child friendly environment in uganda - gulu district 2010

in Northern Uganda

Child Friendly Environment

GULU DISTRICTA PictoriAl R E p o R t

From the People of Japan

the republic of Uganda

in Northern Uganda

Child Friendly Environment

GUlU DiStrict

A pictorial Report


the republic of Uganda

Published forUNicEF UgandaP.o Box 7047, Kampala, Uganda

coWi ltDcrusader HouseP.o Box 10591Kampala, Uganda

By: Advanced communications ltd,P.o Box 11670, Kampala, UgandaE-mail: info@advancedcommunications-ea.comwww.advancedcommunications-ea.com

©UNicEF Uganda. the views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of UNicEF and her partners.

table of contentstable of contents

Bobi Foundation Primary School 3

coopil Primary School 4

Gwengdiya Primary School 5

lamintoo Primary School 6

loyo Ajonga Primary School 7

Minja Primary School 8

orapwoyo Primary School 9

Pagik Primary School 10

Pawel Ayiga Primary School 11

St. Marys lapinyoloya P S 12

St. Martin’s lukome P S 13

Awach health center iV 14

odek Health center 15

tegoot Atoo Health center 16

Patiko Health center 17

Page Page

1

Child Friendly Environment in Northern UgandaGulu District

this report has been compiled by coWi ltd to document the develop-mental contributions by the United Nations children’s Fund (UNicEF) in the reconstruction of schools and health centers in six districts in Northern Ugan-da that were affected by the insur-gency in the past 20 years. it portrays the reconstruction efforts for works ex-ecuted by UNicEF with funding from the government of Japan in the then districts of Gulu, Amuru, Kitgum, Pader, lira and oyam. it is important to note that other districts have since been curved out of the six districts and it shouldn’t be surprising to find that some of the institutions dwelt on in this report are now actually found under different districts.

the project was implemented by UNicEF with funding from the Govern-ment of Japan and was executed un-der the supervision of coWi ltd. the project construction activities com-menced in August 2009 and were substantially completed in June 2010.

Project background

two decades of armed conflict be-tween the Uganda People’s Defense Forces (UPDF) and the lord’s resist-ance Army (lrA) resulted in a com-plex humanitarian situation in northern Uganda, notably in Acholi and lango sub-regions characterised by mas-sive internal displacement of people. More than 1.8 million people were forced to shift from their homes by the insurgency to the more secure inter-nally Displaced People’s (iDP) camps where the Uganda government forces offered them protection. this led to drastic deterioration or even outright collapse of infrastructure particularly schools and health centers due to abandonment and lack of main-

introductiontenance. the existing facilities were abandoned while temporary facilities were set up at the iDP centers till the insurgency subsided.

With positive developments in 2006, the humanitarian situation in northern Uganda gradually improved and by the end of September 2007, more than half of the formerly displaced people had been repatriated with over half a million settling permanently in their original villages. the return has certainly not been smooth as almost all families had to return to destroyed, damaged or dilapidated facilities and infrastructure and in most cases, a stark lack of institutional, social and economic structures. Not only did the conflict disrupt the provision of critical social services such as primary health care and education, it also contrib-uted to the breakdown of traditional community structures for support and assistance.

through the child Friendly Environment and community Empowerment (cFE) project, UNicEF with support from the government of Japan embarked on a comprehensive rehabilitation process that saw the revitalization of two of the most critical services impacting the survival and development of children in these regions. these comprised services in primary schools and the health care facilities.

in october 2008 UNicEF with funding from the government of Japan con-tracted coWi, an engineering con-sulting firm to offer technical expertise in the aspects of design, planning, tendering and post contract supervi-sion of rehabilitation and construction of new facilities in 72 schools and 24 health centre facilities in the 6 districts. the project was aimed at improving education, hygiene, sanitation and

safe water access especially by the children in these areas.

the total project cost was approxi-mately USD 5 million (12 billion Uganda shillings) and covered 4 districts in the Acholi sub region (i.e. Amuru, Gulu, Kit-gum, and Pader ) and 2 in lango sub-region (i.e. lira and oyam). in all, 72 primary schools and 24 health centres were targeted to be improved. this project was effectively completed in November 2010.

Project objectives and achievements

the overall objective of the project was to ensure that after the conflict, children and women were placed at the centre of the recovery and devel-opment process in northern Uganda, and that the facility based structures of the formal sector are strengthened with the ownership and participation of communities:-

the project has so far achieved the following:-1. A remarkable improvement in

access to primary education by the children in the region through provision of sound classroom structures, scholastic and recreational materials.

2. A remarkable improvement in the provision of safe and clean water in schools and health centres with improved sanita-tion through provision of sanita-tion and hand-washing facilities

3. improvement in teachers’ com-mitment and morale through provision of decent staff houses and sanitation facilities.

4. A remarkable improvement of health care service delivery

2


L. Albert

L. Victoria

L. KyogaL. Albert

L. Kyoga

Mity

ana

BukwoKapchorwa

Kaliro

Butaleja Mba

leMan

afwa

Luwe

ro

Nakaseke

Iban

daM

bara

ra

Isingiro

Kiruhura

Amolotar

Tororo

Yumbe

Kayunga

Mayuge

Kisoro

Kasese

KyenjojoMukono

Sironko

L. VictoriaRuk

ungi

ri

Moyo

Adjumani

Kaabong

Masindi

Hoima KumiNakasongola

Kamuli

Kiboga

Pallisa

Bundibugyo KibaaleIganga

KabaroleMubende

MukonoBugiri

Jinja

Busia

WakisoKamwenge

MpigiSembalule

Masaka

Rakai

BushenyiKalangala

Kanu

ngu

Ntungamo

Kabale

Oyam

Dokolo

Amolatar

Lira

Pader

Kitgum

Amuru

Koboko

Maracha

Arua

Nebbi

AmuriaApac

Kaberamaido

Soroti

kotido

Kampala

GULUAbim

Moroto

NakapiripiritKatakwi

Map showing location of Gulu district

through rehabilitation of health centres and related sanitation facilities.

About Gulu district

At the time of Uganda’s independ-ence in 1962, the entire Acholi sub-region formed what was then known as Acholi District. this was later divided into East Acholi and West Acholi dis-tricts in 1974 which were subsequently renamed Kitgum and Gulu respec-tively in 1980. today, Gulu is one of the districts that make up the Acholi sub-region, the other districts being Kit-gum, Pader and Amuru.

Gulu district has a population of over 468,407 of which 240,226 are female and 228,181 male. it accommodates the biggest town in northern Uganda which makes the district partly rural and partly metropolitan. At the time of assessment for the cFE project, the district had a total of 220 primary schools - 217 government, 3 private and 8 community owned. the district also had 26 Government dispensaries or health center ii, 14 health centres iii at county level, 3 health centres iV and two hospitals, one of which is a referral hospital. it had two private/NGo dispensaries, 25 private clinics and two private hospitals.

cFE project coverage in Gulu

the cFE project covered the following institutions in Gulu district:-Schools:-1. Bobi Foundation School2. coopil Primary School3. Gwengdiya Primary School4. lamintoo Primary School5. lapuda Primary School6. loyo Ajonga Primary School7. Minja Primary School8. orapwoyo Primary School9. Pagik Primary school

10. Pawel Ayiga Primary School11. St Mary’s lapiny oloya Primary

School12. St Martins lukome Primay

School

Health centers1. odek health center2. Awach Health center3. tegoot Atoo Health center4. Patiko Health center

3


Bobi Foundation School is located in Bobi Sub-county, fairly close to the Gulu-Kampala highway. At the time of assessment, the school had a popu-lation of 323 children (167 boys and 156 girls), 7 government-paid teach-ers and was one of the few schools in the district that had all 7 classrooms all in good condition, furnished with desks and in use. it also had a sepa-rate head teacher’s office and staff room, in good condition.

the school had no accommodation for teachers and as a consequence, all the teachers commuted from the nearby Minakulu and Palenga towns approximately 5 and 10 km away re-spectively. the school had 5-stance latrines in very poor condition, but still in use with four stances allocated to girls while one was for boys. the teach-ers had no separate toilet facility and thus either had to share with the pupils or went to the nearby onono Memo-rial Secondary School.

there was a borehole within the school compound in good working condition which would have been supported by the rain water harvesting tank but was not functional because of missing roof collection gutters and broken controls. there was neither hand washing facili-ties nor drinking water storage for both teachers and pupils.

through the cFE project, the school was supported through the following intervention:-i) construction of one block of

5-stance latrines for boys with hand washing facilities.

Bobi Foundation primary School

the only existing toilet facility at Bobi P S before cFE

the newly completed toilet facility

4


coopil Primary School is located in Paichoo Sub-county. At the time of assessment, the school had an enrol-ment of 170 (81 boys and 89 girls), with 9 teachers. According to the head teacher, over 700 pupils had been enrolled in previous years but had left to join other schools which had better facilities. the school had 7 classrooms all of which were smaller than the standard size recommended by the Ministry of Education & Sports.

though the classrooms were in use, the floors, doors, windows as well as the roofs had never been completed and were in bad state. the dirt floor made the classrooms susceptible to termites as seen by the mounds in the picture.

the teachers were housed in mud and wattle grass-thatched huts con-structed by parents. Although the school had a functioning borehole about 150 metres from the school, it had only make shift latrines.

through the cFE project, the school was supported through the following interventions:-(i) renovation of seven class-

rooms. (ii) construction of one blocks of

latrines, with hand washing fa-cilities

Coopil primary School

termite mounds in one of the classrooms

the existing latrine in use before cFE intervention

Newly constructed toilet facility just before completion

the rehabilitated classroom block before completion

5


Gwengdiya Primary School is located in Awach Sub-county and at the time of assessment had an enrolment of 441 (178 boys and 194 girls), with 9 teachers. the school had six class-rooms one of which was being used as an office leaving only five effective classrooms. three of the classrooms required rehabilitation of the floors, windows and walls. teachers were ac-commodated in grass thatched huts constructed by the community.

the school had only one block of a 4-stance latrine with a borehole about 100 metres from the school which was not fully functional and needed reha-bilitation. the rain water harvesting sys-tem was also not functional.

through the cFE project, the school was supported through the following interventions:-(i) rehabilitation of classrooms,

staff and store room.(ii) rehabilitation of the school

borehole.

Gwengdiya primary School

Newly refurbished classroom block

teacher’s houses constructed by the community

6


lamintoo Primary School is located in Paichoo Sub-county with an enrol-ment of 319 children. at the time of intervention, many of the families had not yet returned to the area although the school had been re-opened fol-lowing the return of a few families. the school didn’t have enough classrooms but had 7 teachers who were housed in the grass thatched huts near the school.

through the cFE project, the school was supported through the following interventions:-(i) construction of a 2 classroom

block.(ii) construction of a 5-stance

block of latrines.

Lamintoo primary School

Existing teacher’s house

New classroom block near completion

New toilet block near completion

7


loyo Ajonga Primary School is located in lalogi Sub-county. At the time of as-sessment the school had an enrolment of 645 pupils (353 boys and 292 girls), with 8 government-paid and 2 parent-paid teachers. it had four classrooms, one of which was used as a store. All the rooms were in a dilapidated state and required rehabilitation es-pecially on the floors, doors and win-dows. these were supplemented by a tent provided by UNicEF. Parents had constructed 9 grass thatched huts for housing the teachers.

the school had 3 makeshift latrine stances for girls and 4 for boys, all of them in bad condition and had no borehole in its vicinity. the nearest wa-ter source was about 2 km away while the rain water harvesting system was not functional.

through the cFE project, the school was supported through the following interventions:-(i) construction of one block of

two classrooms.(ii) construction of a staff house.(iii) construction of one block

5-stance ViP latrines .(iv) Provision of a borehole.

Loyo Ajonga primary School

the old dilapidated classroom block

A tent classroom provided by UNicEF

old teachers’ houses

Newly constructed classroom block

Existing toilet facilities Newly constructed toilet block

Newly constructed teachers’ house

8


Minja Primary School is located in la-logi Sub-county. At the time of assess-ment, the school had an enrolment of 614 (333 boys and 281 girls) un-der the superintendence of 9 teach-ers. it had 7 incomplete classrooms. Although they were in use, they were dilapidated and required rehabilita-tion especially of the floors, doors, and windows.

the school had a 5-stance latrine block for girls and a 3-stance for boys that were in good condition but were not sufficient for its population. the school had a functioning borehole about 150 metres from the school and a rainwater harvesting system.

through the cFE project, the school was supported through the following intervention:- i) construction of 5-stance latrines

for boys with hand-washing fa-cilities.

Minja primary School

the existing classroom block

the newly constructed latrine

9


orapwoyo Primary School is located in Binya Parish, odek Sub-county. it had an enrolment of 452 pupils (237 boys and 215 girls) with 4 government-paid teachers at the time of intervention. the school had 4 classrooms, in poor condition and were obviously short of the rooms expected in a full primary school. As a consequence, pupils in P1 & P2 shared a classroom, and P3 & P4 did the same.

Some of the rooms were used as head teacher’s office, store and staff room. there were no decent teach-ers’ houses, but parents had built grass thatched huts.

the school had a total of 15 latrine stances; 5 for boys and 5 for girls in good condition, and another 5 stanc-es that had been newly built by the district local government awaiting commissioning. there was a borehole in good working condition within the school compound.

through the cFE project, the school was supported through the following intervention:-(i) construction of one block of 2

classrooms, a store and head teacher’s office.

orapwoyo primary School

inside one of the old classrooms

A newly built classroom block

10


Pagik Primary School is located in Paichoo Sub-county. At the time of assessment, the school had an enrol-ment of 788 (431 boys and 357 girls). it had 5 classrooms in good condition and a borehole nearby but had no la-trines at all owing to the proximity of rock below the ground surface.

through the cFE project, the school was supported through the following intervention:-(i) construction of 1 block of a

5-stance Eco-san latrine.

pagik primary School

Existing borehole

Existing classroom block

New eco-san toilet facility

11


Pawel Ayiga Primary School is locat-ed in Patiko Sub-county and had an enrolment of 322 (165 girls and 157 boys) with only 4 teachers. At the start of implementation of the cFE project, the school was still in its displaced lo-cation because there was not a sin-gle structure at its original location but only bush.

the community had attempted to build a temporary structure for the school which showed there was a real need on the part of the community for the school to return.

through the cFE project, the school was supported through the following interventions:-(i) construction of one block of

two classrooms with a staff / store room.

(ii) construction of another block of two classrooms.

pawel Ayiga primary School

Abandoned and overgrown incomplete structure

the new classroom block

12


St Mary’s lapinyoloya Primary School is located in lapainat c Parish, Koro Sub-county. it had a pupils population of 383 (205 boys and 178 girls) under the superintendence of 8 govern-ment-paid and one teacher paid by the parents. the school had one class-room block with only 4 classrooms, 3 used as classrooms and one as a head teacher’s office. the other pupils studied under trees. the school had only 124 desks. Because there were no teachers’ houses, all the teachers commuted from the nearby town and internally Displaced Peoples’ camp.

the school had two 5-stance latrines; one for girls and the other for boys. these were in poor condition with no door shutters or hand-washing facility.

there were no exclusive toilet facili-ties for teachers. the school however had a functioning borehole within the compound in good condition and jer-ry cans provided by UNicEF for water storage.

through the cFE project, the school was supported through the following interventions:-(i) construction of a staff house. (ii) construction of a block of 5-

stance ViP latrines.

St. Mary’s Lapinyoloya primary School

the old toilet facility for boys the old toilet facilities for girls

the new toilet facility

the new staff house

13


St Martine’s lukome Primary School is located in Bungatira Sub-county. At the time of assessment, the school had an enrolment of 962 (533 boys and 429 girls) under the stewardship of 17 teachers. the school had 8 class-rooms, 4 of which were in bad state and needed rehabilitation mainly the walls, floors, windows and doors. there was one block of staff houses intended for two families but actually housed 8.

the school had two old blocks of 5-stance latrines, without doors or hand-washing facilities. there was a functional borehole with rusted pipes that affected the quality of water.

through the cFE project, the school was supported through the following interventions:-(i) rehabilitation of the eight exist-

ing classrooms. (ii) construction of two blocks of

latrines, one for boys and one for girls with hand-washing facili-ties.

(iii) rehabilitation of the borehole.

St. Martine’s Lukome primary School

Front elevation of the old classroom block

rear elevation of the old classroom block

the floor of the old classroom in dis-repair

the rehabilitated classroom block near completion

the new toilet block near completion

14


Awach Health center, being a Hc iV, is the busiest health center in Gulu. it is expected to have an oPD, pharma-cy, maternity among other facilities. it is as such required to have staffing with the commensurate accommodation up to doctor’s level. At the time of as-sessment, there was hardly enough accommodation for all the staff and the oPD was insufficient for the patient population.

through the cFE project, the school was supported through the following interventions:-i) construction of staff house.ii) construction of 2- stance ViP

toilet facility.

Awach Health Center IV

Newly constructed staff house near completion

New toilet facility near completion

15


odek Health center is located within the precincts of odek Sub-county administration center. there was no accommodation for the staff running the unit and as such they had to com-mute from odek trading center about 5km away. those who stayed around the health center resided in mud structures.

through the cFE project, the center was supported through the following interventions:-i) construction of staff houses.ii) construction of 2-stance latrine.

odek Health Center

the new staff houses

the new eco-san toilet facility

16


Before intervention, tegoot Atoo Health center had an old dilapidated oPD with similarly dilapidated accommo-dation for staff. the center services were so inadequate that patients pre-ferred to trek 15km to Gulu town to at-tain reasonable services.

tegoot Atoo Health Center

through the cFE project, the health center was supported through the fol-lowing intervention:-i) construction of two blocks of

staff houses.

Newly constructed staff houses

17


Before intervention, Patiko Health center had an old dilapidated oPD. there was however ample accom-modation for staff.

patiko Health Center

through the cFE project, the centre was supported through the following intervention:-i) construction of a new out Pa-

tient’s Department.

Newly constructed oPD

UNicEF UgandaP.o Box 7047, Kampala, Uganda

coWi crusader HouseP.o Box 10591Kampala, Uganda By: Advanced communications ltd,P.o Box 11670, Kampala, UgandaE-mail: info@advancedcommunications-ea.comwww.advancedcommunications-ea.com


child friendly environment in uganda - gulu district 2010

Documents

pagik primary school

coopil primary school

lamintoo primary school

minja primary school

orapwoyo primary school

gwengdiya primary school

loyo ajonga primary

pawel ayiga primary