Early Childhood Development

ChildFund and the USAID Integrated Child and Youth Development (ICYD) Activity entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to help young learners improve their skills in early grade reading.

The MOU, signed by our country director and Dr Eileen Mokaya, the chief of party USAID ICYD at their offices in Nakawa on May 8, 2023 also promoted other key areas of violence prevention, youth skilling and orphans and vulnerable children programming.

This is premised on the fact that both organizations recognize significant potential synergies in designing and implementing approaches aimed at improving economic opportunity for vulnerable and underserved populations.

“The majority of our children at the end of Primary Two cannot read. UWEZO studies further show that there are also children in Primary Seven who cannot read, and this situation did not start now,” Mokaya said.

She called for the need to provide additional material to enable children to learn how to practice reading.

During the meeting.

Acknowledging the problem, Otai said for a child to be intentional in learning and to be self-driven, they have to be nurtured to do so, adding that sometimes the environment in which children live may lead to them dropping out from school.

“I am optimistic that this collaboration will enable all actors working in the children’s space, to play their role to make things better for children,’’ he said.

ChildFund Uganda currently supports a total of 103 primary schools with both soft and hardware. These among others include supporting teachers to improve their competence through training, provision of water and sanitation services as well as construction and stocking of libraries.

The team that attended the meeting.

Areas of collaboration

USAID ICYD and ChildFund will collaborate in advancing early-grade reading, school-related violence prevention, youth skilling and programs for orphans and youths.

The yearlong partnership saw ChildFund and USAID ICYD work in 13 overlapping districts to distribute reading instructional materials for foundation classes, print and distribute supplementary reading material including local language and English medium story books and levelled story cards.

Other areas of collaboration included conducting; community dialogues on school related violence prevention prevention related activities in the overlapping districts working with School Management Committees, Parents Teachers Associations, and local community structures such as Local Councils Parishes and Sub Counties and Districts.

The MOU  also supported school related violence prevention community-based case management to strengthen the referral system using reporting, tracking, referral and response guidelines through platforms established early warning committees and district vacation centers as well as youth trained by USAID ICYD who are also on the ChildFund program to transition.

Both organizations identified capacity-strengthening areas for the participants at different value chain levels.

The USAID ICYD Activity aims at improving learning outcomes and ensure that children and youth have the opportunity to lead resilient, healthy and productive lives. The USAID ICYD Activity further strengthens young people’s ability to engage with their environment, address their health and safety needs and make it likely for them to reach their full potential.