Since the success of our pilot education loans in Masese II, the Child Protection Teams we support in Uganda have been introducing the scheme into three new areas; Loco, Masese I and Masese III.

Just £20 can provide a small business loan for a struggling household in Uganda. 

In each area, the most needy households are identified and invited to attend a series of training workshops. These include savings workshops, small business training sessions and opportunities to form self help groups.

The saving workshops have been newly introduced as the new area’s needs are so great. The workshops introduce the benefits of saving and give hints and tips on how to put money aside, even through times of financial stress. Each person attending has a trial period of demonstrating they can save money and budget, before they are given their first loan.

Small business training workshops give prospective owners the chance to learn about the principles of a successful business and how to use their new income in the best way in order to grown their trade further.

The self help groups are facilitated to allow people to work together, support each other and develop funds to help in difficult times. They all contribute to a health fund which protects members in times of sickness, and also a social fund which supports members in other potential troubles (like the loss of a relative). Over time, members re-pay the money lent to them so the fund is available for the next person.

The new communities have 20 loans currently running in each area. Each loan is worth about £20, has sparked a new business and changed the lives of each household.  Many and various businesses are blossoming throughout each community including mat making, silver fish selling, cooking, charcoal selling, fruit and vegetable stalls and hut renovation.

Babra is our social worker at Children on the Edge Africa, she says “These loans can give people a new start. One lady had been trapped in prostitution for a long time. I talked with her regularly for over a year about how the loan scheme could help her start an new life, but she was reluctant. She didn’t believe she could do it, but she was so unhappy. This year she started out on the scheme. Already she has a successful business selling ground nuts and plastering people’s homes! She is free and is now able to send her three children to school. When she sees me, she throws her arms around me with happiness.”

This number of loans given in Masese III will double soon as many of the Karamajong people that live here have a natural talent for business and are responding particularly well to the scheme. This is especially good news here, as the community had become reliant on a charitable organisation that gave food handouts, when the charity left, people here had no income or means of feeding their children. The education loans are now giving them sustainable means to earn, feed their children and send them to school. Masese II is still running the education loan scheme and currently have 46 households starting up businesses.

​It costs just £20 to provide a small business loan for a struggling household. The slideshow below shows some of the different businesses these loans have made possible. If you would like to donate £20 to start a new business and enable children to go to school, just click the button below. ​

Each year on the 8th of March, International Women’s Day encourages us all to forge a better working and more gender inclusive world.

Children on the Edge works with local partners to restore the ingredients of a full childhood to some of the most vulnerable children worldwide. A big part of this is working towards equality in opportunities and an end to discrimination for the girls we work with.

The theme for the 2017 International Women's Day is #BeBoldForChange and we are privileged to be partnering with a number of truly inspirational women, who constantly use boldness and strength to bring about change for women and girls in their communities.

Nuna Matar is the Director of Triumphant Mercy , the Lebanese NGO we partner with to provide education for 500 Syrian refugee children in Bekaa Valley, Lebanon. We interviewed Nuna about what inspires her to be bold in creating change, what changes are possible, and how she overcomes obstacles and barriers in her work.

Each year on the 8th of March, International Women’s Day encourages us all to forge a more gender inclusive, better working world.

Children on the Edge works with local partners to restore the ingredients of a full childhood to some of the most vulnerable children worldwide. A big part of this is working towards equality in opportunities and an end to discrimination for the women and girls we work with.

The theme for the 2017 International Women's Day is #BeBoldForChange and we are privileged to be partnering with a number of truly inspirational women, who use boldness and strength to bring about change for women and girls in their communities.

​Nandawula Babra is a social worker at Children on the Edge Africa, in Jinja, Uganda. She grew up in the slums here, and has been a social worker for 15 years. She is now responsible for the development, support and facilitation of the Child Protection Teams that work across four slum areas surrounding the main town. 

Each year on the 8th of March, International Women’s Day encourages us all to forge a better working,  more gender inclusive world.

Children on the Edge works with local partners to restore the ingredients of a full childhood to some of the most vulnerable children worldwide. A big part of this is working towards equality in opportunities and an end to discrimination for the girls we work with.

The theme for the 2017 International Women's Day is #BeBoldForChange and we are privileged to be partnering with a number of truly inspirational women, who constantly use boldness and strength to bring about change for the women and girls in their communities.

Sister Veena Jacob is the Director and Founder member of Navjeevan Educational and Social Welfare Centre (NESWC) who we partner with in Bihar State, India. Children on the Edge support them in their work to end discrimination against the Dalit people in Patna, through education and community action.

Sister Veena has been working with Dalit women in Bihar State for the last 11 years. We interviewed her about what inspires her to be bold in creating change, what changes are possible, and how she overcomes obstacles and barriers in her work.

The work we support for Syrian refugee children in Lebanon has a specific focus on ensuring children can learn in their own culture and dialect. Children in the tent schools, set up in Bekaa Valley refugee settlements, are taught in Syrian Arabic by Syrian teachers. This is key to help them recover from trauma and to help them to re engage with learning, making education materials familiar and easy to understand.

Learning in mother tongue language facilitates access to education, while promoting fairness for population groups that speak minority or indigenous languages, in particular girls and women. It also raises the quality of education and learning by focussing on understanding and creativity, rather than on rote and memorisation.

Languages are the most powerful instruments of preserving and developing our tangible and intangible heritage. For the children we working with, continuing to learn in their own dialect with a Syrian curriculum is crucial to retaining a sense of self, and a knowledge of their own identity and history. As time passes in the camps the children can easily become disconnected to their home.

Schools Co-ordinator Nadine Morcos says “The teachers here speak the same dialect of Arabic as their students (often they're from the same or the neighbouring camp as the children), they get their culture, so nothing gets by them. The teachers are motivated to learn, motivated to be useful, and motivated to be a changing force in their communities.” 

All the Syrian refugees we speak to in the camps say that all they want is to go home and to help rebuild their country. They see their situation as temporary, so having their children learning in Syrian dialect is the most logical solution for them. They want to ensure that their children are educated for their own future and wellbeing, but also with the hope that in the future they are able to help Syria to get back on its feet.

​Read more about our work in Lebanon.
​​

Today is World Day of Social Justice. In 2007, The UN General Assembly proclaimed 20 February as a day to promote social justice activities. The UN define social justice  as an ‘underlying principle for peaceful and prosperous coexistence within and among nations’. 

They describe how ‘We uphold the principles of social justice when we promote gender equality or the rights of indigenous peoples and migrants. We advance social justice when we remove barriers that people face because of gender, age, race, ethnicity, religion, culture or disability.’

Today Children on the Edge are promoting the work we support in Bihar State, India, helping Dalit communities to remove the barriers they face due to caste discrimination and fight for social justice. Despite the fact that discrimination based on caste was outlawed by India’s constitution in 1950, the practice of ‘untouchability’ still dictates the order of modern life for millions here. The caste system assigns individuals a certain status according to Hindu beliefs. Traditionally there are four castes (divided into thousands of sub-categories) and a fifth category of people who fall outside of the system - the Dalits.

The word Dalit translates as ‘oppressed’ or ‘broken’ and is generally used to refer to people who were once known as ‘untouchables’ because of the impurity connected with their traditional ‘outcaste’ occupations. The resulting persecution, discrimination and poverty leaves Dalit children extremely vulnerable.

Working with two partner organisations, Children on the Edge are supporting education for Dalit children and their communities in Bihar State, not just for education’s sake, but to begin to break the cycle of discrimination.

Varsha Bela heads up the work of Parivartan Kendra (PK) in the rural Dalit communities of Vaishali District, Bihar. She describes the vision she has for her work as: “Bringing change in the lives of Dalit children through the transformation of communities on the edge”. In the urban area of Patna, Sister Veena and her organisation Narjeevan Educational and Social Welfare Society (NESWS) shares this vision and between them they facilitate 25 Community and Education Centres in the urban slums and rural villages.

The discrimination they are fighting in Bihar is very real. Veena describes the experiences of the Dalit community she works with; ‘In the village their houses are kept away from other houses, and in the city they are ghettoised. There are no toilets in their houses, or even a community toilet so they are forced to go in the open, on land they do not own, so they are chased away. There is a lack of clean drinking water facilities for the Dalits, in one slum 150 families use two hand pumps. The man next to this slum does not allow their water to flow through his land to the river, so the dirty water remains in the slum and creates sickness and filth. If I go with Dalit staff or friends to someone’s house they are nervous as they know they will not be welcomed in. They will not be be offered food or able to use the glasses or plates of other castes, if they touch these things, the owner will throw them away”.

The model our partners are working with to bring change has three components. First they set up Community Resource Centres, where Dalit people can join together and ‘feel the strength of their unity’. Through the establishment of women’s groups attached to each centre, people are trained about their entitlements and about the use of non-violent dialogue and actions to achieve their rights. They are also supported in a practical sense (i.e obtaining ID papers which qualify them for their entitlements, but are often missing and hard to access because of illiteracy, migration and landlessness).

As government primary schools are currently discriminating against Dalit children, the second component is to use the Community Resource Centres to facilitate education for children. Each afternoon, alongside basic maths, science and languages, 25 classes learn about many issues relating to caste discrimination, local governance, gender equality, human rights and self expression.

Varsha describes how “We teach children from the Dalit community that you have equal rights to any citizen in this country. We focus on the Indian Constitution which gives us fundamental rights and does not allow anyone to be treated according to their caste, class, religion, place of birth or sex. The implementation of the law is very poor though, and knowledge and use of it is very low due to lack of education. This is what we can change”.

Lastly comes action. In response to their training the community focus on realising their rights to a life with dignity, and all that entails. So far the women’s groups in the area, through peaceful protest and dialogue, have successfully fought for land rights, food entitlement, access to school and even the return of trafficked children.

Between them these two organisations are educating 800 Dalit children, who are beginning to realise their worth and be equipped to fight for the equal opportunities they deserve in the future. “This is a sustainable model of change” says Varsha, “it ensures Dalit children will get their rights in the future. If they grow up thinking they are nothing, then they will expect nothing in life. Education is the start of this change.”

Find out more about Social Justice Day
Read about our work with Dalit children in Bihar State
Urge the Indian government to end discrimination against Dalits.

​The Early Childhood Development (ECD) Centre we support in Loco, Uganda has been running for a few terms and the children have settled in well. Looking to the future for the current class, the team here facilitated a training day which focussed on ensuring the children’s smooth integration into government primary school.
 
The day consisted of training for both the teachers at the Centre and the teachers from the neighbouring primary school with which they are partnered. They worked together, looking at strategies for increasing retention and enrolment and effectively preparing young ones for the transition to primary.
 
Programme Director Edwin Wanabe said “We are giving the children a foundation so they are ready to integrate. The teachers at the ECD Centre are being trained in the primary curriculum so they have the knowledge to manage this transition and ensure the continuing education of the children when they finish their time at the Centre”.
 
Over the first few terms the ECD teachers have worked to identify which language is most commonly used amongst the new intake.  After establishing that the main language used by the children in Loco is Lasuga, they spent some time throughout the day translating all the lessons into this language. They prepared staff in both the Centre and the primary school to be able to teach in this language for the majority of lessons and activities.
 
Finally, they all worked on creating educational resources out of local materials like sticks, stones and boxes. Using these materials is a low cost and sustainable way of creating a stock of colourful, child friendly resources for the next few terms.
 
A school management committee, overseen by Doreen from Children on the Edge Africa has been established to focus on the continuing partnership and integration between the ECD Centre and the primary school.
 
Find out more about the work in Uganda and consider a donation to the project.
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​A fun packed celebration day has recently been held at the Early Childhood Development Centre we support in Loco, Uganda. The day was focussed on showing all the parents just how far the children have come in this short time. It gave the children a chance to show off their talents, but also gave the staff the opportunity to deliver some valuable training on positive parenting.
 
The children enjoyed performing dances, reciting poems and rhymes and singing songs, all of which they have learnt during their time at the Centre. Once this was done, they enjoyed some fun activities while the staff delivered parenting sessions together with the local Child and Family Protection Officer.
 
This event was the first of its kind in the community and a great way for the team to begin to assess their impact. Parents engaged well and developed a thorough understanding of their roles and responsibilities in ensuring their children get the most out of attending the Centre.
 
Going on from here the parents will be fully participating in looking after the school. They will be helping with sports days, music events and festivals in the weeks and months to come. At the end of every year, parent and teachers will meet together to plan targets and assessments for the following year.
 
Programme Director, Edwin Wanabe said ‘It is vital that all the parents have ownership of the Centre right from the start. This is not our project, it is theirs, and it is them that will make sure that their children enjoy their education to the full. The parents were amazed at the talent they could see in their children, this inspires them to give their time and commitment to the Centre’.
 
Find out more about the work in Uganda and consider a donation to the project. 

Thousands of internally displaced people from Kachin State are facing freezing temperatures in the remote mountain areas where they have built settlements.

Surviving the cold at these high altitudes has become unbearable and our local partners have recently responded by distributing warm clothes such as trousers, coats, hats, socks and boots to each child and teacher at all of the 14 Early Childhood Development Centres we support here.

There were 534 sets of warmth clothes distributed in total, procured from Chinese markets on the other side of the border.

One grandmother of a child who received a set of clothes said, “My grandchild has been asking for socks and warm clothes since the winter advanced last month, but I could not afford to get any for him, and I felt extremely bad as he is in dire need of warm clothes. I am very thankful for your kind help on behalf of my grandchild, he is happy and feels secure now, and your assistance is very useful to us as you provide in a time of extreme need.”

​Find out more about the education we provide for Kachin children in Burma.