COVID-19 pandemic and its associated closure of schools came with many other risks and fears for both parents and learners. Many learners lost time. Parents worried for the future of their children. For parents with daughters, the fear and risk of their girls being married off was top on the list.
Many parents did not know when schools would reopen and how their children would cover up for the lost time. Micheal Amadi a secondary teacher in Moyo Secondary School, father to Amadi Gladys a 15-year-old in Primary Seven shared his concerns.
“My daughter was among the children who should have been in secondary right now, but because of COVID-19, she is still in Primary Seven. All hope was lost until the AGENCI’s project intervention,” Mr. Amadi revealed.
The Adolescent Girls’ Education in Crisis Initiative (AGENCI) Project is funded by the Global Affairs Canada (GAC) and implemented by Windle International Uganda (WIU) in partnership with World University Service of Canada (WUSC) and Aga Khan Foundation in the refugee settlements and host communities of Obongi and Moyo districts in West Nile region.
The project focuses on improving equitable learning outcomes for adolescent girls and female youth in formal or non-formal upper primary and secondary school education as well as skills training program.
Gladys Amadi is among the 1,390 vulnerable adolescent girls who have benefitted from the solar radios and pre-recorded flash disks distributed under the Project.
The Radios were distributed with pre – recorded lessons on flash disks to improve remote curricula by enhancing access to offline lessons which improved the quality of home-based learning.
“Before the project provided the radios to support Home learning, the children were at home with no learning materials, limited resources to assist them at home and could not even revise what they have been taught in class,” Amadi Micheal recalls.
“The provision of the radios and recorded content to the learners restored a lot of hope for us parents. What I really appreciated with my daughter was the interest she had in learning. It hurt me to watch her stagnate because of the closure of schools, but since the radio distribution, she has even developed skills in listening because she had been following all the lessons over radio. She also developed reading and writing skills which will help her to do better. As a language teacher myself, I can see much improvement with my dear daughter in terms of those skills.”
Amadi confirmed that not only have her reading and listening skills improved but her performance has got a lot better in school. “I am very grateful for this intervention; I intend to do better in school and perform better in PLE at the end of the year.” Amadi beams as she narrates.
“I want to thank the organization for the timely intervention. It helped us parents to maintain and keep our children busy while at home. We are so happy because our children are performing better at school. I encourage the rest of the parents to always be close to their children so that whatever support an organisation gives, they should always protect it and keep it well because such things can also support the rest of the children,” Mr. Amadi said. Adding; “I am grateful to WIU and Global Affairs Canada for the timely support and request that it continues through following up of beneficiaries to assess their progress.”
