Barike Educate Learners

School drop-outs in Uganda has taken a very different toll. Children are forced to drop out of school in order to support their families which in most cases is headed by a single parent. 

In Uganda, It is estimated that more than 240,000 children dropped out of school before reaching Primary 4: Source - https://www.independent.co.ug/ that is by the age of 9. This number is estimated to be higher since statistics were taken prior to the COVID-19 SOPs that included closing down schools. 

Some of the factors that were found to attribute to children dropping out of school may include - but not limited to "Teacher Absenteeism". This has been evidenced in many rural schools where teachers have to look for an alternate means of survival in order to be able to bridge the financial gap in their homes. This behavior completely demoralizes children who go to school to acquire education. 

Teenage pregnancies are on the rise and this has negatively affected the girl-child's progress towards acquiring targeted education. 

According to the Ministry of Health, 25 per cent of Ugandan teenagers become pregnant by the age of 19. Close to half are married before their 18th birthday and continue having babies into their mid-40s. Source: https://www.unicef.org/

• The Introduction of Vocational/Practical Skills in the fields that the learners have shown interest in; should be an approach that is welcomed since it still has a number of open windows of employment. Such industries that learners have shown interest in may include but are not limited to civil engineering, automotive engineering, welding and fabrication, braiding/hair styling, baking etc. 

• Engaging learners through digital media: Most young girls and boys are addicted to the use of digital media such as phones and tablets. As much as these devices help in communication and entertainment, they can also be used to carry and transfer knowledge in a timely manner to the users. Cyber-based tutorials and learning have thrived in rural settings though with the cost of purchasing handheld devices at play, maintenance may also be a factor to take into consideration. 

• Engaging learners into a peer-led approach towards learning. This can be applicable for those above the age of 12. It is usually easier for a peer to educate their category on a matter, than to have an adult try to achieve the same thing.

Barike Public Health Foundation is currently serving the vulnerable youth, school dropouts and school-going children in Busia district, Uganda - East Africa. 

Busia being a boarder district, has alot of trade going on; both on the Kenyan and Ugandan side. Many young men/women drop out of school to start the business of dealing in smuggled goods as this has been seen to be a lucrative venture in the region. The government of Uganda has tried putting restrictions but this does not seem to be working. 

The recent discovery of gold within Busia and Tororo districts has also led to the spike in school dropouts within the two districts. 

Many girls as early as 11 years of age; within the district are forced into an early marriage and have been seen dropping out of school due to pregnancies. We believe there has to be an awareness campaign coupled with dialogue meetings with the elderly community so as to save the girl-child. 

Ways in which our solution can impact these lives:-

• Involving parents and guardians in knowledge acquisition and transfer since the age in consideration is on minors. This can also involve developing modules that enable parental engagement; some of the programs that parents have successfully engaged with their children are code-named SINOVUYO; a package in the Pepfar/CDC/USAID Funded DREAMS program operating in the nation of Uganda.

• Attaching children to trained and qualified counselors to provide them with mental health and psychosocial support services for their social well being. 

• Involving community leaders such as religious, cultural and opinion leaders and also the law enforcement agencies in spearheading this kind of approach. A component that fully engages them in the study could be helpful; such components/modules may include criminal justice. 

• Advocating for this approach of study (right from the grass root at community level to the district, regional national and international levels) while engaging the community resource persons (CORPS e.g clan leaders, opinion leaders, politicians, etc) who when they talk all the other members of the community complies.

• Establishing the number of target persons, the catchment area, the resources required to make implementation possible. These may include training of trainers, supplying commodities like computers, smart phones, consistent supply of internet data depending on the mode of learning platform chosen. Presence of technical persons in information technology who are to develop the learning platform , maintain it, and train the end users of it. 

• There must also be presence of a quality assurance team that ensures the standard supplies are delivered and being used according to the standard operating procedures. This ensures the program receives the intended service which is of quality and right quantity.

• Ensuring sustainability of the approach by enforcing community involvement. This can be achieved through community participation in most of the activities like mobilization, fundraising, sensitisation, enforcement and implementation. Establishing role modeling sites can also be a kind of motivator where others copy the good practices and join the great cause of change.

We have been working with young girls and boys between the ages 15 - 19 since 2019 in the districts of Mityana, Luwero and Mubende while providing them with hands-on practical skills to enable them decently earn a living without having to give themselves to risky sexual behaviors for an income. This was mainly to young women and girls of reproductive age who dropped out of school and were having atleast one child.

We have gone through the dynamics of involving the law enforcement officers, cultural and religious leaders, government bodies and partner organisations so as to ensure that service delivery is flawless and greatly supported by all stake holders. This was a great learning experience for us and now we believe with that Busia district, we can involve the same parties within the district so as to positively affect the development of these child and give them a brighter future towards education. 

In August 2021, we carried out a baseline survey to find out the reproductive health issues affecting the youth within the district of Busia. This was effected after receiving written permission from the District Health Officer, Busia district, Uganda. The data collected has greatly informed our desire to this effect. 

Implementing this solution will require us to meet the government authorities in the region and share with them what we believe will work to the betterment of the children's education within the district. It is only after this meeting that we will receive a go-ahead to conduct community entry meetings with stakeholders, opinion leaders and partner organisations who we believe would give proper guidance on which subcounties to capitalize on when implementing this solution.  

We believe Solve can help us overcome three main issues that have been acting as barriers to our service delivery: Having our challenge, progress and solution highlighted on one global platform (SOLVE).

Secondly, Financially we feel very constrained; all these meetings with community leaders, sensitization meetings with parents and children cost more than what our budget has been able to handle. With SOLVE we are sure our milestone of reaching atleast 10,000 children will be achieved with a mind changing approach towards education will be achieved. 

Cultural barriers will be broken once these children have acquired proper education since we intend to borrow a leaf from one of the projects we once implemented (SINOVUYO) - this is a module designed to educate a parent together with their children in the same sitting. 

Since parents, fellow peers, employers and the government's involvement in a child's education will be documented, we believe our solution is one that will have clear evidence of success and will be beneficial to other geographic areas that are outside our country and region.

Globally we have parents/guardians, peers, employers willing to encourage a child and governments that will thrive once the young generation is equipped. 

We also intend to share our progress with SOLVE such that ideas from other members are welcomed to make our work better and also for knowledge sharing. 

Barike Educate Learners - Impact Goals

10,000 children in Busia district with clear information on the benefits of education

10,000 children in Busia district documented and followed up for academic performance and performance monitoring

50 Schools in Busia district embracing the educational approach that we are spear heading

100 Teachers in Busia equipped with necessary project skills required to facilitate a child's mind to embrace and complete academic development 

500 Children above the age of 5, under the age of 10 acting as peers to ensure that they work together with their fellow children so as to motivate them academically. 

500 parents/guardians trained to support this education approach so as to enable them encourage the young children in their communities to love and treasure education. 

Development of Data Collection Tools: We intend to develop data collection tools (forms) that we will use to collect data from communities. 

We intend to conduct interviews using ODK Collect and later have it analysed since we have found it to be a very good tool when it comes to collecting data in remote areas. 

After every three months, we will do follow-up visits on the places where our baseline data was collected. We believe with these, we will be able to measure progress towards our impact goals. 

We expect our solution to have a major impact to the underlying problem because it is going to be the first of its kind. We also have noticed that the district officials in Busia have always supported projects that are aimed at improving the livelihood of their communities. 

Parents and guardians of children in Busia district have for a long time desired to have their children complete formal education but didn't know how to achieve that. We intend to meet and train parents so as to psychologically prepare them for the upcoming engagement of ensuring that their children receive quality education. 

We Intend to random sample 50 schools out of 167 primary schools(Source: https://ugandaschools.guide/fi... ) in Busia district. It is from those 50 schools that we will capitalize on this approach and will use it as a tool to measure our progress. We will train two teachers from each school and this will reduce on our physical and direct engagement with schools hence cutting administrative costs significantly. 

We intend to purchase mobile phones and have ODK Collect installed for purposes of data collection. We will build our questionnaires using ODK. 

We will develop a web application to facilitate in data storage and sharing. This web application will run on PhP and MySQL. This application will be able to store repetitive data on a single child in order to easily manage follow-up visits. 

Our team will be sharing data with the MIT solve team to facilitate guidance and knowledge sharing. 

Barike Public Health Foundation is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We respect each person's/organization rights to a healthy living, decision making, beliefs  and many others. 

We do not tolerate discrimination among our staff or the people we work with. We welcome and are willing to work with people from different backgrounds, ethnic groups and beliefs.  

We have field agents (Village Health Teams) who move out at the end of every year to identify the young girls who dropped out of school for financial reasons. We enroll these young girls and attach them to local artisans who train them in skills such as Cake Making, Hair Dressing, Tailoring and Weaving. The boys have all been taken for Motorcycle repair courses using local engineers. This is so because the courses that the young men opt for are usually expensive and our budget wouldn't be able to cater for them. 

in the June 2020 and July 2021, we received a donation equivalent of $2,500 ($1,200 and $1,300 respectively) from Tropical Computer Systems Ltd, this donation enabled us to take 80 Girls and 35 Boys for short courses with local artisans within the district.  

Barike Public Health Foundation is also working on a Health Insurance Model which we intend to roll-out to the communities by the August of 2023. 

At the moment, we only survive on grants from well wishers and local organisations within the country. 

We also intend to apply for more grants that are centered on supporting children and the elderly in order to ensure continuity of service delivery. 

We live in a country that is fertile and faming is highly favored by our weather. If we get grants that allow us to invest in the purchase of land, we hope to engage into commercial farming so as to sustain our cause since we are a Non-Profit organization. 

In 2020 and 2021, we received grants totaling $2500 from Tropical Computer Systems Limited. This was after we expressed interest in partnership and requested for financial assistance. The management Tropical Computer Systems also provided us with two desktop computers which have helped us achieve most of our digital work. 

We also received space from Busia district officials at a very low fee (200,000 about $60 monthly). This is much cheaper than what we were getting from other house owners. 

In January this year (2022) We received 5 Sewing Machines from MOD Public Health Foundation, located in Masaka as a token for partnership.