Our Community Day Out about Girl Child in Uganda.

This was another special day for us. After our school debating, we had a community day out, where we had to visit families to share with us their views about girl child and their education. Many stories could bring tears to us but we learned a lot out their. We took a lot of photos but most import is that we learned that the girl child is still under many forms of abuse and discrimination.
We want to know how you take a girl child in your community.

Josephine.

GIRL CHILD EDUCATION & CHALLENGES OF THE GIRL CHILD.

HELLO FRIENDS,
Today we had a general school debate  concerning GIRL CHILD. Issues discussed were really very impressing to hear. Female teachers were very pivotal in this discussion but it was centered among girls. I was compelled to post this for you to read as well. The discussion took long time than we expected compared to the usual debating. We hold debates on Fridays twice in a month. I was really impressed by the discussion by PATRICIA, WINNIE, FLORENCE AND SHAKIRAH.Among boys, REAGAN and ROGERS were very influential.

"We must also be children like our counter parts. We must not be brides at our teenage. Every leader in the society especially religious leaders help us the girls to stay safe and in schools.
We girls face a lot of Discrimination, violence and many forms of child abuse, so every one in the world must help us against these abuses.
When we marry at young ages, we are denied our future chances.  We get unwanted pregnancies and this puts our lives at risks. Not only our lives but also our newly unborn babies.
We girls must be empowered because we have the same potential like boys.
Every one has the responsibility of ensuring our rights.
Our parents and guardians must invest in girl child as they do for the case of boy child.
In Uganda, our president always talks about gender equality. Can we have this equality if you do not invest in us the girls.
In Uganda, many mothers were married at ages less 15 years. We always here marriages of this nature but now we are happy that the police has tried to fight against this practice.
Last few weeks, we saw a father marrying two of her daughters, one aged 12 years and another 14 years. This is not right for us girls.
In most of the rural areas in Uganda, girls face discrimination and abuse. Even in our area hear there are many girls who look so young but are now carrying babies. This means they were married at young ages. This makes us cry when we see them.

WHAT MUST WE DO NOW?
Educating us is one of the best way to protect us against all these forms of abuse and early marriages. If we stay in schools, we shall be able to lay a firm foundation for our better future.

There are some of our friends already married; what can they do? They can re-access education, health services and also setting up for them vocational education like tailoring, hair dressing, and also giving their babies an opportunity to go to school. We are really proud of our teachers who have given us this opportunity to go to school.
Our local leaders must give us the plat form to express our issues.
There must be laws set against cultural practices that are violating  the girl child rights. In Uganda, there are tribes that are carrying out such abuses.
Dear our leaders, parents and teachers, be responsible and help us the girls."

SWEET FRIENDS

Hello our friends, 
We are now back on our blog. How are you doing these days? These days it is hot here. What is your weather in USA? There is a lot of dust at our school though sometimes it may rain. The great thing we have seen is that the books you sent us have been of help to us. We enjoy the reading and each morning, from 7:00 am to 8:00 am, we begin with reading so that we are perfect because our teachers said reading is the most important if we are to be able to interpret the questions. Indeed, thank you a lot for the books. 

Your friend, 
NANTAMBI LILIAN.

WE ARE PROUD OF OUR GARDENS.

This shows one of our maize plantation. Within the same, there are some beans. This method of growing crops is referred to as inter-cropping. We believe that since beans are legumes, they can help to increase soil fertility in the due course.
The beans are at their flowering stage and by December, we shall have them harvested. We expect high yields from this field.

The species of beans in the photo on the right produces really
good output. For very good yields, they need to be staked. We locally call them NAMULONGE II.

This is the same species as the one above (NAMULONGE II).

Here the beans are planted in a banana plantation. We call this cover cropping and we believe that this method helps to control soil erosion as they (beans) help to cover the soil from the erosive agents (wind and running water).

The field on the right was planted a bit latter than the right season. We were unable to meet the exact planting season. We expect a little good yields out here.

The gardens here are only beans. We hope to get some good yields. All the beans are at their flowering stage.

We hope that the fields will help reduce our expenditure on food costs. We are really very happy about this and next season, we hope to continue the same project.
We also have fields of SOYA BEANS and GROUND NUTS.

We're Back

Hello Good Friends,
We started our new school year mid September and we are just getting settled in. We have been doing a lot of assessments and it sounds like you have also. I teach 3rd grade. That means that my students are 8 years old and turning 9. We work hard in three subjects. In math we focus on learning number sense. We also work hard to memorize our multiplication and division facts. Third grade is when we start more reading to learn, whereas up to now, we have been learning to read. Now we will focus on reading smoothly, with expression, and also show that we understand what we read. This year we will be completing more writing assignments. Hopefully you will see that with us writing to you more. We don't have too much time for science, even though we find it very exciting and fun.
It is Fall (autumn) here and our leaves are turning colors. It is a beautiful time of year. Our temperatures are between 40-70 degrees with occasional sprinkles of rain.
I am very pleased to see all your blog entries and I hope that you continue to write. We love hearing about your lives.
Your friend,
Ms. Cindy

ABOUT UGANDA'S INDEPENDENCE.

Dear friends, how are you doing these days? We have not heard from you for long now. We hope however that you are well.
Today 09th of October is Uganda's Independence day. You know, Uganda was once a British colony but there are many nationalists who fought so that Uganda could rule herself.  This was long history ago before all of us at school were born, even our teachers were not yet born when Uganda got her independence.
On this day in 1962, the Union Jack was lowered as Uganda flag was raised to show that Uganda now has her independence from the British government.
On Monday in our class we discussed about the effects of Uganda's independence and it was an interesting topic.
We did also learn that USA was under British rule so many years ago. We said that whereas USA was ruled by Britain, she has developed ahead of Britain. So we agreed that Uganda can also grow richer as USA and Britain. 
The countries that were once British Colonies are under one body called the COMMON WEALTH COUNTRIES. Every after two years, there is a general meeting for these countries and it is called CHOGM, meaning; COMMON WEALTH HEADS of GOVERNMENT MEETING. In 2007, Uganda hosted this meeting and many presidents of member countries attended. The president of the hosting country becomes the chairperson for COMMON WEALTH for two years.
we have only been told about two leaders/ heads of Commonwealth and that is King George VI and the current Queen of England, Queen Elizabeth II.
The supreme head of Common wealth is the Queen of England and she is called Queen Elizabeth II.
There is also a COMMONWEALTH GAMES that are played by all the member countries.
China, USA Canada normally take many medals.
Yesterday, we also played the INDEPENDENCE CUP, that was for just a single day and we won the trophy.
STORY BY PATRICIA AND ROSE.

HI FRIENDS.

Hello our friends, how are you doing? We have not heard from you nor communicated to you for some long time. We had our term two holidays but we have returned to school. there has been a lot of tests for us but now we are almost done with them. The weather has been fair this season because there are no much rains.
We also had successful netball competition last time.
Bye for now.
Nanuddu shakirah.

How are you dear friends?

Hello friends in the US, how are you there? We have not heard from you for quite long. I hope you have been on holiday. Here school begun three weeks ago and we are having a lot of tests because this is our promotional term and so we have got to be so busy.
How is Mrs. Cindy? We have not hear from her so so long also.

Magala Reagan.