Month: October 2020
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Month: October 2020

A HEALTHY ENVIRONMENT FOR A HEALTHY MIND

Everyone you talk to at Mother Care Primary School (Ntungamo district) tells you that there is a significant change in the school’s sanitation and hygiene outlook, brought about by the 125 EGE club. Project club members identified untidy school environs as a challenge that needed action and quickly decided to carry out general cleaning every Saturday as their social enterprise. Working together has fostered teamwork; active citizenship increased a sense of responsibility and created a conducive learning environment. 

The club patron, Mr. Abel Kyarikunda had this to say:

“Thanks to the project, learners are now acting as an example to even some of us. They saw a problem, sat down in their group and came up with a solution that they are implementing. It has totally changed the face of our school”

Using rakes, dustbins, brooms, mopping buckets, scrubbing brushes driers etc. Club members clean the schools school dormitories, offices, classes and the surrounding. The social activity has

SAVING FOR AN EDUCATIONAL GOAL

Setting educational related goals is one the key responsibilities of Aflatouns. This is also true for Nanfuma Mirembe Desire (Primary six)  from Hope Junior School ( Bukomansimbi district).

The savings sessions inspired her to sit down and set her saving goals; buying mathematical sets to assist her in her in studying favorite subject. Little by little taken off her money for breakfast, Desire eventually managed to save a total of Ugx 2,000 and bought a Mathematical set.

Big Agripreneurship Ambitions for Green Stars Primary School EGE Club Members

Last year when EGE project was introduced in the school, after a session on ‘Planning and Budgeting’ 100 club project members (Learners) sat down and decided to start a poultry farm with an aim of selling chicken and eggs to the school and the Rugaaga community in Isingiro district to improve diet but also make profits out of the business for their education and personal needs. Four (4) members offered to bring local breed chicken from their families to start up with and the club also lobbied the director of the school for a secure space.

The school owner obliged and also donated a temporary poultry house. A neighbor of the school who got wind of the project also donated two more chicken to the club. Since last year, the number has accumulated and multiplied to 16 chicken.

Using their savings, club members bought feeding troughs and often buy feeds from a government feeds facility nearby (NAADS). Club members also collect food leftovers from the school and families around the school to supplement feeds bought.

Using the planning and budgeting skills acquired during EGE financial Literacy training, members are able to budget for their poultry farm needs and plan how to obtain them, for example, feeds rations, drugs, etc. Their goal is to make it a model youth project in the area as it grows bigger.

Working on the together has fostered teams work, critical thinking, improved their confidence to share their ideas and also increased self-control.

Cissy Namboira’s story

Initially Cissy Namboira, mother of Patricia Mpindi (Nakabango Senior Secondary school in Jinja), used to do tailoring with a hired and old machine that occasionally broke down yet it was her sole source of income to pay her daughter’s school due. When Empowerment for Girls’ Education (EGE) project, Households Income Generating Activities (IGAs) intervention opportunity arrived, she immediately decided to ask for a new sewing machine, which she received in January 2019.

Right now she is working on school uniform orders placed by two schools within the Nakabango community (Jinja).  Her daughter has also acquired tailoring skills which she plans to pass onto her colleagues in the project at the school, using another sewing machine donated to the school by the project to assist girls in making reusable sanitary pads so they do not miss attending classes during menstruation.

Patricia Mpindi (EGE club member) sewing a school uniform

Ms Cissy is saving with Opportunity Bank and a Village SACCO to buy another machine that her daughter can also use during holidays and weekends especially when she is overwhelmed by school uniform orders. To her, EGE project has not only enabled her to pay school fees for her daughter and also meet other family needs but has also transformed her entire family by giving it a stable source of livelihood