Mission 11 Program 2019: transition from school to work

PROUD project has 2 groups:
-group 1 focusing on self care;
-group 2 focusing on household activities.

From 2019 we will start with group 3 focusing on “economic activities”. We will teach productive and commercial activities to our youngsters. In the first year the focus will be on gardening and cooking. We will welcome some specialists from outside the project to work with our children and teachers.

Vzw The village is seeking support from the Province of East Flanders to finance this project. Follow future developments on this blog.

Mission 11 Workshop for professionals: curriculum issues

In November we invited a select group of professionals to discuss the progress we made with curriculum project. We discussed with them a questionnaire inspired by the core curriculum for children with intellectual disabilities (CwID) which can be used as an assessment instrument. We also looked at the final text about ‘Menstrual hygiene’ as an example of how we will develop all curriculum topics. We ended the morning with a discussion about curriculum dissemination issues.

In the afternoon we addressed training youngsters with intellectual disabilities (YwID) for work. The basic assumption is that YwID take most profit from partial involvement in normal work activities in normal work environments.

Mission 11 Workshops with parents and personnel: work for adolescents

We discussed with parents and personnel the transition from school to work for our youngsters. We examined the existing work situation of adults with intellectual disabilities (AwID) in Ugandan communities like Kabale Town. Participants found that AwID have no jobs or poor jobs. Many times they do tiresome or dirty and unhealthy casual works for almost no money and don’t get appreciation for the efforts they make. We want the opposite: normal work, clean and not harmful, quite stable jobs bringing a reasonable income.

Mission 11 Workshop with local committee members: welcome to PROUD Village

PROUD UG invited all local committee members to visit the project and get informed. The seven female members of the committee responded to the invitation, the three male members were absent.

Project staff explained the time table of our children and all learning activities they become involved in. As local committee members knew some of the children but did not know very well what they were studying, many times they were surprised. The reactions were very positive what made us think that women understand better about project matters, daily activities and vulnerable children than men. 

Anyway, additionally visitors got the opportunity to visit all project infrastructures and asked questions about all project activities. We ended up with taking some snacks and drinks and making an original group picture!

Mission 11 Bringing power to PROUD Village

Last year we brought a water line to the project; this year we got a power line. We asked for advice at a private company how we should act and followed their recommendations. They also negotiated the necessary admissions with neighboring land owners and authorities. This appeared to be more difficult than expected but finally the pole and power line were legally installed and in the mean time earthing is done. In the near future we plan to finalize connections underground. We prefer underground cables as we don’t want to take risks with our children who may not understand fully the danger of fallen power lines.

Mission 11 Construction of unit 3

Unit 3 Hall

During third term of 2018 we finished the rough structure of the main building of Proud Village (unit 3). It is here that our children will welcome you in the coming years. In our business “Delicious” they will serve you fine drinks and delicious snacks. As one of the main aims of the project is to engage our youngsters with intellectual disabilities in real jobs in real economic environments we are constructing a nice place to welcome you. We invite all people of good will -builders, painters, carpenters, artists, gardeners, bakers, chefs- to help us to prepare the place and the future personnel to make it excellent. Soon we will start up the skills training of our girls (see other post about program 2019 ‘transition from school to work’ to come).

Mission 11 Curriculum research

2018 was booked as the year of curriculum research. In the project we are very busy to write down the curriculum “True of life” for our children and youngsters. The theoretical part is ready. Also all topics of self care are finalized. We have first writings for all other topics: participation in family, community and economic life. But they need also extensive research. In total we address around 70 topics ranging from eating with a spoon, over cooking current meals to end up with serving in our (future) business DELICIOUS (see other post).

In the mean time our project manager Mercy graduated for Diploma in Education at Kabale University with a research entitled: Development of a promising curriculum for children with intellectual disabilities. Case study PROUD Uganda.