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Visit the charity's profileIn 2015 KICS launched the 'Women's Empowerment through Literacy Learning' project in Kashare, Uganda. With your support, more than 750 women have been enrolled in the programme and have learned to read and write. The impact on these women has been so successful that there is now a great demand to roll-out more courses for the seventh year. Your continuing help will allow women in the area to become literate and pursue their dreams, improve their livelihoods, provide a greater social contribution and grow in self-confidence.
One day, I met my friend carrying a book. I asked her where she was going. She told me that KICS has a school where people who never went to school get an opportunity to learn how to read and write. When I heard, I jumped in air begging my friend to take me there to the next session.
I was the first one to register and now see I can read and write my name very well, I even write names of my family members.
I feel my self-esteem and confidence keeps improving because of the lessons got from these classes.
I could not interpret school report results for my children and this was really a hurting experience.
Now I participate in our village meetings, and this gives me joy always.
The programme also assists the women with their small businesses, given they learn about numbers and budgeting. In fact, women learners are going from strength to strength with new opportunities being able to be taken. This is such a positive experience for the community.
I hardly saved any money. I would sell off all the produce and spend the money.
I went to sell my goat in the market, which I was selling for UGX 180,000. The buyer gave me four notes of UGX 50,000 and needed a balance of UGX 20,000. Since I didn't know how to count and recognize money notes, I again gave him UGX 50,000 instead of UGX 20,000. By the time I realized it, he had already gone with my money and the goat. I was really hurt.
Soon I am going to apply for a loan and fulfil my dream of starting up my own grocery business.
KICS Literacy courses bring together 30 women with two trained local facilitators on a weekly basis. Each year we recruit 4 such literacy circles. Trained in a transformative literacy methodology, they learn for 18 months. The women choose a topic of interest to them, and using this, they learn to read, write, count and budget.
Topics are diverse and include issues such as water practices, family planning, domestic violence and good parenting. Results speak for themselves. Non-literate adults have a life changing experience by attaining literacy and numeracy skills while gaining knowledge about their areas of interest.
A local official working in social services said,
I really appreciate and thank KICS for the good work being done, before only 10% of women in my village could write their names but now, the percentage has increased to 75%.
And the facilitators (pictured above) also gain skills and greater learning as one said recently:
With help of the literacy project, I was elected as a general secretary of the local council committee in my village.
These women have shown an enormous dedication to adult literacy and numeracy classes, sometimes travelling long distances to get to class and practising during the long disruptions caused by COVID.
Your support will allow KICS to enrol more beginners and offer others an advanced course. Donations will allow the facilitators to receive a small remuneration for their work, add on some advanced learning classes, and purchase materials for the classes and women learners.
A small amount can make such a difference and give women a doorway into learning and provide the basic skills that so many of us take for granted.
Thank you.
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