Uganda: Going to school for the first time

Joanne Offer recently traveled to northern Uganda, once the scene of one of the bloodiest civil wars in Africa. Today, the IRC is helping hundreds of children and former child laborers go to school for the first time.   My visit to Uganda coincides with a time that many children dread—the start of the new school year. Yet as I travel from school to school, I can see that for the children here things are different “Before I was able to come to school, I was fetching water for money,” said 12-year-old Lakot Cavine. “It was hard work and it made me tired. I worked all day in the sun. It was a long day.” Today, Lakot attends primary school in Kitgum, thanks to a unique program run by the IRC called LEAP— Livelihoods, Education and Protection to End Child Labor. Across north and northeast Uganda, the IRC is paying the school fees of children and former child laborers, repairing school buildings, installing latrines, constructing new houses for teachers, and training teachers to become better instructors. “Since the IRC started helping us, school enrollment has gone up,” said Nadutuka Daniela, the head teacher at the Loodoi Primary school in the district of Moroto. “The IRC is paying fees and has given materials—books and uniforms—that parents can’t afford. People are so happy about it.” Poverty is an overwhelming fact of life in these parts of Uganda. In Karamoja, people are struggling with severe drought, the effects of decades of cattle-raiding, under-investment by government in vital infrastructure such as schools and health centers, and lack of economic opportunity. Communities are still recovering from years of displacement—thousands of people in northern Uganda were forced to flee the brutal civil war between the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army and the government. They are only now starting to re-cultivate farms that had lain abandoned for years. A severe lack of rain this year has ruined many new harvests. “Parents can’t provide for their children so the children end up washing cars, working in mines or even as prostitutes,” said Ojara Austin, an IRC community worker in Kitgum. To help parents economically, the IRC is helping establish village savings and loans associations. Parents contribute a small amount to the savings and loan every week—from as little as 50 cents to $3—and can then apply for a loan of up to three times their savings. “I was able to obtain a loan and I am now involved in a small business in town,” said Mary Olworo, who lives in Kitgum. “I buy and sell items like tomatoes, fish and maize. Even more important, I have been able to use the money to buy school books for my children.” To Help:  The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child protects children. Only two nations in the world have yet to join the global community in ratifying this agreement: Somalia and the United States. Urge President Obama and Congress to ratify the convention without delay. Sign our peition at theIRC.org/rescueachild