Family dialogues for better education attainment, health promotion and better livelihoods

Family dialogues for better health, education and livelihoods
I’m a Uganda born and raised in Uganda, where I have spent most of life. I grew up in family where all children were given equal opportunity to study and it was through my early days at university and my work life that I was exposed to gender based discrimination, where girls in most of the communities married early, and were discriminated against in many fields. Although I have never faced this discrimination, I have heard countless stories of women who have faced such but in their own efforts they often try to educate their own children. Sadly for many it is a struggle, as they lack critical resources like land and other means to raise enough funds for educational requirements. I have always had the desire to help wherever I can. The story Im about to share with you is just the start of my journey towards efforts to address some of the challenges children from poor families have attaining education.
Last year, I embarked on a journey to mobilise story books for primary schools. I did this through teacher friends who have access to resources that other schools are ready to give out as they restock new ones. As I distributed these books to two of my chosen schools I came to learn that most of the pupils did not have any story books at home, their parents involvement in their education in most of the cases ended at paying school dues. Although they were fast readers of story books written in their mother tongue, they struggled with the stories written in English. They enjoyed the colourful pictures in the books and in their letters of appreciation exposed a great deal of enthusiasm to read more, learn more.
Towards the end of last year my neighbour’s son dropped out of school and she resigned to sending him to live with a brother in another district, for fear that he might be a bad influence on his siblings. In my interaction with her, I realised that rarely did the parents try to figure out why the son had lost interest in school but had spent more efforts trying to force him to return to school. As a sympathised with the mother, I came to learn that fellow women in the village are concerned about their health and education and yet have limited access on resources. Together we formed the Women for Health, Education and Livelihoods Advancement (WOHEALA) which focuses on improving quality of life through prioritising health, education and livelihoods. WOHELA is based on Luwero. WOHEALA has 15 members for far and has started mobilising parents to start dialogues to increase parental involvement in their children’s education, health promotion and income generation activities. We believe that focusing on the family will lead to more parents increasing their interactions with schools in order to address challenges related to education, health and livelihoods. We believe that conscious efforts to address these issues within families will lead to improved quality of lives. Lessons will be documented as a springboard to reach other families.