UKaid – ETC of PWD

Gulu Disabled Persons Union (GDPU) shut its doors after Covid 19 Lockdowns in Uganda were announced in June and July 2021. Lockdown is still there, easing a little, but when and how it will finish is still unclear.

Covid and GDPU

At the end of the last newsletter we had the devastating news that three of the senior GDPU team were diagnosed positive for Covid 19. It has been a tense and very worrying time since then. But, we are so pleased to discover today, that all three are on the way to recovery. The virus does not appear to have spread throughout their families or the centre. We can only praise them all for their precautions and be thankful that everyone at GDPU is returning to health

Lockdown and the VPlus programme

The last ETC of PWD newsletter showed the impact of Lockdown on our programme. In September/ October Vplus Trainees (youth with disabilities from Gulu and surrounding districts) were due to return from short internships in external workshops. They would complete training at Gulu Disabled Persons Union (GDPU) and start their own businesses with six months of post training support. If GDPU was still shut how would trainees keep their momentum? This has been the problem in education across the world during pandemic lockdowns. Learning needs to be used, memory is a muscle that wastes away without practice and skills can fade away.

How can trainees be kept ‘match ready’?

Assuming that schools would open eventually, how could GDPU make sure that trainees would be ready? Ready for the next big step they had been training for: earning their own money; making their own lives; becoming a valued part of their community at last?

Traditional Dance Performance for the community at School Open Day

Instant Apprenticeships

Musema Faruk, the VPlus programme coordinator, had a proposal: extending the short internships into a full apprenticeship programme.

It was not easy to set up, but monthly reports show that his solution is working. After placing 49 out of the original 53 students in apprenticeships, GDPU have now followed them up. 42 are still at their workshops, quite a success given the conditions; there are many challenges on the ground.

Challenges to the Apprenticeship scheme

Some trainees have severe disabilities, making placements difficult. 3 out of 5 of the VPlus instructors have workshops in Gulu. Instructors identified those who needed support and these trainees stayed at their workshops. This seems to have worked well.

Prejudice

There has been prejudice, particularly against Albino trainees in far flung districts. The number of trainees with Albinism on the course was initially surprising; previous programmes had included few if any. But, as Ojok Patrick, GDPU co-ordinator explained, in the past they were hidden away, against prejudice and of course against the sun.

Mechanics Class with Sign Language Interpreter

The nature of a trainee’s disability can cause challenges, equatorial sun is life threatening without skin pigment for example. An Albino hairdressing trainee has skin cancers on her hands, the pain means she can’t work. She is desperate to carry on her apprenticeship and the workshop owner wants to help, but the family cannot afford the relevant operations. GDPU is liaising with The National Union of Women with Disabilities in Uganda and others to find a solution for her.

Distance

Some trainees live far from their placement. Travelling with a disability in any country is always difficult, in rural Uganda it is doubly so, particularly if you use a wheelchair. The usual solution is to find somewhere to stay during the week. For a young, vulnerable person with disabilities who needs support, this is not always suitable.

Work in the garden

It is the planting season, parents are pulling their children out to ‘work in the garden’, mostly planting G nuts (groundnuts or peanuts). This is often a problem with training programmes for young people. Parents rely on their produce to eat and surplus to sell, their children’s labour is crucial.

Skills

Some workshops do not have the full range of skills. E.g. in Opit a knitter cannot make open sweaters, so GDPU is involved in training the owners as well.

But what about Life Skills/ Literacy/ Numeracy/ Business skills etc?

Workshop owners, will share their own Life Skills, the Guidance Counsellor will also provide support. Some numeracy and business skills are part of any workshop and all these areas will be covered on trainees return to the centre.

How will workshop owners communicate with deaf trainees?

Sign Language interpreters are in the follow up programme. But, Musema Faruk made an interesting point and, incidentally, it shows why ETC of PWD depends on its partners ‘in country’. Self-reliance is an essential aim of the VPlus programme and as Faruk points out, deaf trainees are already finding ways to communicate without their interpreters. Sign Language support will be there but not intrusively, interpreters will talk mainly to the owner, so that trainees can steadily learn to socialise without them.

By the way, he also reports that one owner of a hairdressing salon has become so fond of her deaf trainees that she has been, voluntarily, to sign language training sessions at the centre.

Conclusions

We will not really know the full results of the apprenticeship scheme until trainees return to GDPU. But, it is fair to say that the GDPU team have helped at least 42 out of the original 53 rise above these challenges.

Guidance Counselling reports have always shown that being with other people with disability brings confidence and self-esteem. Final training at the centre, the last Life Skills, Literacy, Numeracy and Business courses, a final exam and a full public Graduation should start to meet this. It is a difficult balance in the current situation, but we all hope the instant apprenticeship scheme has met this balance. As we all know, we learn better when we learn together.

Hairdressing Apprentice, Workshop Owner and VPlus Guidance Counsellor

Next newsletter

What about the future? See the next ETC of PWD newsletter for more.

Want to know more?

If you would like to know more about the ETC of PWD charity please go to our Home page. If you would like to give something, please go to our Donate page. If you would like to know more about Gulu Disabled Persons Union (GDPU) please go to their website or Facebook page. Many Thanks.

This project is match funded with UK aid from the British people’

So what does the Plus in the VPlus programme mean on the ground? Alongside the core vocational training in Design and Decoration (Computer aided); Electronics Repair; Hairdressing; Motorbike Mechanics; Sweater Weaving and Tailoring and the training in Literacy, Numeracy and basic business skills, what else adds up to the Plus?

ETC of PWD

Mechanics Class, note the sign language interpreter for the deaf trainee

ETC of PWD (Enhancing the Capacity of Persons with Disability, the UK based charity that part funds the VPlus programme along with UK Aid) have just received our monthly report from Gulu Disabled Persons Union (GDPU, who run the programme) it describes some of these activities.

Debates

For example the debates, a standard feature of Ugandan education. They are both formal affairs with timekeeping marked by energetic bell ringing, a chairman, and due process, and they are also lively, inclusive and hugely enjoyable. Ugandan debating calls for lots of shouts for points of order and vigorously displayed arguments; debates are taken very seriously with great enthusiasm. They are wonderful opportunities for people, like our own trainees, who have little experience of public speaking or formal presentation. They can gain some self-confidence and learn how to put together and then express a considered argument.

“ kwano tic cing ber loyo kwan me karatac”.

The first debate, they take place weekly, was on the important topic: Non-Formal education (or practical vocational skills training) is far better than Formal (or academic) education, This in Luo, the local language, is “kwano tic cing ber loyo kwan me karatac”. Luckily, as the trainees are after all on a vocational training programme, the non-formal team won! The winning argument for many was that skills-based training needs no particular level of education, as most of our trainees have little if any education, compared to formal education where every level is important. Skills training helps someone to become self-employed, compared to formal education which prepares people become jobs seekers. The main points in favour of Formal education were based on the raising of status, a white collar career and higher levels of income, possibly. Although, as many pointed out, an academic education does not prepare you for actual work. Further debates concern self-employment, sexual behaviour and: “the Future Holds More: planning is necessary”.

Leadership Elections

Student leaders have also been elected; they play a big role in running the place well. As a school leader will always tell you, student leadership, apart from keeping the programme going, plays a powerful role in developing young people, not just leadership skills, but how to work with responsibility and how to organise others are some of the areas not to mention an understanding of how voting processes work.

POSITION

Guild present

Head girl

Entertainment prefect

Asst entertainment prefect

Welfare prefect

Asst welfare

Health and Sanitation

Asst health and sanitation

Game and sports

These are the positions by the way.

This is a short video by the newly elected Head Boy/ Guild President, explaining why he think this course matters.

Pushing on Well

So as they would say at GDPU, things are pushing on well.

If you want to read more about the plus in Vplus please read the next blog.

If you would like to donate, please visit the Donations page

Tag: UKaid

How are things pushing on at GDPU: Instant Apprenticeship Scheme Part 2

VPlus: what does the Plus stand for?