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GOODHANDS COMMUNITY SERVICE GROUPS FOR SLUMS
Needy women and mothers in slums with similar life situation and common interests are formed into community service groups which are managed by GoodHands to provide effective support in solidarity, teamwork, self-help, learning and knowledge expansion. Eliminating illiteracy and hunger among group members is a priority. Within the community group, small service teams of around 10 participants are formed, bringing together women with similar needs.
For each service team, a suitable woman should be appointed directly from the slum as a team instructor. These collaborating women are trained by GoodHands to give multiple knowledge courses to the team members. Virtual learning and training resources are also used in community service centers. Virtual librarians are also being set up in the community service centers. Group members are also tasked with staying vigilant in the slum and reporting abuse of women and children to the GoodHands leadership so professional help can be arranged.
THE TRAGIC LIFE OF SINGLE TEENAGE MOTHERS IN SLUMS
Many teenagers become mothers at an early age because of neglect by parents, sexual abuse, peer pressure, cultural beliefs that promote early marriage/childbearing and lack of role models. Parents’ separations/ death changes the life stories of many girls starting living with relatives in difficult situations of poverty and this forces them to engage in work at early age which is a center for so called sugar daddies that use girls and impregnate them. Long travel distances, e.g., to school and unsupervised locations like sugarcane plantation thickets, forests are risk factors for rape hence turning little girls into teenage mothers.
Illiteracy and lack of skills are the main causes of poverty and the dramatic impact it has on women and children. Either there is not enough money for effective help or donations hardly reach the countless poor in the slums. GoodHands strategy is to set up community service centers directly in slum areas. Resources such as learning courses and counseling by social workers are provided there. Service groups are organized for needy single mothers, in which empowerment and self-help are promoted. Enhanced life improvement support will be available to teenage mothers to give them hope for a better future.
CAUSES OF ILLITERACY IN AFRICAN SLUMS
Parents with little schooling or being illiterate make children fail to attend to schools. Lack of books at home and lack of stimulation as to the importance of reading. Poor performance at or dropping out of school leads to many not completing high school. Difficult living conditions including poverty. Learning disabilities such as dyslexia. Gender discrimination. High school fees rate is not affordable.
The Uganda Bureau of Statistics Census 2014 provides statistics.
Persons aged 18 years and above who are illiterate: 41.7%.
Males aged 18 years and above who are illiterate: 22.4%.
Females aged 18 years and above who are illiterate: 56.6%.
GoodHands ABC learning courses
Reading ability is the prerequisite for acquiring knowledge and skills. GoodHands has developed its own ABC learning program that can be used for any language and dialect. As a result, reading and writing is learned in further courses in community service centers.
COMMUNITY SERVICE CENTER FOR NABUTI, UGANDA
GoodHands is non-governmental organization with a development and service team of teachers, social workers and an IT specialist with its offices located in Mukono city Uganda. GoodHands aims at improving the lives of the people in the slum of Nabuti zone with a planned community service center, located 5 km (3 miles) away from our offices.
Our team is tasked and committed to a complex planning for the requirements that exist for the realization of a new community center directly in the slum area. The basis for this is a suitable house to hold group meetings, advice from social workers and courses for skills training. In preparation for the formation of service groups, informal meetings for interested women are required, which also include interviews on the different needs of the visitors.
We explain goals of the future service groups regarding knowledge and skills expansion, elimination of illiteracy, self-help and economic cooperation with the GoodHands organization. We also discuss options for children who cannot get any education at all due to lack of school fees.
INFORMATION ABOUT DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE
This slum is located in Nabuti zone in Mukono district, near Kampala the capital city of Uganda and has its biggest challenge of many single mothers is need facing biggest problems of hunger, lack of medical help, abuse, lack of education and jobs.
As GoodHands with offices in Mukono and a qualified development team with teachers, social workers and IT professional, we plan to have an organized counseling and skills improvement for such women and these are urgently needed. A new community service center directly in the Nabuti poverty colony will be a first model for targeted and effective help. The overarching goal is to establish GoodHands Community Service Centers in many slums in the future in order to provide successful service to improve the lives of those in need. We invite you to read our series reports on improvement steps.
INTERNET RISK KNOWLEDGE AND MEASURES
Internet risks can be defined as anything that may cause harm to an internet user. This harm can come in many forms (e.g. physical, emotional, psychological, financial). Some of the risks that are associated with using the internet include hackers, predators, identity theft, exposure to inappropriate content. These can be avoided by using anti-virus software, practicing safe browsing, privacy settings, download from trusted sources.
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FREE COMPUTER AND INTERNET KNOWLEDGE RESOURCES FOR YOU
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GOODHANDS COMMUNITY SERVICE CENTER FOR THE NABUTI SLUM
Major problems of the needy women and their children in Uganda. Is above all hunger, lack of medical help, abuse, no education and jobs. We invite you to read our regular improvement reports.