Blog Archives
Catching up to the kids
April 24, 2013 by Bethany Williams
Patrick Ocan is a member of the Village Savings and Loan Associations group Pur Kwiri Alok, which has the optimistic meaning “there is no loss in farming.” Everyone in the group is a farmer. For many members of the group, life has been about survival. Completing an education had to be put on the back [...] Read More
Uganda: Photo Friday
December 14, 2012 by Bethany Williams
It’s not just sewing skills the ladies are learning at Mend. Evelyn, the staff social worker has organized regular Functional Adult Literacy classes to introduce practical reading and writing abilities. On this particular day, the women were learning how to fill out bank forms, writing the cash amount as both numbers and words. Being comfortable [...] Read More
Village Savings: learning the basics
November 26, 2012 by Bethany Williams
Invisible Children Uganda’s (ICU) Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLA) provide community members with an opportunity to save money, earn interest, and take out loans to start up their own businesses. The 95 savings groups meet once a week, and those meetings are overseen by a community facilitator. Facilitators are also trained in teaching Functional [...] Read More
What peace means to me
September 21, 2012 by Bethany Williams
Years of peace in northern Uganda have brought hope and opportunities for improved livelihood to the communities there. Wednesday, World Vision in partnership with Gulu District and the Acholi Peace Initiative held an event for International Peace Day. Invisible Children Uganda (ICU) was invited to have a booth at the event to display our Mend [...] Read More
International Literacy Day
September 11, 2012 by Bethany Williams
Globally, 775 million adults (over the age of 15) are unable to read or write. The adult literacy rate in Uganda is 73.2%. This places them in an extremely vulnerable position, in which something as simple as opening a bank account or signing for a loan presents barriers because of the inability to read or sign [...] Read More
Never too late to graduate
June 25, 2012 by Bethany Williams
This past week saw 805 women and men graduate from Invisible Children’s (IC) Functional Adult Literacy (FAL) program. The graduation came after members of IC’s Village Savings and Loan Associations successfully completed a one-year course on basic subjects of numeracy, reading and writing. Due to insecurity from the past war in northern Uganda, many members [...] Read More
