People mentioned in the report and who they are:
Deborah- my counterpart and child development specialist
Winnie- Social worker who i give a lot of credit to because she grew up being supported by the org and decided she wanted to help others that are in the same situation she was in
Mu Sawo- the school nurse who would like me to find her a man
So here it goes...
1. Basic Information: From January through March I have taught life skills on Tuesday mornings, assisted in the implementation of Club Glow, ran a health day activity for the children on Women’s Day, visited a couple of homes, helped to restructure the clubs, taught 2 librarians how to enter books into computer and helped to design and input information on various spreadsheets.
Life Skills: Life Skills is part of the school day on Tuesday mornings. Time is a difficult thing for life skills because the church often goes over on its time and then they hold the student assembly there have been many days where life skills is unable to happen due to not having time to have class. The class has also grown to P5-P7. I try to make the activities as interactive and fun as possible. The activities that have been taught include:
What are Life Skills- to teach the children what life skills are and how they can affect their lives as well as to see what the children view as life skills and how they think they are important.
Bridge Model- to teach the children how life skills affect them and can help them to lead a positive healthy lifestyle.
Peer Pressure/Choosing Peer Groups- what is peer pressure, how does it affect them, how they can resist peer pressure and how to be assertive when saying no.
Best Advice Game- Children split into groups and I gave them various scenarios of things people might say when trying to pressure them into a situation. The children then worked together to come up with a response. The group with the most detailed response won a mark and the group with the most marks at the end got a piece of candy. Myself, Aunt Julie and Mu Sawo acted as judges for the game and explained why each response was the best response for that situation.
Short and Long Term Goals- Taught the children what goals were both short and long term. Discussed why it is important to set goals and gave steps to reaching goals. Had the children think about their goals and write out short and long term goals, who can help them achieve their goals, an action plan for achieving their goals, what they will need to achieve their goals, what might stand in the way of letting them achieve the goal and the date they hope to complete the goal.
Role Models- Had the help of 4 club glow girls to teach this section (they were originally going to teach it while I was away at training but life skills ended up not happening that week). We discussed what a role model is, the qualities to look for in a role model, how a role model can help you learn from their mistakes and weaknesses (children were thinking that a guardian who did not go to school could not be a role model but discussed with them how a role model can help them live a better life than they were able to have). Had the children write out who their role model was and why as well as the qualities their role model has that makes them their role model and how they can help them achieve their goals.
Club Glow: Club Glow is the girls empowerment club that meets on Thursday afternoons. I meet with the leaders of Club Glow on Tuesdays during tea time to help them come up with a topic and questions that can be asked for the members to better understand the topic. Club Glow is normally in Luganda so I do not understand a majority of what is going on but still attend and am available when a question arises. The members of club glow lead the discussions and myself, Deborah and Winnie are there to answer questions the girls may have and help them give scenarios. Some of the topics discussed include:
Sanitation while on Period: girls discussed proper disposal of pads, how to be clean while on period, how often to change pad and had questions about tampons so Deborah and myself gave a tampon demonstration to show how they work. (girls would like to learn how to make reusable pads so they can use them on holidays etc. The cost would be approx 1500/= per pad made and I am able to teach this if we can get the funding. The cost is too little to get a grant from the Peace Corps)
Question Box: Answered various questions the girls submitted anonymously regarding any topic they had questions about.
Role Models- Discussed role models what they are, qualities a role model should have, advice a role model should give, and who their role models were and why.
What is Love- Discussed what love is and the difference between love for family member and love for a partner. Discussed how one can show their love and how people who love them will not pressure them into doing wrong things.
Sexual Feelings- Mu Sawo came in to help discuss with the girls and answered questions that the girls had. Discussed other activities they could no when having these feelings.
Clubs: Helped to restructure clubs and staff will be more accountable for the implementation of clubs. Club Glow and agriculture were the only 2 clubs active. Teachers picked which club they wanted to be apart of and will be working in teams to implement clubs for the children. I have made announcements about being available and willing to help teachers come up with ideas for activities and work with them on implementing the clubs. The teachers will come up with a plan for what they intend to do with the clubs next term.
Home Visits: I went with Winnie to visit a couple of homes to give donations that the sponsors had sent as well as went to deliver the materials the children collected for the mother of a couple of the students who passed away.
Health Day: Mu Sawo and I held a health day on womens day where we taught the children how to properly wash their hands and brush their teeth. We discussed with them why it is important and what could happen if they do not do it. We started a competition where if the children still have their toothbrush and it looks as though it has been used regularly at the end of the term they will be entered into a drawing to win a prize. Many children were not present for this activity due to having to finish exams at the school. We had also planned a scavenger hunt for this day but too many children were missing for it to happen.
Library: Taught old librarian how to enter books into the computer so there is a list of all books so we can better keep track of the books. She got through almost all of the literature books. A new librarian has started and I also showed her how to enter the books and have been working with her on basic computer skills and entering the books. She has also found it easier to write the books out on a piece of paper then transfer them onto the computer. We will be saving those papers just in case they get erased off the computer again, but we do plan to have a copy of the books on all the computers at the school and maybe provide a copy to the main office so that we do not have to spend the time redoing the list again.
Spreadsheets-Helped design and enter data on multiple spreadsheets for a better tracking system.
2. Shareholder Perspective- I feel as though some of the children find the activities useful and others feel as though they are a waste of time. Some topics get more attention than others so I need to try various learning methods to attempt to engage everyone in the activities. The teachers seem eager to restart the clubs and have chosen the club in which they are most interested in therefore hopefully a more sustainable result will occur from the clubs and these teachers will take the clubs and make them their own.
3. Challenges- There are many challenges when trying to work with children after school when they want to have their free time and not think about school or health. It has been difficult loosing a librarian and retraining another to input the books into the computer but we are making it work and have even created a better system to input the books. The challenges for life skills include; time is a difficult thing for life skills because the church often goes over on its time and then they hold the student assembly. Teachers will often pull students for exams or other activities during this time. The class has also grown to P5-P7 so there are many children in one room so the children are smashed and many do not have a place to sit which causes many distractions and many children to not pay attention. It is also very difficult to get the boys to participate during the class.
4. Action Plan- Teachers will start full implementation of the clubs at the beginning of next term. I plan on incorporating health days into life skills classes to teach about the topic then doing optional hands on activities with the children at night (ex April- world malaria day is April 26th so I plan to teach children about malaria during life skills and have an evening activity making posters etc. would also like the help of the house mothers to go through and look at nets in dorms and when we return from break we can repair nets and teach the children how to repair nets.)
5. Lessons Learned- I have learned a great deal from the students and staff around Sabina. From sitting with a group of students talking about different things to sitting with the nurse asking her about the health of the kids and what steps she takes when children have various illnesses and comparing and answering questions about how things work in Uganda vs America. Each day is a new learning experience and I love every minute of it.
6. Conclusion- I feel as though the last quarter was successful and the children hopefully learned a great deal during this time. So many things that are done are too small to be reported but happen on a regular basis such as conversations with the children on various topics and answering their questions about different things. When working with a school and children I feel as though the small things have the greatest impact on them.
And that folks is what i have been doing for the past 3 months as well as some other side projects such as softball and trying to meet with the womens group who meet on the worst days and somehow everytime i make sure i am around to go to the meeting their meeting gets cancelled...but i will make it work soon!
