Mahango Sub-County, Kasese, Uganda. One of the remote areas covered by the assessment. It has a high need for improved ECDE Services.
Tangu Utoto Foundation conducted its 2022 Early Childhood Development and Education (ECDE) Centers’ Assessment in Partnership with Kasese District Local Government. The assessment sought to establish the extent of implementation of the ECDE best practices that were instilled in teachers during the various training sessions that have been conducted by the organization. Several schools registered an improvement in the delivery of their ECDE service. This demonstrated that the training sessions conducted by the Tangu Utoto Foundation with the teachers and school owners are significantly adding value to the ECDE centers.
The Team Leader of the Tangu Utoto Foundation, Ms. Bracidia Kabugho, poses with pupils at Mahango during the assessment.
Despite this, many schools continue to grapple with inadequate classroom space and dilapidated classroom blocks. They also face a high teaching staff turnover rate which limits knowledge retention for the ECDE best practices because the trained teachers keep getting jobs elsewhere.
“Mwanithu, Kabugho (Dear Kabugho) Wughende Ghusome, Kutsibu (Go and study, hard) Kundi ebibuya biri embere (Because good things are ahead of you) Wughende ghusome wangasabiryako (Go and study to partake of them)““When a girl drops out of school for any reason, it’s a tragedy because of their lost potential.” Edrine K. Photo Credit: Heifer International.
Why Kabugho?
May 2, 2022, is the launch date of Project Kabugho. The spirit of this project is the several social limitations that different generations of women have faced in Uganda and the tragedy of the untapped potential of the millions of women who live(d) without going through formal education. Kabugho is the name given to the third daughter born to a couple among the Bakonzo people of Uganda. The Bakonzo name their children according to their birth order. Masika, Biira, and Kabugho are the first, second, and third daughters respectively. In this song, each of those names represents a different generation of women, and the generational inequality that they’ve experienced in accessing opportunities, in this particular case, education. The song is a call to the younger generation of women, “the Kabughos,” to embrace education as their surest tool of overcoming many of the challenges that were faced by our foremothers and grandmothers who never accessed education.
Girls need role models to look up to in the pursuit of education to help them stay focused. Strong role models have a lasting effect on the scope of a girl’s dreams and goals in life.
What’s Kabugho About?
The song is a conversation between a mother and her younger daughter Kabugho. The mother expresses her deep sorrow at what befell her elder daughters Masika and Biira who dropped out of school. She then implores Kabugho to take away her sorrow by staying in school until completion to be able to overcome the tragedy of the untapped potential of her elder siblings, Masika and Biira, who dropped out of school due to succumbing to HIV/AIDS and child marriage respectively. The mother tells her daughter Kabugho examples of very successful women from the local community whose lives were transformed because of education. Kabugho’s mother then asks her to look up to these role models whose lives were transformed because of completing school.
On April 12, 2022, UNFPA launched the State of The World Population Report #SWOP2022 titled: #SeeingTheUnseen The Case for Action in the Neglected Crisis of Unintended Pregnancy, A Crisis Unseen. Ms. Edrine K attended the report launch at Kampala Sheraton Hotel to which she was invited by UNFPA as a stakeholder in averting the crisis of unintended pregnancy in Uganda.
In the final analysis…
The striking message of this song is that education levels the playing field for girls and women and when a girl drops out of school for any reason, it’s a tragedy because of their lost potential. Girl child education is an indispensable first step in overcoming generational gender inequality. The other message is that girls need role models to look up to in the pursuit of education to help them stay focused. Strong role models have a lasting effect on the scope of a girl’s dreams and goals in life. This song is a call to every girl to stay in school and emulate the educated women in their community to be able to achieve their dreams.
Kirindiro Communications joins the world in celebrating International Women’s day 2022 (#IWD2022). We celebrate the girls and women making moves to ensure a more inclusive world by 2030. Girls and women play an indispensable role in climate change adaptation, mitigation, and response to build a more sustainable future for all. During climate-induced disasters like floods and landslides in Uganda, girls and women are one of the most affected groups in the population. It cannot be said enough how central girls’ and women’s input is in combating the existential crisis of human-induced climate change. #BreakTheBias #IWD2022
One of the ECD teachers who participated in the training during a ‘Classroom Materials Display’ demonstration on day four of the five-day training at Kamaiba Youth Center, Kasese, Uganda.
Grow, Learn, Discover
Tangu Utoto Foundation
Uganda has had the longest school closure due to COVID-19 in the world and as result, teachers and students have been at home with no school activity for two years. With the Government of Uganda’s announcement that school programs shall resume on January 10, 2022, Tangu Utoto Foundation carried out a five-day refresher training for Early Childhood Development (ECD) teachers in Kasese District from January 4 to 8, 2022 at Kamaiba Youth Center, Kasese Uganda. The purpose of the training was to refresh teachers on ECD best practices before they go back to class to teach the children. The training targeted 100 ECD teachers from less privileged schools but was able to reach 80 due to budget limitations. The ECD specialists took teachers through a refresher of the following ECD best practices topics:
Professional Teachers’ Ethics
Lesson Plan & Scheme of Work development
Classroom Display
Rhymes & Songs
Language (Jolly phonics)
Material Development
Three Tangu Utoto Foundation staff and the two ECD specialist trainers pose for a photo in the evening after setting up classroom reading materials at one of the demonstration schools of the training. (L-R Alice, Edrine, Bracidia, Jackline, Pamela)
Highlights from the five-day training of ECD teachers conducted by Tangu Utoto Foundation in Kasese, Uganda.
