Francis Bizoza is a Teach For Uganda Fellow and a professional teacher who has served in the rural schools of Uganda for the last 03 years. While at the Teach For Uganda fellowship, Francis was able to witness first-hand the challenges facing education among children in underprivileged communities of Uganda. He co-founded the Teacher Empowerment Program (TEP), a platform to transfer skills to rural teachers in the facilitation of learning and mobilization of communities to embrace education. He hopes to grow this association to become an international organization that retools teachers across Africa, with the knowledge that providing children with quality education is the best way to transform an entire nation. Francis is a Society-Internet Governance Fellow and a graduate of Makerere University Uganda.
Decimon was placed at Nabutaka Primary School in Luwero where he and his colleague mobilized parents and other stakeholders to value education and take their children to school. His efforts led to an increment in student enrollment from 86 pupils in the entire school in 2018 to 250 currently.
He is a co-founder of an investment club and a community-based organization called the Good Samaritan organization in Kitende-Makandwa that pools funds together and uses them to improve the social wellbeing of households. He is passionate about engaging parents to reverse their attitudes towards education and get them to value it for the future of our country. Decimon is now a Leadership Development Coach with teach For Uganda
Engineer Kyobe was placed at Nabutaka Primary school where he and his colleague mobilized parents and other community leaders to value education and bring their children to school. As a mathematics teacher, he inspired his students to self-learn and to love mathematics as a subject. Kyobe intends to continue teaching after realizing that it is a profound act of leadership and the best way to build Uganda as a country – knowing that we have the youngest population in the world. Kyobe holds a BSc in Electrical Engineering from Makerere University.
Winnie joined the Teach For Uganda Fellowship program as a route to diversify her social work experience. Her passion for children has seen her demonstrate immeasurable efforts to mobilize and rally children together to read by supporting them in developing their literacy skills. She lobbied over 300 reading books for her school from friends. To improve school regularity, Winnie started the ‘Beyond 7’ football project in June 2020 with daily football sessions, personal development, community engagement, and competitive games. Their biggest success was 4 of the girls among 13 girls and 17 boys getting scholarships to better schools. They managed to achieve this by working with professional coaches in Mayuge, who supported them to go to Iganga district for a tournament. They acquired jerseys and balls through fundraising. “I have learned mobilization skills, improved my phonetics, engaged stakeholders, and managed projects as a result of this fellowship,” says Winnie. In the future, she wants to establish herself as a social worker for the transformation of the children in Uganda.
Charles was placed at St. Jude Mwangi Primary School in Luwero where he and his colleague run a campaign dubbed “every child go to school”, which helped increase enrolment in the school from 83 students to 320 within 1 year. As a mathematics and science teacher, he taught his children using practical approaches that have helped them to develop hand skills and improve on their performances.
Some of his pupils developed an architectural design for a modern community that they intend to build as adults and others developed egg incubators with locally made materials. He also mobilized resources to build teachers’ houses in his school, a project that is underway to date. Charles currently runs a community-based organisation in Kumi district that uses sports to inspire young girls to stay in school and as an opportunity to impart technical skills to the girls to economically empower them.
Mutebe Emmanuel was placed at Nalongo Church of Uganda primary school in Luwero where he initiated a school gardening program to provide school feeding for pupils. He also trained pupils and parents in vegetable production and established a demonstration kitchen garden in the school and households of some of his children. Emma is currently serving another 02 years as a fellow in Luwero District where he hopes to work with teachers to promote 21st-century skills among the pupils. Emma holds a BA in Philosophy and a Diploma in Teacher Education.
Moses Ruharo was placed in Butuntumula UMEA primary school in Luwero where he effectively mobilized the community to provide food for all the 500 children at his school. He and his colleague successfully created a culture that values education among parents, school management committee, local leaders, and teachers. He and his co-fellow mobilized resources to fence the school and secure it from trespassers who often damaged school property, and also implemented the “Electrifying Buntuntumula Project” and mobilized resources to connect the school to the power greed. Pupils can now conduct prep lessons at night and the school will soon start a boarding section for upper primary.
Tom was placed at Mbaale SDA primary school in Luwero district where he taught mathematics and served as the school accountant. He transformed the finance management system for his school and worked with the management to mobilize resources to construct a classroom block and deep water well to address safe water access for pupils and the community.
As a mathematics and science teacher, Tom helped to inculcate the culture of self-learning among his pupils through promoting peer-peer learning and assigning leadership roles to his students. Tom and his colleague also mobilized resources and coordinated the construction of a 03 classroom block that now accommodates classes previously studying under trees. Tom is currently a CEO with a social enterprise that provides loans to social entrepreneurs and works as an accounting consultant, developing accounting systems for schools.
Freda was placed at Butuntumula UMAEA primary school in Luwero. Using inclusive learning approaches, Freda was able to engage her students in income-generating ventures and girl child empowerment projects that led to a 60% reduction in school dropouts and a 10% increase in school enrolment within 1.5 years. She is passionate about promoting friendly learning environments in schools and modeling teacher behaviors that facilitate learning rather than making learning happen.
She is a co-Founder of Teacher Empowerment Platform (TEP), a platform she uses to transfer skills to rural teachers in the facilitation of learning and mobilization of communities to embrace education programs. She recently spoke at the Pan-Commonwealth Conference on Education in Edinburgh, UK – where she shared her experiences in the use of ICT tools in teaching delivery and modeling of teacher behaviours that facilitate better learning outcomes. She currently teaches at Clarke International Schools in Kampala.
Molly was placed at Kasiso Primary school in Luwero where she and her colleague started the “Donate a Book 256 initiative” that mobilized reading books and resources for setting up a library. Molly is the current vice president of the MEMPROW GIRLS NETWORK, Uganda chapter and a member of the Pan African Fight Inequality Alliance steering committee. She is a graduate of Arts in Social sciences from Makerere University and currently works as an advocate for quality and inclusive education in Uganda.
Patricia was placed at Kasiso Primary school in Luwero where she and her colleague started the “Donate a Book 256 initiative” that mobilized reading books and resources for setting up a library. This saw a great improvement in literacy skills among her pupils who are now able to read and are achieving better performances across all subjects. Patricia is passionate about promoting the rights of girl children, especially when it comes to access to education and reproductive health. She currently works with Equity Bank Uganda where she is engaging the bank management to channel their CSR budget towards promoting education in rural schools across Uganda.
Ryn was placed at Mbaale SDA primary school in Luwero where she worked with Tom to mobilize resources for the construction of a classroom room and safe water sources for the pupils and community. She has taught for the last 06 years in rural schools as a teacher of English and Literature, forming writers and debaters clubs in the schools. Along with Tom, Ryn mobilized resources and coordinated the construction of a 03 classroom block that now accommodates classes previously studying under trees. She is passionate about girl child education and plans to start a girl child education movement (GCM) in her community to address the inequity affecting girl children in Uganda.
Carolyn was placed at St. Jude Mwangi primary school in Luwero she runs a campaign dubbed “every child go to school”, which helped increase enrolment in the school from 83 students to 320 within 1 year. She developed a reading curriculum for her students that improved their literacy skills and performance in assessment tests. Through her mobilization skills, she attracted donor funding for the construction of a classroom block and teachers' houses in her rural placement school. She intends to continue mobilizing communities towards valuing and recognizing the potential their children have, while modeling good teacher behaviour for other teachers of English in Uganda. She currently teachers at Clarke International Schools in Kampala
