Thanks to our incredible supporter community we are able to offer children like Sabimaana Catch-up Club sessions that feature play-based activities conducted by trained volunteer Community Learning Facilitators. As well as a focus on literacy, they include a wellbeing component – called socio-emotional learning (SEL) – which is key to improving learning.
Children get help with literacy skills from a Community Learning Facilitator at a Catch-up Club in Uganda.
One teacher describes the difference Catch-up Clubs are making to their school: “Since Catch-up Clubs started in our school, I am observing a change in the way children are able to express themselves. Children participating in the clubs are more active in class. Our debate clubs had failed but children are now taking the lead in debate activities. Teachers have also learned how to apply some of the play-based activities during lessons.”
Catch-up Clubs are currently implemented in 45 schools in Wakiso, a city in the central region of Uganda, as well as 25 schools in western Uganda.
Learning and planning our future
For children like Sabimaana, this combination of social and literacy development is helping them regain joy and excitement about the future.
Children engage in Catch-up Club activities at a Primary School in Kyangwali Refugee Settlement, Uganda.
“During lockdown, I was missing my class, my friends,” explains Sabimaana. “But when I came to the Catch-up Club I regained my friends. I'm so happy when I'm at school with my people, learning and planning our future.”
Now Sabimaana has started to dream big. “I want to be an important person. I want to help people. I would like to help people who are emotionally disturbed. I'd be like a doctor who helps their state of mind. So it's a very, very important thing for me to learn and read so I can achieve all those goals.”