Oyam, (UG):- A total number of 109 secondary school girls from Acaba, Atapara, and Everest schools in Oyam district have graduated in soft skills development.
This completion is part of the Leadership, Education, Access, and Discovery (LEAD) Bootcamp, which aims to empower young girls with essential life skills through the Social-Emotional Learning approach.
The program, supported by the Foundation for Inclusive Community Help (FICH), provided the students with opportunities to develop their leadership, communication, and emotional intelligence skills.
Oyam District LC5 Chairperson, Benson Dila, implored the young graduates to have the confidence needed to navigate future challenges and contribute positively to their communities.
“Today, we are here to witness the guardians and alumni who have experienced the benefits of FICH organization in building capacity, in leadership. Some people say a leader is born. A leader is not born. Everybody is a born leader. But a leader is built. A leader is mentored. A leader is nurtured,” remarked Dila.
He continued “Leadership is a function, not a title. Don’t be a signpost leader which is a leader by title but no function. That is a strong post. As parents, we should continue to support them academically so that some become members of parliament, become doctors, become lawyers, become engineers etc,”.
David Adea, the District education officer Oyam described life skill development as the most powerful weapon they can use to change the world.
“The life skills that you got during the training when you were here, should help you because you have got all the skills, you have the skills of communication, you can communicate what you intend very well. It shouldn’t remain here,” Adea said. “The life skills should go a long way to help you even when you are at home or you are back at your school.”
He however reminded the graduate to be creative while parents should play their parental role without biasness. “Be creative so that you can earn a living with your life skills and parents, you must do everything possible to ensure that your child is educated. Being girl child or boy child, they should all be given the opportunity to go to school and get educated,” he noted.
Anyango Victoria Harriet, the programs manager of education at FICH says these girls are now empowered and able to demonstrate some of the life skills that were imparted to them for the past two years.
She said Discovery Bootcamp is part of their LEAD project starting in 2022. “This is the second cohort that we are graduating out of the program. We have been taking them through a life skills curriculum for the past two years in topics in leadership, self-awareness, entrepreneurship and business, teamwork, mindfulness, and career exploration,” Anyango said.
“Majorly, our objective is that these girls should be able to attain life skills such as critical thinking, problem-solving, decision making, financial literacy, and so on and looking at them perform today, I feel very excited. It makes me overly think that our objectives have been met,” she added.
Tom Okuna, a parent of one of the graduates said “I’m very happy for her for joining this program. As I’ve seen today, the program is so good, it can transform the lives of our young children because their mental teachers are from various areas.”
“…there is a change for example when my child is ringing me, the way she speaks to me, speaks in a good manner. That is one transformation that I’ve got in her. I think there may be more changes that she has also acquired from the training,”
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