Uganda – Literacy Enhancement and Rural Nutrition (Uganda-LEARN)

Improving access to education in a post-conflict environment

ACDI/VOCA was recently awarded a grant from the United States Department of Agriculture to develop a three-year Food for Education program in northern Uganda. As part of the Literacy Enhancement and Rural Nutrition (Uganda-LEARN) program, ACDI/VOCA will deliver a comprehensive package of school feeding, school gardens, community training and rehabilitation of classrooms, teachers’ residences and pit latrines. These activities will improve attendance, create a dramatically improved learning environment and restore conditions conducive to quality educational performance in the post-conflict area of Uganda.

Two decades of armed conflict and internal displacement in northern Uganda have put major strains on educational infrastructure, disrupted staffing patterns, impaired school attendance and left this part of Uganda lagging behind the rest of country. Now that there is peace in northern Uganda, many people have returned to their original homes, but need support to rebuild their livelihoods to ensure their food security and combat short-term hunger. ACDI/VOCA will target its activities in the districts of Katakwi and Amuria of the Teso subregion, one of the most food insecure regions in Uganda, where children’s ability to attend school is limited by their household’s efforts to meet daily food needs.

The intended outcomes of this program are

1. improved school attendance and retention of boys and girls in ACDI/VOCA-assisted primary schools, with a special emphasis on the female students;
2. improved educational facilities for students and teachers;
3. improved knowledge of nutrition, hygiene and agriculture; and
4. increased ability of local communities to manage and sustain school-feeding programs.

School Feeding

ACDI/VOCA will deliver school lunch rations consisting of cornmeal, peas, lentils and vegetable oil to 20,000 students throughout the project. In addition, female students with an attendance rate of 80 percent or higher will receive monthly take-home rations of corn meal during the school year. School Feeding Management Committees (SFMCs) and Parent Teacher Associations (PTAs) will be responsible for storing food commodities and preparing lunches. ACDI/VOCA will train SFMC members in the proper storage, safe handling and preparation of the food. The project will provide schools with large cooking pots and communities will contribute other necessary inputs, such as labor for cooking, fuel and flavor additives.

Sustainability & Training

In order to ensure the continued management and sustainability of school feeding once the Uganda-LEARN program has ended, ACDI/VOCA will provide training to school administrations, PTAs and SFMCs in group formation and management, nutrition and hygiene, and agriculture. With assistance from ACDI/VOCA and local partners, schools will establish school gardens, which will serve as sources of income generation to cover cash costs of the school feeding, as well as nutritious food to supplement donated food commodities. The school gardens will also serve as “points of learning” for the children, where the program will convey basic knowledge to the children on the topics mentioned above.

Infrastructure Rehabilitation

Approximately 150 teachers’ residences and 195 classrooms will be rehabilitated through the program, equally divided among the 50 participating schools. The project will also construct 50 latrines. The communities will provide the labor and local materials for these rehabilitation efforts. Teachers’ residences are crucial given the immense distances between schools and population centers, the high costs and difficulties of local transport and the extreme weather conditions of excessive rainfall and parching drought. Rehabilitation of classrooms will help ensure a more comfortable and conducive learning environment for the children.

ACDI/VOCA will provide skills to the communities to help develop structures and capacities through training in nutrition, hygiene and agriculture as well as technical assistance in the creation of school gardens and tree nurseries. ACDI/VOCA will hand over programming and resource responsibility in phases over the three-year program, as community capacities mature. Specifically, communities will be encouraged to supply grains, pulses and/or tubers during the harvests to the schools to complement the FFE-provided food. Furthermore, school gardens will also have an income generation function to assist the schools in meeting the cash demands of a community-based school feeding program. By the end of 2013, ACDI/VOCA will have phased out of school feeding and the communities will have assumed full responsibility.

Local Capacity Building

Community participation in decision making creates not only a sense of pride, but also ownership of activities, which in turn leads to greater sustainability. Local partners will include the school administrations and communities, which will operate through the PTAs and SFMCs. ACDI/VOCA will train the PTAs on association building, strengthening and management, and on community relations and mobilization. SFMC training will focus primarily on the mechanics of the school feeding program (i.e., commodity handling and storage, food preparation and serving, nutrition and hygiene).

For more information, contact Elizabeth Arlotti-Parish at earlotti-parish@acdivoca.org.

Updated: 11/10

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