2021 – Uganda

Leave No Girl Behind in Uganda          

Partner: Right To Play

Background

Right To Play (RTP) has worked in Uganda since 2001. With decades of ongoing civil wars and unrest in neighbouring countries and a generous and progressive refugee hosting policy, Uganda now hosts over a million refugees, the largest number of refugees in any African country. However, this influx has placed additional strain on livelihoods and social services in already vulnerable refugee-hosting districts.

Adjumani District, in northern Uganda, is host to 237,400 refugees, mostly from South Sudan. With the COVID-19 pandemic, education has been severely affected and this is particularly true for girls who have been unable to attend school or study at home. Therefore, there is a great need to provide supplemental learning opportunities that improve learning outcomes for girls.

Projective objectives

The project will directly target 2,178 refugee and host community girls in eight secondary schools (Maaji, Alere, Pagirinya, Mungula, Adjumani, Nyumanzi, Ayilo and Ofua) in Adjumani District. 32 club matrons will also directly benefit through training and mentorship provided by the project. A further 35 government officials will be engaged in the planning and monitoring of the project activities as a strategy to enhance sustainability and 176 members of school management committees from the target schools will be trained on inclusion, gender equality, and developing school strategies for gender sensitive learning environments. 9,801 community members, parents/caregivers will indirectly benefit through exposure to ideas and behaviour change promoted by the project amongst the girls and their teachers.

The project with Right To Play will support the creation of girls’ clubs that will provide tablets to girls in eight secondary schools. Digital play-based learning resources on selected curriculum topics – mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS), gender-based violence (GBV), sexual reproduction health rights (SRHR) and rights of girls in Uganda – will be preloaded on the tablets to provide offline access. Additional open-source materials to improve learning, develop life skills and gain knowledge will be included.

The project will also develop a digital play-based interactive session on making reusable sanitary pads and will be uploaded on the tablets. Each girl will also be provided materials sufficient to make at least two reusable pads. Every girls’ club will ensure that all the girls will have access to this valuable technology in a safe and inclusive space. The added value of this project will be two-fold: the use of technology will provide access to students and online teacher training. This in turn will create a stronger commitment from the schools and its administrators and contribute to their strategies of learning for teachers using technology.

This project with 60 million girls will complement Right To Play’s ongoing projects in Uganda, such as the Safe to Learn project, funded by End Violence Against Children. In RTP’s recently completed five-year strategic plan, it has identified education technology as one of the key drivers for cost-effective, scalable and impactful programs. This initiative is dedicated to improving safety so children are free to learn, thrive and pursue their dreams. As Uganda is the youngest country in the world, with 70% of its population under the age of 25, it is critical to leverage investments in education.

Why partner with Right To Play?

60 million girls partnered with Right To Play in 2013 in Ethiopia. For over 20 years, RTP has worked in some of the most difficult and dangerous places on earth to help children stay in school and graduate. We respect RTP as a strong partner in education. It uses proven, experiential learning methods that help students learn to apply, analyze, evaluate and even create new ideas from experiences they had in their play-based learning activities.