Monday, March 21, 2011

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

One thing I really tried to focus on in coming to Uganda was that change is hard. It's difficult, slow-going and always met with resistance but alone, none are good enough reasons to not even try in the first place. Just how much resistance we'd meet, much less from whom...well I couldn't really prepare myself for that.

I set off last August with some goals of my own in mind for the following 10 months. I knew full well once we settled in and got to know our new community, we'd be adjusting those goals to make them more personal for the people actually intended to benefit in the long term. One such goal, and probably the biggest, was to create some kind of after-school program for the 5 area schools in Ndejje and after we spent some time in the classroom with the kids, it was very apparent the after-school program was much needed. Many kids lack creativity and critical thinking skills, they are never encouraged to explore different situations. Questions are frowned upon. And so we moved forward, cautiously and slowly with our partner school HOPE, dipping our toes in to create such a program where kids would be encouraged to be creative, to use their minds and feel ok to ask questions and not just repeat what their teacher said.

Fresh off the December/January break, we began the new school year with an organized three-day a week program. We'd talked with the Headmistress and the Director of HOPE to explain our plan. At their suggestion, we made information flyers and permission slips for the parents since, in this culture, the children are expected to do housework and chores after school and the parents would certainly wonder where their child was. It also became clear we had quite some work to do in sensitizing the community to the benefits of puzzles & stimulating games, art and free reading ; these weren't just fun activities, the kids will get something out of their time at the after-school program. Something they weren't getting in school...

Naturally, it was well received with the kids; however, slowly but surely the teachers warned their classes against attending. Attendance dropped a little. Next we were told parents were calling the Headmistress to inquire where their child was. Then the Director. (Against our better instincts, we believed these to be true even though we could never get the parent or child names from these calls...) Then we heard the children were being threatened that if they attended the Youth Center after school, they would be beat ("caned", usually 2-3 strikes on the arm or back of leg). We talked with the teachers in question and the Administration, but they sited exams a week & 1/2 away as the reason for their threat. Out of respect, we obliged and shut the Center for the last day of that week. Attendance was already about half what it usually was and while we knew their was most certainly another reason why this was happening, we could not make any progress. Then, last Monday some kids came to our house after school, maybe a dozen or so, all with cane marks on the back of their legs. I was outraged! We had shut our Center and stopped our program so the kids wouldn't get beat and still this was happening?! The HOPE Director and Headmistress agreed it was best to shut our program completely for "at least a week" until things settled. Well, things really weren't about to settle anytime soon... In discussing the future of the program, we were told we weren't respecting the culture, we weren't being appropriate and my personal favorite, we were too young to really know how to do this program. The reason I was here was to do this program and taking a shot at my/our ages was way out of line. I knew I was qualified for this. I knew had been respectful and felt I've followed cultural norms the entire time I was here. If anyone can compare the two cultures and work ethics, it seems a bit needless to say that it could be the person who has lived in both places...Nevertheless, we continued to fight for what we knew what could be a positive program. If only we had been granted some of the understanding we were trying to show. There had certainly been a lot of ups & downs over the past 7 months, the past 3 weeks have been my biggest challenge and unfortunately it's from the very people that are supposed to be working with us. As exhausting as it is and to be honest, as worn out as I am, there was nothing for us to do except fight for our Center, program and ultimately for the kids. We needed clear & immediate action to be taken. Together with SWB-USA, we've created a new set of "by-laws" for the Youth Center and stated a general direction for the program-of which an after-school program is most certainly highlighted. We've more clearly outlined roles and responsibilities. By learning that things needed to be written down in order to be taken seriously, it seems we've actually gotten somewhere and finally this coming Tuesday, we get to re-open our after-school program - free of threats on the kids, complaints by the parents and admin and we hope with the support again of the community.

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