Tony

One of my goals for the trip was to identify a child to sponsor. The younger children at MYDEL attend a makeshift school that the center setup. It is a single room, holding about 100 children at a time from ages 4-14. There are usually no more than 3 teachers available to instruct, but the pupils usually all stay the same material at the same time. This benefits the younger children as some of them are reading beyond their age level. But the older children are severely lagging behind. Twelve and thirteen year olds struggle to comprehend The Cat inn the Hat. I realize a read need for these kids to immediately enroll in a school with small classes and where they’d be separated by age group. Unfortunately, I’m able to sponsor only one child, so I faced a lot of challenges in deciding who I would choose
1. Therfe were hundresds of students to choose from. Besides theyounger children, there are youth enrolled in high school are also struggling to pay their school fees. There are also university students who volunteer at the center and have also approached me to help them find a sponsor to complete their degree. The need in the community is extremely high.
2. I wanted to identify a child who would benefit the most from a sponsorship. Many of the children have been out of school for years and re-entering into a formal education setting would not be beneficial. For example, a 13 year old who hadn’t been in school since the 3rd grade would find it extremely difficult to re-enter school and would most likely be unable to succeed in the 7th or 8th grade and would most definitely feel uncomfortable and perhaps a bit discouraged schooling with an 8 year old.
3. I needed to identify a child who was actually excited about learning and wanted to go to school. Sadly, some of the children only came to the center because it was something to do, they are fed breakfast, and their friends would be there. But while they were in class, they were extremely disruptive, uninterested in class material and clearly had no desire to be there.
I felt that the best way for me to identify the best pupil was to have impromptu interviews and perform assessments. I did all of this without the students being aware of my intentions because I wanted to get as accurate an understanding of them as possible.
I sat in on class one day and watched the children at work. Immediately, five stood out to me. They were extremely eager to learn and understand. They encouraged their classmates and even explained material to them that they couldn’t understand. After observing them for a few hours, I took time to speak to them individually about their lives, when they were last in school, etc. I also wrote a couple of stories and had them read and write to me in order to gauge their reading levels. Disappointedly, I realized that a couple of the students had the desire to learn, but were extremely far behind their age group because they hadn’t been in school for years.
Ultimately, I identified one young boy, Tony. He is nine, but hasn’t been in school since 2005. However, because of his tenacity to learn he has been able to stay on track in terms of reading and doesn’t seem to be far behind. Both of his parents are dead and he lives with his grandmother. The rest of his brothers and sisters are living with other family members. Besides his intellectual capacity, Tony stood out to me because of his discipline and overwhelming respect for authority and elders. Even when school is not in session and the children are enjoying their free time, Tony is extremely focused and holds himselfin an extremely esteemed manner. My next task is to find a school that is close to his home, but will offer quality education. Uganda has Universal Primary Education, however the quality of some government schools is not all that good. If I find a private boarding school that I can afford, that would be my best option.

Breakthrough

This week, I made major moves in my research. I randomly met the chairman of the Kampala Central Division on Wednesday. He asked me about my research and offered to link me with government officials, who would be able to provide me with the information that I have been looking for. This was a welcomed surprise because I had visited several offices numerous times and either I was unable to locate those that I needed to speak to, or when I did locate someone they were too busy to help me find the information I needed. It was just my luck to run into their boss and he was more than willing to help.
On Friday, I met him in his office and he called several of the officials that I was unsuccessful in locating or soliciting help from. One by one they came into his office and he instructed them to help me in anyway they good. It was surreal. In some ways I felt bad because I am sure that some of them were not too thrilled by the fact that I was able to go above their heads and have them ordered to help me, but this research game is a hustle, so I had to find a way to get what I needed.
Because of his help, on Monday I met with the Education Officer at the Kampala City Council, where I was furnished with primary public and private school enrollment numbers for several years. And on Wednesday the Kampala Central Division Education Officer is taking me to primary schools to speak with the headmasters and mistresses about the challenges they’ve faced since the inception of Universal Primary Education. At the end of the week I am doing home visits in Mengo, the slum area where many children at not enrolled in school. I have spoken to education officers about the challenges they’ve faced with UPE, but I am sure that headmasters and families will have a different perspective about the benefit and shortcomings of UPE.

It's Been A Long Time Coming

I know I've been away for quite a long time...almost a year, but a lot of things have incited my muse.
In two weeks I'll be returning to Uganda and this time for a month. I'll be going by myself this time, though I've got a great deal planned.
I'll be working on my master's thesis, so that I can finally graduate! (HOORAY!!!) I'll be volunteering at a youth development organization and orphanage. And I'll be spending time with all of the friends that I met during my first trip and having been longing to see for over a year.
I'm extremely excited to go back. I hope that everything is as good as I remember it being the first time. I am a bit apprehensive that because I stayed on Makerere's campus and we had a cook, driver, and guide, things may have been sugarcoated for me. Though I did make an effort to branch out on my own and try to experience native life, I am still sure that I was sheltered from or wasn't there long enough to experience everything. I just hope that whatever is to come in the month that I'm there will still leave me loving Kampala because I definitely still have an interest in moving there in the next year.
The director of the youth organization that I will be volunteering with seems very excited to have me visit and I also hope that is a great experience. I know that it will be challenging because thought I am very passionate about working with young people, I empathize with them quite a bit and am usually deeply and personally affected by their experiences. I appreciate having a vested interest in their livelihood, but this experience will definitely show me if I am able to have a hands on approach to their plight and still be effective on a larger, administrative scale.
I have decided to focus my research on corruption in the education system and more specifically the effects that the Public Expenditure Tracking System (PETS) has had on curbing corruption and ultimately increasing school resources and student access to education. Uganda has been heralded as becoming more transparent due to the PETS, but I wonder if this assertion is due to a series of reports generated by the government or if teachers and administrators of the PETS have felt that it was indeed effective and helpful.
This week I am also taking a one week course on Youth & Conflict. The instructor of the course, Randolph Carter, came in to speak to a class that I took last fall and he was amazing! Even though this course is being offered so close to the time that I leave for my trip, I just had to take it! I hope that I enjoy the course as much as I did his guest visit to my class. And hopefully it will incite some thoughts and generate ideas for me to share with everyone. It has surely been too long since I've done so!
However, though I have been MIA, I have been writing this spring, so I will post some excerpts from papers I've written and thoughts that I have been having in general in 2007.