Education in Uganda

Some of our older former street children are now being educated in neighbouring Uganda. The education system in South Sudan is in its infancy and our older children need stretching mentally, and the Ugandan education system does just that.

Many of our children are excelling in school in Uganda and a large proportion of them are coming top of their class, some, top of their year group.

During the school holidays the schools give the children huge amounts of homework and the stress levels rise when they should be trying to relax.

In both 2018 and 2019 Confident Children Out of Conflict UK provided teachers from the UK to help them during their homework studies.

As well as written homework there were many practical tasks, one of which was to make a working model of a latrine, something which is very useful in Africa.

During these homework sessions it was discovered that one of the children is severely Dyslexic, something the child has been struggling with for most of her life and was never highlighted, thankfully she is now receiving help with it.

Social Media

Like any teenagers, Social Media is starting to play a part in their lives, thankfully with our children not too big of a part yet. But nonetheless they are still keen to use it to contact their family and friends. However, many of these young people are unaware of the potential dangers of Social Media. Whilst in Uganda the Chair of Confident Children Out Of Conflict UK, Kevin Bellwood, arranged a ‘Staying Safe on Social Media’ workshop which was very well received and well timed.

The workshop was very interactive and many of our girls reported that teenagers at their school had been potentially groomed by people they had met online, some of them arranging meetings.

During the session many of the girls re-set their privacy settings in their profiles and said they felt much safer and wiser after the workshop and will in future scrutinise all their ‘Friend Requests’ more closely.

 

One of the girls receiving specialist help from the UK. Here she is talking to two Dyslexia experts from Chuckle Productions in Stone, Staffordshire UK via Skype.

This training continued whilst she was on holiday and continued at school from one of her teachers. She is making great progress with her reading skills.