By Israel Kisakye
In a move to boost Ugandan special needs persons awareness, the School of Social Sciences at Uganda Christian University (UCU) has joined with Promise International, a USA, Non-Governmental Organization focused on advocating for basic human rights in communities.
The Uganda Bureau of Statistics Data indicate that around 12%, or 4.5 million, Ugandans have some form of disability. Individuals with such disabilities as deafness and blindness face economic, social and educational disadvantages. Focusing first on the World Bank estimate of 16% of Ugandan special needs children and even narrower on those children in schools, the School of Social Sciences has developed a concept around issues of special needs in the country and possible intervention to be undertaken by UCU and Promise International to improve the group’s rights.
“We all know issues concerning special needs people in Uganda, so we are trying to see how we can play a part in sensitizing the community more about this subject,” said Dr. Jeremy Waiswa, head of the department of research and postgraduate in the School. “This is the first step towards the bigger things in our collaboration in the areas of special needs children. We want to start the collaborations and see the activities we can work on with Promise International.”
Sarah Benevides, an official with the Texas-based Promise International, said that she was excited to be part of the collaboration that is aligned with her organization’s faith-driven mission to advocate and take action related to basic human rights needs for Uganda’s vulnerable.
“We want to increase the awareness of special needs as well as provide some roots and support on how we can move on with the children with various disabilities,” Benevides said. “We can strengthen courage in this university by telling people how God has created all of us.”
Sarah Benevides of Promise International talks about purpose of the collaboration
Daniel Tulibagenyi, a UCU alum and lecturer who is a founder and president working with Promise International, said it was “humbling” to be part of the group establishing a partnership with his former university.
“We want to establish the collaboration and start training and engaging students to be able to enhance the community outreach of UCU in areas of special needs children,” Tulibagenyi said. He added that the partnership engages the non-profit and the university in research and community action.
According to the Ministry of Education and Sports (2017) some 9,597 pupils enrolled in pre-primary schools (1.6%) have impairments. The majority were children with mental impairments (28%), followed by hearing impairments (25%), visual impairments (16%), autism (5%) and multiple handicaps-deaf and blind (4%). There are 172,864 children with special needs in primary schools which is 2% of total primary enrollment and 9% of the overall children with special needs.
The UCU School of Social Sciences students believe that the training exposed them to more knowledge about the neglect of special needs children
“This training has given me more highlights on people living with disabilities, and I have gotten to know that they are left out in their societies and their rights are usually trampled on,” said Calvin Amanya, member of parliament, School of Social Sciences.
Other students thanked the school for the initiative.
“The training has shed more light on what social science is about and what I’m supposed to do in my community,” Kevin Dusebe, a year-one student pursuing Social works and Social Administration, said.
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