Group Picture with Lynn Curtis and Lindsay of ThriveGulu, Community Leaders & ENA’s Cecilia Amankwah[/caption]
Gulu, Uganda is a post-conflict community. Northern Uganda, under the 9 year rule of Idi Amin, was subjected to extreme violence and oppression. Amnesty International estimates Amin murdered over 500,000 people, mostly from the Acoli and Lango ethnic groups. Northern Uganda was also tormented by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) led by Joseph Kony. It is estimated that the LRA was responsible for the abduction of more than 30,000 child soldiers, the murder of over 100,000 people and the abduction of 15,000 women who were then forced to serve as soldiers, porters and sex slaves. Furthermore, over 2 million Northern Ugandans were placed in internal displacement camps. This move created displacement, dependency and extreme psychological damage to everyone living in the Gulu region.
The Acoli ethnic group of Northern Uganda has been victimized, traumatized, stigmatized and deprived of basic human rights and privileges for years. The uphill task of rehabilitation, post war recovery programs, psychological evaluation, counseling, healing, education, forgiveness, community involvement and medical care is one that ThriveGulu is committed to and we are honored to have been invited to join them in their mission.
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ENA’s Cecilia Amankwah teaching in a community forum that helped create adult literacy materials and programs for the Acoli people living throughout Northern Uganda.[/caption]
Last week, a team comprised of Lynn Curtis (Interweave Solutions), Richard Purnell (Executive Director of ThriveGulu), Lindsay (USA), and Cecilia Amankwah (ENA) were welcomed by 50 women from various communities throughout Northern Uganda for a forum to discuss their literacy wants and needs. The discussion was led by Lynn Curtis who is one of the world’s leading experts in literacy, basic education and community development in less-developed nations. Throughout the discussion, local women came up with almost 30 themes that they wanted incorporated into their literacy program. ENA was instrumental in developing the most effective literacy program for them by suggesting we create literacy materials for them in both English and Acoli, their native dialect. Throughout our adult literacy programs, ENA has found that being able to read and understand basic written English is very beneficial because it will open doors to students in future business and employment opportunities.
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Group leaders writing stories and creating literacy materials both in Acoli & English.[/caption]
Following our meeting with the women, leaders from all of the organizations in attendance met to develop activities, materials and manuals for them in both languages. The leaders wrote short stories on the almost 30 topics the women selected in Acoli and then translated them into English. The stories written by the women were based on health, business, poverty, education, parenting and community. ENA’s adult literacy experience and successes proved to be instrumental while writing a literacy manual for Uganda. In addition, ENA’s mode of instruction and the logistics we have in place to ensure student’s successes will also be implemented into Uganda’s adult literacy program infrastructure.
We look forward to seeing successesful adult literacy students in Uganda and a continued partnership with ThriveGulu! LEARN MORE about our education and literacy programs HERE!
Join with us and DONATE NOW to keep our adult literacy programs running throughout Africa! Here at ENA we know that literacy and education are key to ending poverty in Africa.
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New Adult Literacy Partnership with ThriveGulu
