What is Take Me 2 School?
The Take Me 2 School project is a shared initiative with Katwe Central Primary School (KCPS), Dwelling Places (DP) and Feed a Million Mouths International (FAMMI). The association between FAMMI and DP goes back almost 10 years. The two organisations have worked together on training, nutrition, and education projects before. The working relationship is robust and effective.
The association between FAMMI and KCPS has been vibrant for at least 9 months. Together they run a project called kARTwe.
Project objectives
The objective of this project is to get street kids and vulnerable slum children off the streets and into mainstream schools. The target catchment area for the children we serve is the streets of Kampala and the slum community of Katwe. The Katwe community leadership and the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) will be involved in this project. KCCA has facilitatory/advisory status and not partner status.
The challenges
A vulnerable child, who has been out of school for a significant period, cannot be admitted to mainstream education without meticulous preparation. The following issues must be addressed:
- The child has no home, other than random shelters from night to night.
- The child has lost all notion of a disciplined regime of getting up at a specific time and going to bed at a specific time etc.
- The child has no personal hygiene discipline.
Our response
- The child cannot be admitted to school in the class for his age without preparation.
- The child has no adequate clothing.
- The child has no financial means to pay school fees.
- The child may not have adequate language skills. Fully 80% of our street children will come from the Karamoja region of Uganda. Their primary language is Ngakirimojong. School lessons are taught in Luganda and in English.
- Teachers in the school receiving them may not have the requisite skills to deal with children who come from life on the streets or who have been out of school for a substantial time.
- The child may have difficulties being accepted by other pupils or in assimilating into a disciplined school regime.
- It is possible that the child will have aggressive “problem solving” techniques that were honed to survive on the streets. This may lead to behavioural problems at school.
The following actions and initiatives are being pursued to achieve the project objectives. These are not mentioned in any specific order. In order to rescue vulnerable children and to get them into mainstream education and a safe living environment this project seeks to:
- Befriend and gain the trust of vulnerable children in our target area.
- Rescue vulnerable children from the streets. This will include getting them to safe accommodation.
- Rehabilitate. This will include:
- Teaching Personal Hygiene
- Getting them into a disciplined daily regime
- Dealing with basic behavioural issues
- Begin remedial catch-up education
- Getting children refamiliarised with education. This will include:
- Taking a mobile school onto the streets and into the slum so children start learning in an environment that they know.
- Starting up education play groups so that children get back into education in a non-regimented environment.
- Identifying potential foster families for street kids
- Educating and preparing foster families to accept a street child into their homes.
- Monitoring the foster families, identifying potential problems, and resolving these in a timely manner.
- Providing extra food for foster families.
- Providing financial support for foster families.
- Providing school uniforms for children to admit them to school.
- Providing school fees.
- Providing additional catch up and remedial education.
- Upskilling the teachers in the partner school so that they teach more effectively.
- Training teachers in the partner school to teach children who have been out of school for some time.
- Training teachers in the partner school to integrate vulnerable children into the social fabric of the school.