This year, GIBEH Uganda got an opportunity to partner with PLAS Japan in implementation of the Resilient livelihood Improvement and Strengthened Empowerment (RISE) project for vulnerable children and families in Mukono District in Uganda. This has been implemented in the communities of Nyanja, Mawangala, Kibanga and Terere, all in Mukono District through various activities within these communities.

The project is aimed at implementing a comprehensive support programme expanding education/ income generating opportunities for school age children who live in vulnerable families or orphans affected by HIV/AIDS through career guidance, counselling and poultry farming among other things.

Through the implementation of the project, we have enhanced the self esteem of some of our beneficiaries who were very shy and reserved at the beginning of the project. Through the counselling sessions, we have had children speak up on some of the factors that were affecting their self confidence and have given them a platform to share their stories. In one of our sessions, one Nagawa Christine stated that “I do not have friendship with my step mother because she makes me do a lot of housework while my step sisters and brothers remain sleeping. This makes me sometimes arrive late at school so most of the time, Iam so stressed even in class and I do not think that I am important to my family. On top of that, my father does not care to pay for my food at school so the situation is not good”.

This was at the beginning of the counselling sessions but through the various modules, we have engaged the parents of Christine to change their attitude towards her and ensure that there is good communication between them all aimed at building her esteem. We have been able to build the confidence on many girls such as Christine to understand that they are important to their families and require endurance and life skills to be better persons beneficial to their families and the community at large.

Through these sessions, parents have been equipped with knowledge on child development and care in consideration of the various development stages of the children but also ensure that they get involved in their daily lives through helping them with home-work but also understand the importance of communicating the issues of sexual and reproductive health with their children. At the beginning of the project, many parents were very reserved on issues of sexual and reproductive health issues of their children but throughout the various engagements, they have got to understand that there are deeper repercussions in kee[ing quiet about these issues. They now speak openly and ensure that children are safe given that they are going in for a long holiday of close to 3 months.

Through the career talk sessions, the beneficiaries are now aware of their career dreams, what they want to be in the future and what they intend to achieve. We have seen many of them wanting to be doctors, nurses and teachers and we have further encouraged them to chase their dreams because they can come true.

Through GIBEH’s intervention with support from PLAS Japan, there has been enhanced knowledge on poultry farming of local chicken within the communities as many of the caregivers and parents acquired advanced knowledge on poultry farming especially with the different medicines that can be given to chickens when they fall sick. In Kibanga, Ms. Nakate (one of our beneficiaries) has advised her fellow caregivers on how she has managed to keep her chicken safe without them dying and even directed them to proper hygiene methods and medicines that she is using in her poultry farming. This has been very useful to our beneficiaries because many of them were losing their chicken due to disease waves within their communities which has in turn given them hope in local poultry rearing. We are contemplating on having some of these beneficiaries such as Ms. Nakate to be “model farmers” and even help some of our other areas of implementation such as Nyanja and Mawangala.

In Nyanja, Ms. Nanyonga Getrude was extremely happy to see that one of the chickens that was provided to her household had hatched another 8 chicks and was expecting that these were to multiply and would be of great help to not only her daughter but the entire family. She was given further advice on the next process of securing these chicks to ensure that they live healthy lives and these included immunization as had been advised during the poultry training sessions.

We are grateful for this Partnership with PLAS Japan for it has had a great impact on our communities in Mukono District. We look forward to more engagements.