Up North with Pincer and USAID

Last week on Wednesday, we left for a 4-day trip to Northern Uganda with the Pincer Group. They help to allocate recipients of education funding of organizations such USAID. They also serve as the legal resource of local governments hoping to establish education ordinances to improve the systems in their districts. They help draft the laws and make sure that they are in line with national laws on education.

Wednesday night we stopped in Oyam District before arriving in Gulu. There in Oyam (which neighbors Gulu and was affected by rebels and the war), we met with the Local Council (LC) V Chairman for the district, Col. Rtd. Okello Engola Macodwogo and learned of his initiatives to rebuild his district. He has used some of his funding to buy brick-makers, so that by 2009 he’ll have teacher housing in all of his schools. He also has created laws that require all schools have 7 acres of trees so that they become more sustainable. I was very impressed by this commitment to rebuilding Oyam. Already, everyone is out of the IDP camps in the district and they have been closed.



Thursday morning, Valentine’s Day, we began our official meetings with the local councils and USAID. We first went to Pakwelo Primary, adjacent to Pakwelo IDP, and watched an assembly put on by the students that promotes abstinence.

“Come on ladies, come on gentlemen
Prepare yourselves to fight against AIDS.
Shake your heads and shake your shoulders
To chase AIDS away.”

In the song, they had verses that promoted students to join activities such as Peace Club and GEM Club (a girls empowerment initiative in the North). They said that abstinence provides hope, and they used the four letters of hope to deepen that message.



H stands for happiness
O stands for opportunity
P stands for patience
E stands for encouragement

Abstinence of sex before marriage to stay safe and stay in school.

At this point in the day at Pakwelo, we first met the two representatives of USAID attending the meetings. Dr. Thomas Leblanc is the Senior Education Advisor of USAID in Uganda and is stationed in Kampala. He has previous experience in Malawi with improving education, and he is responsible for the implementation of interactive radio instruction in Malawi. In this phenomenal program, primary curriculum in broadcasted over the radio across Malawi for 30 minutes every day. This ensures that students get at least 30 minutes of quality instruction each day. With teacher shortages a problem in so many countries, IRI only requires an adult to supervise the child and ensure that they listen. Donors introduced 10,000 radios to villages across Malawi so that children have the means to tune in. He’s already discussing with the Ministry of Education and Sports to implement the same in Uganda, notably in Northern Uganda where schools are struggling to relocate from the displaced schools back to their original pre-war sites.

We also met Catherine Miles, a USAID representative from Washington, DC who focuses on education within the African division. She was coming to monitor the progress of the USAID programs in Northern Uganda.

Pakwelo is one of the primary schools benefiting from American support. They receive funding from the UNITY and REPLICA (Revitalizing Education, Participation, and Learning in Conflict Areas) programs. One component I found commendable was the counseling and psychosocial support that the school now can offer its staff and students. There is an office for the counselor and when I walked in, I found that the walls are covered with drawings and posters by the students. Some showed drawings of LRA attacks in their villages, others warned of sugar daddies and promiscuity. It was fascinating what she is doing with her students. We were rushed for time, so I wasn’t able to ask the counselor many questions, but I am anticipating going back to Pakwelo in March.



After Pakwelo, we visited Gulu Core Primary Teachers College and saw their resources on a peace education and thematic curriculum. Thematic curriculum is where students in P1-P3 learn in the mother tongue through hands-on learning. I don’t know if it’s being used in other districts in Uganda, but from the forum we attended, it seems as though it is quite controversial as to whether students should learn in their mother tongue or English for those first 3 years. The teachers are the teacher college back thematic curriculum though and say that in the year since it was first implemented in some primary schools in Gulu, they have seen positive results.

In the teacher resource center there, I found a picture card tool produced by UNICEF. It contains 14 cards with one large watercolor on the front and tools for the teacher on the back. Some of the images are called:

Happy Family
Children Playing
Men Rebuilding Structure
Happy Child Hiding
Unhappy Child Hiding
Displacement
Child Amputee
Children by Graveside
Children Crying at Night
Boys Fighting over Pawpaw





On the back are questions for the teacher to ask the pupils and follow-up activities. It was extremely interesting, and I’m anxious to learn of where it is being used.

At Pakwelo, I also saw for the first time posters with children’s artwork on it produced by Concerned Parents- UNICEF. They are art therapy posters by children in IDP camps. Some messages are on abduction, girls should avoid moving alone, avoid sugar daddies.





That afternoon we had a meeting with the local governments of Gulu, Amuru, and Oyam; the Pincer Group; teachers and headteachers; and USAID to discuss the education in the districts, the needs, and the importance of creating education ordinances at the local levels to reinforce laws pertaining to education and rebuilding.





That night we went over to Jeff Korondo's and listened to music.

The next morning, we took the education ordinance forum meetings to Kitgum district, where we meet with the local council there. Kitgum, like other schools in the North, has a problem with high pupil to teacher ratios. In fact, the officials were saying that at least in the “learning centers” (displaced schools) there can be a sharing of teachers.

Kitgum district has a pupil: teacher ratio of 83:1.

Problems were heard in both days meetings include:
-No special needs education
-Lack of teacher housing
-Teachers reporting late to school
-Lack of attention paid to girl child
-Trauma of teachers and students
-No facilities
-No borehole for water
-No payment for teachers

Hopefully, through the implementation of these education ordinances, local communities can begin organizing and building up education systems in the North. Tom Leblanc said, “It’s up to you to solve your problems,” in reference to the need for decentralization from national government. People at the lower level of government (aka local level) know the needs and how they can be best met.

I also found it very interesting what USAID had to say about their reason for being in Uganda. While it is nothing top-secret or controversial, some of the comments they made are worth mentioning. In his closing remark in Kitgum, Tom said that USAID is here to ensure that Uganda develops. Throughout the course of the two-days, Catherine and Tom both said repeatedly that their job is to represent the best interest of the American people in Uganda. And part of their interest is to ensure that Uganda develops. He also said commented on how “it’s all interconnected, here especially.” How the US has taken an interest in Sudan and Darfur.

This whole region is so unstable currently. The following is an excerpt from a letter I wrote last week that is being presented to Tennessee Congressmen in DC on Tuesday when Erin attends the Northern Uganda Lobby Day (www.ugandalobbyday.com):

With political upheaval in Kenya and military and rebel violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan, Uganda sits in the middle of an extremely volatile and unstable region of the world. It is in the best interest of the people of the United States of America that the United States government takes an active role in development and diplomacy in Uganda, so Uganda does not again suffer the same fate as their East African neighbors.

Tom said that USAID in Uganda is just waiting on Congress to say “Hey, intervene in Northern Uganda.” And he hopes that it happens very soon. They have many programs that they would like to implement in Uganda, particularly Northern Uganda, but until they receive more funding, they cannot do so. In my letter, I wrote of what Tom said and urged them to release more funding for Northern Uganda development in addition to added pressure for success of the peace talks and justice to the victims in Northern Uganda.

Lastly for this post, Friday night we had a divine appointment for dinner at the Boma Hotel. We were eating with the Pincer group, when George brought Gulu LC V Chairman Norbert Mao to our table. I thought he would just say hello, but instead he sat down and joined us.



He is a wonderful man, and quite funny too. He made a joke shortly after sitting at the table that set the tone for the evening. He had taken one of the Pincer group’s chair, so he said how he had displaced someone. The guy from Pincer kept up the comment and said it was okay, he had already resettled. Like how I felt watching the boys in the summer at Gulu HS perform a comedy of the peace process, making everyone laugh, I was surprised at the jokes about the situation in Northern Uganda. But if you can’t laugh, then I imagine the sadness will be overbearing. The joking seemed hopeful. Mao isn’t desperate, the situation in the North is how it is, and he’s making the most of the help he’s given.

There were also fireworks in Gulu Town that night, and he laughed at a cat’s uncertainty at the noise. It took off and hid. He said how it was nice to have fireworks in Gulu and people not be terrified it was the rebels advancing toward the town. It’s true, too. Times are changing in Gulu, and little by little there’s progress toward the future and hope for recovery.



Chairman Mao offered us an internship with him once we arrive in Gulu in March, and I am so honored and excited. It is an incredible opportunity to be working with him. He has met people from Nelson Mandela to Madeline Albright to Jessie Jackson. The LC V hasn’t had any Western interns before, so we’re embarking on something completely unique and new. I can’t wait!

Also, we saw Betty and Baby Michael. It was his first experience around white people, and he wasn't phased at all. He drooled everywhere and was completely happy.