ACDA Focuses On Educating The Girl Child
Working for the deprived, empowering the oppressed and giving voice to the disadvantaged are the key objectives of the Agoro Community Development Association (ACDA), located in the Kitgum District of Northern Uganda.
The coordinator Tom Fred, a key man behind this mission, continues sincere efforts to lobby for support to alleviate the plight of the Agoro community and improve the living conditions of its people.
ACDA, formed in 2001, has been undertaking the tasks of providing education to the community on social and economic issues and exchanging information with international communities and groups like RESPECT International and Working To Empower (WTE).
The girl child, in particular, has been a focal area for ACDA. Some of these girls are victims of the disturbances in the Ugandan region, having lost their parents and left homeless.
Taking care of a girl child requires far more attention than that of a boy child and ACDA has stepped up to the challenge despite the meagre sources of income and skeletal facilities in its centres.
It has been trying hard to ensure that education is available to the girls that are enrolled in the ACDA supported schools, and to provide enough encouragement to them as well as their families to minimise the dropout rates from schools.
Vocational education is another area which helps to control the dropouts and make the students self-reliant and better citizens. While sensitising the community on girl-child schooling and their rights to education, ACDA has also undertaken community campaigns for the cause.
In addition, ACDA started making arrangements for secondary education of the girls under its umbrella in 2005. WTE, an organisation spearheaded by Logan Cochrane, has provided valuable support in this venture.
A girl-child secondary education support programme called EBARET, sponsored five girls from the first school started in the eastern part of the Agoro sub-county in 2005. In 2007, it was increased to six girls. This might appear to be a small number, but all the needs of these girls, including their personal care and educational requirements, are taken care of by ACDA.
All the girls selected so far are orphans, and there was imminent danger of these girls falling into the trap of the flesh trade, had Tom Fred not taken them into ACDA fold.
So far ACDA has only been able to take care of a limited number of girl children from Agoro East region, while there are other seriously affected areas like Potika requiring immediate attention.
But, owing to the resource crunch, ACDA has not been able to concentrate on other areas, despite pressures from the community. However, Tom Fred has not given up and he is quite hopeful that the number and types of sponsorships would increase in the near future with support from like-minded people and organisations such as WTE and RESPECT.
He is all praise for RESPECT International. He says, "ACDA managed to get some volunteers, with the help of RESPECT, for supporting the project activities through partnership and networking."
By working with RESPECT, ACDA has managed to build good connection with many international NGOs (non-governmental organisations) and local bodies in its operation area.
Tom Fred says there is scope for consolidating this partnership still further. Expressing his concern at not being able to raise enough funds and support from RESPECT in the recent past, Tom Fred feels that part of the reason for this shortcoming is, lack of follow-up meetings and an updated communication channel with RESPECT.
Apart from providing education to the girls, ACDA has also set in place a mechanism to monitor their wellbeing after they finish their school education. In fact, the education desk monitors the girls both in and out of the schools.
Northern Uganda is generally not considered a safe place. Some local schools have seen girl children drop out because of early pregnancy, lack of school fees and many other problems of a similar nature.
In view of these hardships and to avoid such happening within the community, a few measures have been put in place, namely:
- ACDA administrator pays a regular visit every second week to the school to talk with the girls and to find out about any requirements they have or problems they are facing.
- ACDA health desk is conducting short training courses for the girls on the reproductive system, HIV/AIDS, etc.
- ACDA education desk calls the guardians and community leaders for a meeting at the start and end of the school education session.
Tom Fred feels a little disappointed with the fact that many of the projects undertaken by ACDA in the past have not been as successful as the girl-child education project, mainly on account of funding constraints.
He feels more funds are required to monitor, evaluate and administer such projects. But this has further strengthened his resolve to work towards the mission. However, he says he needs a helping hand from the RESPECT community.
"There is a need for the RESPECT team to at least pay a visit to our country, so that our teams get support for carrying ahead the noble task," urges Tom Fred.
ACDA is also in need of people who can work with the community, provide financial support and help the girls in their education and in living a normal life.