Help Children with Learning Difficulties in Uganda

Hi there,

Thank you, thank you, thank you! That’s how we want to start this report, because it covers exactly what our team feels like: grateful! You probably remember seeing our posts, emails and messages about August’s Little by Little campaign. We were raising funds to cover all our remaining training sessions for this year. The campaign with matching funds only ran for 5 days, so we were a little anxious to see if we would be able to reach our $1,032 goal that fast. Well, it turned out 3 days were enough for that, unbelievable! If you made this happen by contributing, by sharing our posts, or in any other way, then please remember that it was YOU who made it possible for us to finish the 2019 school year.

With this in mind, our team was able to finish term 2 and start the last school term of the year without worries. We closed term 2 with learning & evaluation meetings at every one of our partner schools. These are our major feedback moments during the school year, both for the teachers and for our team. For example, during the first of these meetings at the end of term 1, we listened to the barriers that are holding back the teachers from using the skills they learn from us during the training sessions. While they have been telling us that they see the training content as useful, sometimes specific circumstances make it difficult to actually use it to help children with possible learning difficulties. Talking about these barriers and continuously exploring how to move around or beyond them, empowers the teachers AND our team at the same time. We could not be doing what we do - and we would not be doing it right - if we did not listen to the very people we work with.

Term 3 is bringing us exciting times, mainly because the student teachers at Gulu Core Primary Teachers College will be going for their second school practise! That means we will get to observe them while they are putting all their knowledge and skills to work in their future work environment: the classroom. We are sure they are a little nervous, and to be honest, we cannot wait either. After all our joint training sessions, we finally get to see them bringing theory and practise to life as teachers. As their supervisors move between the different primary schools to check in on them, we will be doing the same with a focus on identifying and supporting children with possible learning difficulties. From term 1, we remember that the student teachers were quite appreciative of our presence and feedback, so we are looking forward to being their ‘Backup’ one more time before they graduate.

This third term also brings us closer to the end of the school year and the start of the long Christmas break (Jingle Bells, anyone?). We still have a good number of training sessions, lesson observations and other joint activities planned with our partner primary schools, Gulu Core PTC, and several of our partner organizations. For example, we will be observing lessons taught by the teachers at Shalom Primary School - a private partner primary school - and by Geneva Global’s speed school facilitators as well. Our social media pages give you regular, brief updates if you are interested, so follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or Linkedin for that! But, before the end of the year, you will receive another update through this platform too. Please feel free to be in touch with us if there is anything you want to know or say, we love hearing from you!

Much love from Gulu,

The Backup Uganda Team

Hello dear friend,

And just like that, we have reached the middle of the 2019 school year! That means we are half way through our one-year collaboration with our newest partner schools as well. A good moment to reflect on the past 6 months and look forward to what the next 6 will bring!

By now, the established teachers, teachers to be and parents have dived into the details of specific learning difficulties. With the teachers at Kasubi Army Primary School, Gulu Town Primary School and Gulu Prison Primary School, as well as with the student teachers at Gulu Core PTC, we have worked on understanding difficulties like dyslexia and dyscalculia. That includes looking at the different types, their characteristics, and the different possible causes. Especially talking about the causes offers eye openers to them, every time we do it. Why? Because it emphasizes one of the most important aspects we are trying to communicate: children who experience learning difficulties are NOT lazy, dull, or to blame for what they are struggling with.

To make sure that the (future) teachers walk away with practical strategies to support these children as well, we dedicated a full workshop to the development of individualized support plans for learners. Once we have completed our year of partnership, every school will be able to continue setting up and using these plans after we have left, led by a focal person within the school. 

At this point, working with the student teachers at Gulu Core PTC has truly become one of our favorite elements of our project. The fresh energy, the creative ideas and the eagerness to learn that they bring keep us on our toes! During this second school term, we meet the student teachers in their second (and final) year on a weekly basis, and we look forward to it every time. At the same time, we are working together closely with their lecturer who covers Special Needs Education, to ensure that he can integrate the workshops into his own teaching during the next years to come.

In May, we got to change the training scenery for a couple days, as we were invited to come and train the teachers of Shalom Primary School in Pakwach District. We were lucky enough to find an excited team of teachers who actively participated in our 1.5 day training, AND to see some wild animals from the neighbouring national park on our way back: elephant, buffalo and hippo alert! Whenever we can, we include trainings at private schools and other education-based organizations, so we can expand our reach even further.

If you are interested in continuing to support our work, GlobalGiving has a great opportunity coming up that might sound familiar to you… That’s right, Little by Little is back! In other words: from 12-16 August, the humblest donations are celebrated with matching funds for every single donation. In April, the matching funds ran out pretty quickly, so the August campaign will be BIGGER than ever! This campaign will help us cover the remaining costs for our trainings for the rest of 2019, so you know exactly what good your (tax-deductible) contribution will do. We will keep you posted!

Much love from Gulu,

The Backup Team