#InTheirOwnWords: With Literacy and Learning for All
By: Building Tomorrow
Tags: Community Development, Literacy, Global Education, Education, Volunteering

In our second installment of #InTheirOwnWords, we celebrate International Literacy Day with the story of Kembabazi Adrinne, who’s using her Building Tomorrow training and resources to help women and children in her community learn how to read and write — all in her free time and in her own home.

CEV Kembabazi Adrinne has become a recognizable education advocate in her village in Central Uganda.

I begin to smile as I see the chalk draw a thin white line in the sand. I watch as my student carefully forms a rounded half-circle near the top, followed by a small, curved line protruding from the middle: “R”. Slowly, she continues, writing the following letters with the precision and focus of a hawk until the word is finally complete: her name, “Rehemah.”

Rehemah has been my student for nearly a year, but she isn’t a child. She’s a woman in her twenties, a mother in my village. And twice a week, she and a group of other local women come to my home in Lwemiriti village as I lead them through the alphabet chart and teach them how to write each letter on their own.

It all started last year, when I was recruited to join Building Tomorrow as a Community Education Volunteer. I’ve always loved learning, but I myself was unable to continue my education past Primary 7 because my parents didn’t have the money to pay for further studies. I saw this volunteer position as a way to play a role in ensuring that children in my community could have the opportunity to learn, regardless of their family’s financial situation.

Adrinne’s student Rehemah demonstrates the literacy skills she’s gained by writing her name in the dirt at a lesson outside Adrinne’s home.

I attended a Building Tomorrow Tomorrow Is Now training, and it was like my brain was awoken! Me and the other CEVs learned how to facilitate games and activities that help kids learn in a fun way, and how to teach memorable tricks for solving basic math problems more easily. We were even given materials, like parchment paper and markers, to make our own learning aids to take home to our village with us!

After the two-week training, I was ready to host my own Roots To Rise Community Camp in my backyard so my neighbors’ children could refresh their literacy and numeracy skills while schools remained closed due to COVID. As soon as I stepped in front of the learners — outdoors and maintaining social distancing protocols — teaching came so naturally to me! I started singing songs that got them energized and excited to learn. My philosophy was to make the children my friends so they could enjoy our activities and better grasp the concepts I was teaching.

Adrinne leads a numeracy activity at the Roots to Rise Community Camp hosted at her home.

I was overwhelmed by the positive response my camps received. Not only were parents extremely thankful to have their children finally learning again (they frequently asked me to hold even more lessons!), but I saw the learners making enormous progress in just a few short weeks.

One child, Olivia, first came to my camp unable to even read a single letter. But soon, she advanced from Level 1 to Level 3 in literacy. Now she can complete the whole alphabet sound chart all by herself!

As word of my lessons spread, I was soon approached by some unlikely students: the local women’s microfinance group. They met each week to discuss their small business initiatives, but they had a problem: none of them could even sign their name to a loan document.

“Will you please teach us how to read and write?” they asked me. I had limited free time in my schedule. Between teaching learners in my community camps, caring for my own two children, and running my business selling vegetables from my garden, I didn’t know how I could possibly conduct extra lessons. But I knew that these women needed my help, and I was determined to share with them all of the knowledge I had gained through my education and Building Tomorrow trainings.

“Will you please teach us how to read and write?”

At our first official lesson, I was struck by how much these women needed to learn. One woman struggled to use her phone because she couldn’t read her contacts. Another had trouble reading road signs when visiting town, and none of them could make sense of the notes their children used to bring home from school.

Adrinne’s student Rodhini says that thanks to her literacy lessons, she is now able to use her phone, read road signs, and speak confidently in front of her women’s group meetings .

Using the materials from my Building Tomorrow training, we made our way through the alphabet chart, starting with the letter “A.” It took some time and a lot of practice, but seeing them finally reading and writing has been the greatest joy of my life. Their success motivates me to keep teaching others, and to keep doing everything I can to bring a love for education to my community.

Adrinne leads women through the alphabet chart at her home in Lwemiriti village.

I see volunteering as my obligation to the people in my village. Teaching is my passion: it’s inside me. I want the children and women in my village to have an education because when you’re educated, there’s no limit to what you can accomplish, no limit to what you can do for others.

I know that all of my students will continue to pass on the knowledge I’ve given them. And although so many children in my country are at-risk of never returning to the classroom, I’m confident that when the time comes for schools to finally re-open, these women will make sure their children are back in their seats, learning.

Building Tomorrow’s Community Education Volunteers have been on the front lines of the COVID-19 education crisis, working tirelessly to connect out-of-school children with learning opportunities while schools remain closed throughout Uganda. Our CEVs are passionate about developing their villages through the power of education, and utilize their strong connections within the community to mobilize household caregivers to enroll their children in our at-home learning programs. The longer students sit at home, the more at-risk they become of never returning to the classroom. Our CEV outreach is an absolutely critical component of ensuring that no child has to throw their dreams of an education away because of COVID-19.

Support our CEV program at buildingtomorrow.org/donate.