Nursery

Program purpose:

The catch up program purposed to rekindle hope of the children of Butambala to have another chance of rejoining school after the COVID – 19 aftermath. To deliver on this, Youth Consult initially targeted 60 young children and teenagers from Kiyonsa, Lugala, and Lusanja villages in Budde sub county, Butambala District.

Activities undertaken:

We undertook a series of activities, these included; parent’s meetings, tutors training, home visits, sports/games days, movie days, classes, assessments and close out day. Below we expound on these activities:

• Parents’ meetings: The first parents meeting took place on 27 April 2023. Purpose of this meeting was to get feedback from the parents about their children’s progress and for Youth Consult to respond to any queries from the parents. The second parents’ meeting took place on 31 October 2023. Purposed to inform the parents about the closure of the program at the end of the year and establishment of the nursery and vocation schools at the beginning of the year 2024.

• Training Tutors: Tutors training took place on 1st to 3rd May 2023 at Suubi Africa Youth Offices and facilitated by Open Schools Worldwide. This aimed at equipping tutors with capacity to deliver the literacy and numeracy curriculum. Three teachers were trained including; Maria, Ian and Regina. Following this training, there has been great improvement in handling and teaching of the children.

• Home visits: In the course of interacting with the children, we noticed that some would come in shabbily dressed. Many did not have shoes and others had torn shoes. This necessitated a home visit to establish where these children came from. The team planned for a home visit and they were able to get to grips with the situation at homes of the children. These visits were useful to the team in terms of coming up with the best approaches of handling the children. Six (6) home visits undertaken with eleven (11) children visited. Because of the home visits, children received help in form of clothing. Specifically three of the eleven children received clothing. This gesture brought so much joy and put a smile on the children’s faces as well as their parents.

• Sports/Games Days: It was imperative to create some fun for the children. Every term, a sports/games day was organized. Through sports and games, children got platform to show case their dancing skills for example. This has also been very helpful in strengthening the bond between the children and the teachers.

• Movie days: The project team Organized two movie days for the children. Children watched the movies: Matilda and Home Alone. On top of learning, the children and teachers greatly enjoyed watching the movies. This served as a good break from the rigors of class.

• Classes: We conducted classes for all the children spread in three classes. Lower class comprised ages 4 to 7, middle class 7 to 12 years and teenagers 13 to 18 years. The year had three terms: term one ran from 07th/Feb/2023 to 4th/May/2023, term two from 30th/May/2023 to 24th/Aug/2023 and term three from 19th/Sep/2023 to 23rd /Nov/2023. The lower and middle classes have been having their lessons for the two days; Tuesdays and Thursdays and the upper class has been having its lessons from Monday to Friday.

• Progress Assessments: Like any other intervention, it is important to assess progress. The team deemed it fit to assess progress of the children in numeracy and literacy skills. Team conducted assessments at end of each term. Teachers used the findings to support children improve

• Literacy Catchup Closure: The program closed this year. At closure, the team delivered gift hampers to the children’s homes, watched movies and ate lunch together. The children were happy to receive a gift.