By Bhavani Parpia | Project Leader
In July, ConnecTeach went to Iganga to lay the foundation for this project, by meeting with local government officials and meeting with our in-country partner. While there, we also deliver a one-week workshop to over 300 teacher trainees at Walugogo Primary Teacher’s College. One of these trainees that we met was David. At 24 years old, David is one of the oldest in his cohort of mostly 16- to 18-year olds. He began his education late because he was abducted by Joseph Kony at age 13. He experienced daily torture for over a year and his story, while tragic, is remarkable because of his resilience and determination to make a better life not only for himself, but also to build a better future for the students he will be teaching. During the workshop, the topic of classroom punishment was discussed. The trainees shared that corporal punishment remains a common classroom management strategy, and that many students have died in the region due to beating. At this point, David stood up and shared his story, pleading with his classmates to eliminate classroom violence. He said that Joseph Kony dropped out of primary school because he was beaten at school and at home. He said, “This teacher [Joseph Kony’s teacher] brought the war to the whole village... If we teachers don’t change, we will have more Joseph Konys…. As teachers, please don’t have the heart of revenge….Let’s have good skills on how to handle problems.”
Although Joseph Kony is the extreme example, violence remains inherent to the narrative of this region. Students like David give us hope that the narrative can be changed. Your continued support will literally make a world of difference.
Thank you for your support to help us graduate the Accelerator challenge. Your generation donation helped us take the first steps towards launching our project. We invite you to share our story and continue to support our project so that we will be able to reach our goal of impacting 30,000 students and 1,300 teachers.
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