Guest article by Vincent, THRIVEGulu Literacy Manager
The THRIVEGulu Literacy Program began as an effort to address the large number of adult women who never had the opportunity to receive basic education. Women and men continue to face social and cultural challenges that undermine their human worth and dignity, resulting in poverty and inequality. To build upon our successful Adult Literacy Program and to reduce the challenges that older adults face, the Youth Literacy Program will now bring Acholi and English Literacy to the disadvantaged young people in Northern Uganda.
The launch of the new youth literacy manual, “Renewing the Life of the Youth,” was commemorated with a joyous and colorful community event! Our manual is both innovative and distinctive because it was developed by members from our seven Youth Empowerment Groups. They composed stories based on their own lives to help with the language learning process. Several experienced Literacy Facilitators from our Adult Empowerment Groups were on hand to train our newly commissioned Youth Literacy Facilitators, making it a multigenerational undertaking. After participating in the first lesson, one of the new learners shared, “This story was written as if I was the one who told it. It’s telling my life situation. I will learn to start a small business like Ajok in our story today.”
In addition to the culturally and geographically significant topics, our literacy manual is unique because it starts with pictures and stories. This helps those who never went to school and have a complete lack of literacy skills feel like they have the chance to start somewhere. The illustrations provide an introduction and overview of the chapter and what topics will be covered. The structure of the manual includes discussions on how to overcome the challenges in the story and has follow-up homework assignments to reinforce the lesson. I feel really blessed to work with people who are very interested in learning and grateful to the partners who have supported this program!
Be sure to check out our video from this special day!
