Advocating for Girls Education:

FAWEU finds advocacy as one of the most efficient ways to make certain issues of concern widely known and attended to by different and targeted stakeholders. Advocacy at national, district, community and family levels is critical to reduce barriers and for increased investment in girls’ education. As a result, FAWEU has carried out advocacy activities in partnership with different funders in different districts that include the following; FAWEU with financial support from UNITY under the REPLICA (Revitalization of Education Participation and Learning in Conflict Areas) program carried out awareness creation in Teso, Acholi and Lango sub regions. 13 districts were selected from the three regions to benefit from the project; Gulu, Amuru, Apac, Pader, Kitgum, Dokolo, Oyam, Lira, Soroti, Katakwi, Kaberamaido, Amolatar and Amuria.

Following the successful completion of the REPLICA project, FAWEU shared the good practices with her partners.

The awareness creation and mobilizing for community support in promotion of girls’ education, is a 3 year initiative by FAWEU with financial support from Oxfam Novib. It started in 2008 and covers the districts of Gulu, Amuru, Pader, Kitgum, Yumbe, Moyo, Adjumani, Nebbi, Kapchorwa, Oyam, Dokolo and Amolatar.

A photo of girls in class in Gwere primary school as they cheered with one of the child mothers who came back to school

FAWEU’S other area of interest for advocacy is to address some of the main factors that hinder the vulnerable girls and boys of Uganda from attaining their full potential and enjoying their full rights. One of these hindrances is the limited and in many cases no attention to Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health (ASRH) rights. The current high school drop out rates of learners in Uganda is mainly attributed to factors related to sexuality and reproductive health of the young people such as early marriages and pregnancies, HIV/AIDS/STIs and defilement and as a result, the Ministry of Education and Sports requires mainstreaming sexuality and reproductive health in the education policies and plans. FAWEU therefore in collaboration with the Tides Foundation is supplementing the efforts already in place but with particular emphasis on community intervention, empowerment of the young people and other beneficiaries as change agents. FAWEU also intends to lay a foundation for an intensive campaign for increased investment in ASRH. The program is further intended to empower the school community to promote and advocate for the rights of the children. Five districts from the Eastern part of Uganda have been selected to benefit from this project; Kapchorwa, Manafwa, Pallisa, Kumi and Butaleja

Increasing sexual violence is negatively affecting younger generations especially girls who are the emerging women leaders. FAWEU realized that there is need to empower and educate girls about their health and human rights and as well as the danger of sexuality related issues. Therefore, as a pilot project, FAWEU with financial support from Vital Voices Partnership undertook an intervention to raise awareness on the human and reproductive health rights of girls and young women and ensure observance and protection of girls and young women in Katakwi and Kaberamaido for a period of one year.

FAWEU’s choice of project districts depends on where the effects on a particular issue are on the increase and therefore should be addressed.

In each of the project districts under the advocacy programs, FAWEU jointly with the district officials constitutes a working committee/task force to supervise the implementation of the activities. FAWEU always provides to the taskforce an update on the activities implemented in a period, share the work plan, challenges and achievements and jointly agree on the way forward. The involvement of the district key stakeholders provides FAWEU with the assurance for possibility of sustainability and ownership of the project.

In each district, a taskforce comprises of the following persons among others;

• District Education Officer
• District Director of Health Services
• Secretary, Education
• Representative from CAO’s office, RDCs office and LCV office.
• District Inspector of Schools
• District health Inspectors
• Community development officer
• Gender desk officer
• Centre Coordinating tutors
• Chairperson Head teachers’ Association Primary and Secondary schools.

Members of the district task force in a meeting during the project introductory in Butaleja district.

As part of the advocacy work, awareness creation is done through training for different categories of beneficiaries and stakeholders. The different stakeholders may include; girls and boys in the ratio of 2:1 respectively, teachers, headteachers, education and health officials at district level and the community at large.  The purpose of the training is to empower the different participants with skills and knowledge that would enable them mobilize and support girls in education through different activities. Some of the key stakeholders attend to provide technical guidance and support to the children during the implementation process. it is necessary to engage all the stakeholders at community level and discuss in detail on matters concerning education especially of the girl child. The community engagement is intended to bring various stakeholders in education together and challenge them to be more supportive to schools and as well as reminding them and streamlining their roles and responsibilities in education.

Currently, a number of different stakeholders have been reached during the awareness creation trainings. Below is a table that shows a breakdown of the different numbers of beneficiaries reached over the years.

Stakeholder/Beneficiary	Number reached		Year
	M	F
Pupils/Students	740	1,464	2007/2008
Community	1,750	1,167	2007/2008
Others	31	7	2007/2008

Advocacy materials for the different categories of stakeholders (community, the pupils/students, etc) is developed in consultation with MoES for support to girls’ education and empowerment of pupils especially girls to undertake and promote their own education. In addition to the training manuals, advocacy posters and stickers are produced and disseminated to the schools.

FAWEU National Coordinator shares with the Prime Minister of Uganda some of the activities and good practices in promotion of girls education during an exhibition in the north organized by PRDP.

Baseline survey

In order to gauge impact of the intervention after the project life and also to facilitate informed advocacy, FAWEU carries out situational analysis of the selected schools to provide benchmarks and set up milestones towards achievement of the project goals. The baseline survey mainly targets to collect information on enrolment, retention, performance, completion, teaching, learning facilities attitudes, knowledge, and perceptions among others. Different stakeholders are involved in the survey as respondents.

FAWEU Trainees

FAWEU has a pool of trainers of trainees, a team that has been equipped with training skills and adequate information on various aspects that concern promotion of girls education. It is these trainees that are involved in the training of the different stakeholders at different levels. The trainees are drawn from FAWEU Executive Committee, FAWEU members, Former FAWEU beneficiaries and other potential young girls and boys. Currently, there is a total of 30 trainees (23 females and 7 males).

Some of the trainees pose for a photo after training in preparation for field work

Capacity Building to schools

To contribute to the improvement of the teaching and learning processes, FAWEU provides some of the schools with basic textbooks and science equipment to supplement the government efforts to improve the quality of education. To contribute to the improvement of the teaching and learning processes at school level, selected project schools at a request provided to the secretariat titles of the books they require at school.  Basic textbooks worth forty five million Uganda shillings (45,000,000) were purchased from MZ Book Consolidators under the Oxfam Novib project. The books were then distributed to 45 of the project schools. FAWEU in collaboration with the different project districts organized a function where the education department from each district picked the books from FAWEU’s secretariat. The function was officiated by Ms. Rita Kyeyune, the Gender Desk Officer a representative from Ministry of Education and Sports.

1.DEO Amolatar receives textbooks from the Ministry rep.           

2.DEO Gulu appreciates the books handed to him by FAWEU  Board Members.           

Aware of the role a changing room plays in motivating girls to attend and stay in school during their menstruation period, FAWEU jointly with the schools work towards establishing a changing room in the schools either in kind or cash while the community is expected to make a contribution in one way or another. The community participation is to ensure sustainability and ownership of the project.

Development of IEC Materials

Basing on the different situations of a particular project, IEC materials are developed for the target groups to educate and empower them about different aspects in regard to promotion of girls education. The process of developing the materials involves the participation of FAWEU staff in consultation with MoES to review different drafts until the final quality output is achieved. Copies are then distributed to the target groups for adoption and use during the implementation period.  

Empowerment of pupils:

The empowerment of pupils especially girls through training is one strategy that FAWEU uses to ensure their active participation and action in mobilizing for girls education. The training includes sessions on consensus building regarding the need for girls education, life skills, leadership skills and issues of growing up among other things. The purpose of the training is to empower participants/young people with knowledge and skills to understand their human and health rights and advocate for them. The empowerment for young people is an intervention targeting both school-going girls and boys of primary and secondary as well as community members.  

Pupils drawing their action plans to promote girls education, with the senior woman teacher guiding them

The girls clubs

Through the established girls clubs under the different programs, awareness is created on the issues that concern girls and their education. The girls club is such a strategy that empowers the young people to participate in mobilization for their education. Different activities are carried out with the aim of ensuring that girls are attracted to school, sty in school until completion of the primary cycle. Such activities include; provision of changing and or washing rooms for girls during menstruation at school, proper record keeping and follow up of absentees and drop outs and generally keeping a girl child friendly school.

Girls club members during the community outreach activities where they identified a girl who had dropped out and the mother wanted to marry her off because she could not afford to pay her school fees.

Community sensitization meeting

FAWEU engages the key members of the community into discussions that helps them to clearly understand issues surrounding girls education and after build consensus on the need to promote girls education looking at various interventions. The discussion eventually leads to a committement from the community in form of action plans as a way forward for promotion girls education in general. The different categories of the community targeted include; the senior woman/man teacher, Head teacher, Chairperson School Management Committee/ Board of governors and a representative of the Parents Teachers Association, religious leaders, cultural leaders, local leaders and children among others.

A cross section of some of the participants during the advocacy meeting

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