Teacher on Two Wheels

Above:  Students studying in a classroom that Invisible Children built

Monday 3/30/09  Gulu, Uganda

I’m working for Invisible Children (IC) here in Gulu.  Because lots of people who read this site have never heard of IC before, I figured I’d put a post up that explains exactly what the organization is doing in Uganda.  (Also, part of my job involves welcoming Invisible Children visitors and telling them about the organization, so I thought it would be good practice to try to put into words what I’ve learned so far about IC.)

Invisible Children has three main programs that are running on the ground here in Uganda.

The first program, the one that was started first by the organization, is called the Visible Child Scholarship Program (VCSP).  This program provides monetary and psychosocial support to high school and university students in Uganda.  Currently there are just under 600 high school students  and about 60 university students who are receiving full-paid scholarships to local schools through VCSP.  In addition to the scholarships, these students also receive support from an Invisible Children mentor.  Almost 30 mentors work full-time for the organization and have past experience with education.  Mentors meet students, parents, and teachers to ensure that a student’s path to educational success is free of major road blocks.  When a student needs help dealing with a death in the family, the mentor steps in.  When a teacher reports that a student’s grades have slipped, the mentor meets with the student to find out what’s going on.  The VCSP project helps students who show high potential but who, without the help of the VCSP scholarship grants, wouldn’t have the means to continue their post-primary education.  Many of the students are total or partial orphans as a result of the HIV crisis or the ongoing LRA conflict in northern Uganda.

Another program IC has started is the Schools for Schools Program.  This program partners more than 1,100 schools all over the world with 11 schools here in Uganda.  Through fundraising projects, the international schools pay for construction works and educational improvement for the 11 Ugandan sister schools.  IC has spent millions of dollars on building classrooms, dormitories, bathrooms, water pumps, and libraries at these 11 schools.  A six-week teacher exchange program in the summer with teachers from the U.S. and capacity development aim to raise the level of the education that teachers provide their students.  Each of the 11 schools was chosen based on (among other things) its ability to turn into what the organization calls a ‘hub of excellence’, a school with high educational standards that will use its good reputation to draw students from surrounding areas.  IC works with committees at each school who guide the development that happens there.  The committees, comprised of teachers, parents, and local government officials, help determine what building projects are most needed at the school.  Throughout the past few weeks, I’ve been lucky enough to see firsthand how powerful a new classroom can be in improving the attitude of its students.  When you give a child a chair to use instead of the rock he had grown accustomed to, or when you put a chalkboard in a room so students can read what the teacher says, or when you put lights and windows into a structure to keep storms from interrupting classes, everything about the education experience changes.

Above:  A rainwater collection system IC built at a school.  Both buildings in this image were constructed by IC, as well.

The last program IC runs in Uganda is the Economic Development Initiative.  This program helps war-affected adults create products that are sold in other countries.  Right now, adults, many of them living in internally displaced peoples’ camps, make two products:  bracelets and handbags.  With the money that is generated from the sale of these products, beneficiaries are able to earn an income and contribute some of their savings toward a community micro-finance fund.  They can draw on the fund when they want to start an income-generating activity.  (So far, many people have started small food stands, animal reselling businesses, bicycle repair shops, or tailoring businesses, to name a few.)  All adults are eventually phased out of this program; once they’ve saved a decent amount of money and proposed a post-program business plan, they are no longer allowed to make products for IC.  Through a savings and investment class run by IC, bracelet and bag makers learn how to use a bank account, how to save money, and how to come up with a feasible plan for generating income in the future.

Invisible Children generates the millions of dollars it needs each year to run these programs by managing a massive advocacy campaign in the U.S. and abroad.  As a media-based company, it creates documentary films about Ugandans that it screens around the world.  At these screenings, grassroots events often held at high schools or venues that target high school audiences, IC staff sell merchandise–shirts, hats, films, bracelets, handbags–to raise money for our Ugandan programs.  These screenings also raise awareness about the issues affecting northern Uganda, forcing people to hear the voices of Ugandans living thousands of miles away.

In addition to screenings, IC organizes massive annual activism events designed to bring tens of thousands of people together around the world to call for positive change in Uganda.  One event, for example, the Global Night Commute, was held in 2006 in dozens of cities in the US and drew an estimated 80,000 people.  During the event, attendees were given paper and instructed to write letters to their congressmen, letters that asked for government support in helping Uganda emerge from the longest running war in Africa.  People unified to lengthen the range of their voices, to grow the power of their pens.  This year’s event is scheduled for late April.  In nine countries and over 100 cities, people will rally once again for action and government-supported peace in northern Uganda.

For more information about how you can be involved in this year’s event, titled The Rescue, check out www.invisiblechildren.com.  Also, if you’d like to purchase any of IC’s bracelets, handbags, or other merchandise that helps fund the work we do in Uganda, head to the website.

I’m working as the Communications Officer here.  This job entails writing monthly and quarterly newsletters that highlight the work IC is doing in Uganda, interviewing program beneficiaries, creating blog posts for the Invisible Children blog, welcoming guests to the country, and overseeing the organization’s intern program.  IC hosts up to five interns at a time in its intern house and assigns each of them roles in the office that allow them to assist in the implementation of one specific program.

So far, everything is going well!  I’m so excited to be here working for an organization that believes in the power of education.  I also feel like I’m learning so much about development work simply from talking to my co-workers (many of them have worked for African development organizations in the past) and reading the literature that past employees have left in my house, books about Africa, poverty, and/or development philosophy.  Feeling like my brain is full with new information that makes the world both more fascinating and less confusing is a beautiful thing!

I just started reading a book that a co-worker passed on to me, Jeffrey Sachs’ The End of Poverty.  For me, books like his are fascinating in the same way the first telescopes must have fascinated their users, in their ability to peel back layers of life, of thought, by revealing wildly powerful concepts and connections.  Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond was another book that rattled me in the same way.

Question: What books have you read that have altered your worldview for the better?  Have you ever read a book that opened up a whole new corner of the world to you?

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