out the location for the new Girls Dormitory at Awere SS
Today the S4S team travelled to the Awere SS original site to stake out the exact location of where the new girls’ dormitory should be built. Unlike our other partner schools, the Awere SS original site is yet to be occupied; the students and teachers are currently operating in their displaced school in Gulu town. Because the site is not in use, most of the land within the campus has turned to “African bush” making today’s siting of the new girls dormitory more than tricky! However, with help from local labour and the S4S engineers, the site has been identified, cleared, and work has commenced.
The beginning of the 2010 academic year will see the students of Awere SS return home to their original site. Currently on site are three new classroom blocks, a new laboratory block, water and electricity supply and two new blocks of latrines – next is the girls’ dormitory! Watch this space for progress reports as the new dorm rises from the bush!
Ground-breaking ceremony for the new library block at Anaka. Woot WOOT!
Students from Pope Paul VI Anaka celebrate at the ground-breaking ceremony for their new library block
Today S4S introduced the students of Pope Paul VI Anaka to the construction firm who have begun building their new library block. The school held a ground-breaking ceremony as construction work began. The ceremony was hosted by the schools Head Teacher along with staff from the S4S team. Over a thousand students attended, all of which were eager to take a look at the plans for their new library block. The Head Boy and Head Girl gave short speeches thanking their friends in the US who raised the money to make this project possible, and praised Invisible Children for our continued efforts to rebuild Pope Paul VI Anaka.
The library is due to be completed by the end of January 2010, by which time books will have arrived in Gulu from last years S4S book-drive along with other text books purchased by S4S. For more information on this years book drive, check out http://www.invisiblechildren.com/bookdrive
Mentoring Update: IC Mentors Inspire Students Before Exams
IC mentors address a group of students at Pope Paul VI Anaka School before their exams
Two thick mvule trees loomed overhead, casting webs of shadow and light across the two hundred students gathered beneath them. Sitting in a row before the students, a half dozen guest speakers waited their turn to speak. The students, all in grades S4 and S6, and all about to take the most important exams of their lives, sat wide-eyed and still. The open-air meeting was a crucial one. The guest speakers—IC mentors, the school’s Head Teacher, and the man who mentors the IC mentors, Mzee Lakwiya—were there to mentally prepare the students for their upcoming UACE and UCE exams, tests that would help determine the paths their lives would take. “On Monday,” one speaker said, “you all will jump into hot soup. We’re here to help you get ready.”
S4S Update: BIG Day for S4S!!
Today might have been the most expensive day in Invisible Children’s history! After months of work from the S4S team and lots of meetings with our partner schools, IC Uganda identified seven massive building projects that need to be completed at various schools in the North. Today a committee of Invisible Children Staff awarded these seven projects to construction companies in Uganda. Some of our biggest projects to date, these dorms, labs, libraries, and offices are all being funded by students from around the world. Never before has S4S embarked on so many ambitious building projects at once, but we are confident that our team has the skills to rise to the task.
The projects listed below will utilize the funds S4S clubs collected in Round 3 (and will ensure that the S4S team here in Gulu is very busy for months to come). The projects are:
- Construction of a new girls dorm at Awere Secondary School
- Construction of a second girls dorm at Gulu High School
- Completion of the girls dorm at St. Mary’s College Lacor
- Construction of a new laboratory block at Pabbo Secondary School
- Construction of a new administrative block at Atanga Secondary School
- Construction of a new library block at Anaka Secondary School
- Refurbishment of the library block at Layibi College
The value of these projects totals $622,000 US! This means that the bulk of Round 3 funds are now committed to projects, and that the funds raised in Round 4 are more urgent than ever.
On the Ground: S4S Update from Uganda
Walter Knox, Head Teacher at Pabbo Secondary School, poses with the new generator Invisible Children provided for his students
When schools outside of Uganda raise money for the Schools for Schools Program (S4S), that money gets spent in two ways at our 11 Ugandan partner schools: on ‘hardware’ (physical construction projects) and ‘software’ (curriculum development, teacher training, and teacher exchange placements, among other things.)
As always, S4S is charging full-steam ahead with the implementation of its software and hardware projects here in Uganda. I just got an update today from Patrick, the Schools for Schools Program Manager. Our four full-time S4S engineers are busy checking up on contractors and evaluating bids; our Education Officer and her assistant are sorting out placements for Ugandan teachers slated to visit the US.
Check out all of the exciting stuff that’s happening on the S4S front in the next few weeks.
Faces of IC Update: Lillian
Above: Lillian!
Ajok Lillian
21-years-old
The Uganda Institute of Information and Communications Technology
*****
“Today it’s a dot com world,” she said definitively.
It caught me off guard. Had we not been in Gulu, had she not been raised in a mud hut with no electricity and no computer, the comment wouldn’t have been surprising in the least. But we were. And she had. And when Lilian went on to explain how she wanted to major in Information Technology at a university down in Kampala, how she sat alone after classes and taught herself to type on her high school’s few dusty computers simply because she ‘loved typing’, and how she managed to pay rent on her own apartment while supporting her siblings, I began to realize something: Lillian is not your average 21-year-old Ugandan.
Learning to Listen
Above: Mentors listen on as Fred leads his final workshop at IC Uganda’s main office in Gulu
We sat in plastic chairs in the shade, waiting under a mango tree that stretched out over us like a green umbrella. When the student approached with her older brother, she hung her head, slumped her shoulders, and paced slowly through the dusty field. Her reluctance to meet with us was unwarranted: Fred, the visiting psychosocial trainer, wasn’t there to scold her for her third school suspension in as many terms (as she feared), but instead wanted to help her, to listen to her.
The student greeted us and nervously shook Fred’s hand.
There’s no way he’s going to get her to open up, I thought. He’s an older American professor—a stranger—and she’s a shy Ugandan teenager: they have nothing in common.
The Ebbing Tide of Summer Visitors
Above: Visitors and I pose after a tour of Gulu High’s girl’s dormitory, a building that some students in the group raised money to build
When they arrive, they arrive in different ways.
Some, fresh off long drives from somewhere else, emerge from packed mutatus, stretch, and shuffle into the office in packs of 10 or 12.
Some, sweaty from midday walks from town, come in pairs and hold hands as they enter the office compound.
Researchers show up alone with backpacks and notebooks.
Hopeful, unemployed foreigners show up from time to time looking for work.
Excited Invisible Children fans show up with rainbows of colorful IC bracelets jangling on their wrists, cameras at the ready.
IC Uganda Getting Its Tweet On
The internet is glacially slow out here, but it ain’t stoppin’ us from tweeting! Follow us on Twitter to get the daily inside scoop on our three main programs here in Uganda. All the cool kids are doing it.
Pics of new Round 3 Schools for Schools construction projects? Bam! Got ‘em.
Links to current LRA-related news articles? Done!
Inspirational snippets of info we hear through the Ugandan grapevine each day? Easy! Got those.
*****
Our user name: Invisichildren (find us here)
Exchanging for Change
Above: Students wait for class to start in a classroom in Layibi College
Riddled with holes like some sort of structural Swiss cheese, the ceiling in one of Layibi College’s older classrooms stretched out over us, offering those below glimpses of the building’s innards above. The physics students—all sixty of them-didn’t seem to notice: their eyes were focused on the teacher before them. With chalk in hand, Melody Russell, 33, moved back and forth in front of the chalkboard. As she wallpapered the board with equations, the students scribbled away in their notebooks. Each question she asked was met with a field of raised hands. For ninety minutes, students gave her their undivided attention. No one passed notes; no one whispered to his neighbor; no one did anything but think, write, and answer questions. Amazing as this sort of sustained, class-wide focus sounds, it’s par for the course among students working with Invisible Children’s Teacher Exchange teachers.
Above: Physics students in Melody’s class
This past summer, 45 visiting teachers from the U.S. and Canada team-taught for six weeks with their Ugandan counterparts. Working for free and paying for their flights and expenses themselves, the visiting teachers sacrificed large chunks of time and money to help students at all of IC’s eleven Ugandan partner schools. Class after class, students enjoyed the charged, high-energy classroom atmospheres that team teaching creates. Students, however, aren’t the only ones who benefit from the summer teacher exchange. Like the kids they instruct, teachers, too, draw inspiration from the experience and head home with added arrows in their academic quivers.
*****
Melody has been teaching for 10 years. In that time, she’s walked thousands of students—in both public and private schools—through lab experiments and countless chemistry equations. I wasn’t surprised when she told me she didn’t have a single major struggle during her six weeks of team teaching this past summer—she’s a pro. What I was surprised to hear, however, was how her partner teacher, a Ugandan named Robert, was able to command a class of 105 students with little more than raw charisma. Robert, she explained, supplemented his lecture-heavy, resource-light classes with smiles and jokes—things that, thankfully, are far cheaper and easier to issue to students than textbooks. “Even with so many students, he’s able to create warmth in his class,” Melody explained.
Because most students in Uganda don’t have their own textbooks, teachers spend large portions of class time copying information from a textbook to the chalkboard. (”Here, with so few textbooks, dictating is what needs to happen,” said Melody.) Robert knows this style of teaching isn’t ideal. For what he lacks in lesson diversity, he compensates for by making himself available to students outside of class hours. Homework is easier when you know your teacher wants and is available to help you.
I asked Melody about the lessons she’ll take with her back to the states once her time in Uganda comes to a close. She told me about how the experience has raised her confidence level and shown her that she’s capable of teaching high-level physics. (In Uganda, she’s teaching high school students who are studying at university level—something she’d never done before.) She told me about how amazing it’s been to talk over her lesson plans with Robert, to get advice from a peer on a regular basis. Perhaps most powerful, however, has been the perspective she’s gained from her students.
Above: Melody doing her thing
“I’m teaching kids in Uganda whose hopes of going to university are lofty dreams,” said Melody. “I can’t wait to tell my students back home about the kids here; about how students work so hard to do well in school; about how they don’t take their education for granted. Who knows what my American students will do with this type of news?”
Student Trip Blog
Above: Visiting students look out over the Ugandan countryside from atop boulders at Ft. Patiko
Every year, IC organizes a trip for its top fundraising students in the Schools for Schools program. The trip—a two-week, all-expenses paid adventure in Uganda—took place a few weeks ago. Twenty students flew out to see firsthand the way their efforts inspired educational progress in the North. We visited partner schools, met with mentors, explored the local market, shadowed students, went rafting on the Nile, and searched for lions.
The trip was awesome. But don’t take my word for it—check out what one of the American students wrote about her trip.
Want to come out to Uganda next summer with IC? Easy! Kick it into high gear this fall when the next Schools for Schools fundraising competition gets rolling, raise the most money in your cluster, and then pack your bags!
Not sure how the whole Schools for Schools thing works? Check this out.
Together We’re Free
Above: Mike with his wife and three children
Invisible Children just released a new documentary called Together We’re Free. It follows the course of IC’s most recent advocacy event, titled “The Rescue”. (Watch the film online for free here under the “On Demand” section of the website.)
The event encouraged international youth who truly believe in and value creativity, idealism, and sacrifice to tangibly make a difference by “abducting themselves.” These abductions represented the injustice that has been unleashed on east African children who’ve been taken from their families and forced to become soldiers in a rebel army known as the LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army).
On Friday morning, I showed this film to the entire Invisible Children Uganda staff of 80, a unique group that is comprised of people from different regions, tribes, and backgrounds from all over Uganda. At first, showing the new film seemed like a horrible and potentially damaging idea. I was worried that the culture of each Ugandan individual would collide with footage of an American culture that they’ve never experienced firsthand. The staff perspectives would be limited and would affect their understanding of the IC supporters featured in the film.
My fears and worries heightened as the projector and computer were prepared for the staff’s arrival. As each person entered the room, I kept hoping and praying that the film would translate into a positive and inspiring group experience. My anxiety slowly dissolved as the sounds and images of the film filled the room and the staff fell silent. There’s no turning back now, I thought.
Faces of IC Update: Innocent
Innocent
19-years-old
Busoga College, Jinja
The younger kids were too small to jump across the ravine. Afternoon rains had turned it into a turbulent moat separating them from their destination: a large building that would provide shelter to hundreds of children for the night. Innocent, barely 12-years-old at the time, said he did what anyone would do-he leant his hand.
One by one, children crossed the stream with his help. When time came to distribute blankets and organize kids for the night, he and some of the other older boys helped orchestrate things. Months rolled by, and night after night Innocent helped tired kids get settled in for sleep. The one adult overseeing the place eventually decided that electing a head boy from the scores of night commuting kids would help things run more smoothly. One night, he ordered seven or eight boys to stand in front of the rest; Innocent was called forward.
“The man told all of the children to stand behind the boy they wanted to represent them as head boy,” Innocent recounted.
In small groups, kids stood and slowly made their way over to Innocent. Seconds later, a long line of children snaked away from him, raising the hair on the back of his neck in disbelief. This single event, this response from hundreds of kids Innocent barely knew, pushed him down a new life path, one lined with opportunity.
Unicycling Across Canada for Invisible Children!!
Above: Phil, right, with a friend he met by the side of the road
Phil is what Invisible Children is all about. At 18, he’s motivated, globally-minded, confident, and committed to bringing about positive change. Phil, though, is doing a fundraiser we’ve never heard of before here at Invisible Children: He’s balancing his way to bringing in bucks.
In March, Phil set out to unicycle across Canada to raise money for Invisible Children. Only the second person ever to unicycle across Canada (!!!), Phil is almost finished his epic 4,700 kilometer ride. To keep family, friends, and followers up to speed on how things are going, he is maintaining a fascinating website that documents his adventures. (I just read about what sort of carbon footprint a cross-Canada unicycle trip leaves. And I learned that Phil has to complete 1,656,931 wheel rotations to make it across the country!)
With the summer season fast approaching, lots of human-powered travelers are setting out to slowly explore the world. Some of them, guys like Phil, are traveling with more than their destinations in mind; hope for change is pushing them to push on.
Wishing you tailwinds, Phil!
For a hefty dose of inspiration, or if you feel like donating some cash to help Phil help students here, head to his website and snoop around.
Faces of IC Update: Sunday
Above: Sunday during a recent visit to IC’s offices in Gulu, Uganda
Sunday
St. Michael’s High School
17 years old
When he sat down across from me, I faced a shy boy with darting eyes. Within moments, though, Sunday came alive in a flurry of smiles and hand gestures. We spent 30 minutes talking about school, about the future, about life. At the start of our interview, I asked Sunday how things had been going, and, waxing poetic like someone twice his age, he replied without hesitation. “You know, in life everything has two sides, like a coin. The good also has the bad. For me, it is the same–two sides. But for now, most things are good.”
More Than Bricks and Mortar
Above: Leo, an IC staffer, inspecting a new IC-built classroom
Every school that Invisible Children builds or renovates is more than just bricks and mortar. Each new classroom is the manifestation of countless hours of planning, of intricate processes that connect contractors, evaluators, engineers, and donors. Because IC values accountability and efficiency just as much as it values education, no part of our school construction process is taken lightly. From scouting out potential sites to post-project evaluation, a team of IC engineers and administrators from our Schools for Schools program is devoted to ensuring money is spent well and walls are made strong.
*****
The classroom, flooded with light, was so bright and clean it took on a sterile feel. The faint smell of fresh paint still hung in the sunlit air. The juxtaposition between it and the rooms in the surrounding classroom blocks, aging buildings tattooed with blooming swaths of mold and water stains, was striking. Christo, the head of IC’s engineering team, wanted our impressions of the place.