Claire Akello is among the blind and visually impaired persons who recently earned her JAWS Certification from Freedom Scientific after completing her 3-month computer training at Oysters & Pearls-Uganda.
Oysters & Pearls is pleased to announce the documentary, PATHBREAKERS, that premiered during this year’s The African Film Festival (TAFF), was awarded Best Documentary Short.
Two months after graduating from Gulu University in 2016, two iron bar hitmen turned Francis Odong’s life upside down.
As he sought his dream job in a bank or research firm with his bachelor’s degree in Quantitative Economics, Francis joined the boda boda business to make ends meet. On the fateful night, two robbers disguised as clients beckoned him to transport them to a place outside of Gulu town.
After about 2 kilometers into their journey, the ‘clients’ asked Francis to stop and hit his head with a blunt object severally, till he lost consciousness. His motorcycle, which was their target, is yet to be found.
In December 2015, iron bar hitmen ravaged Gulu Town, (which is fast recovering from the brunt of two decades of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) war so much that in just one week, they assaulted at least 17 people. The attacks persisted until 2017, resulting in the killing of a municipality leader, the injuring of a Gulu High Court official; forcing the then Inspector General of Police, IGP, Kale Kayihura to intervene.
Many died in such attacks.
Survivors nursed grave injuries for months.
For Francis, spending a month in hospital was depressing, but not more
Fingers flying over the letters of his laptop in typing speed, Basil Onen, is undeniably more keyboardinated than many sighted people. But of course, many didn’t ever imagine that Basil would one day be able to use a computer. Not even Basil himself, who, having been born blind, spent his first 10 years at home, as his two siblings and every other child in the neighborhood went to school. “If there is a part of my life I would want to cut away, then it is my childhood,” he stated, emphasizing how “particularly excruciating” it was.
Oysters & Pearls-Uganda continues to offer computer training to the blind and visually impaired community members across Uganda. JAWS is a computer screen reader program that speaks aloud the screen for those who are blind or visually impaired. O&P-UG has a Country License agreement which enables us to negotiate an affordable price for education. In Uganda, an estimated 30,000 people lose their sight annually, yet the Uganda National population and Housing Census 2014 shows that already, more than 2.1 million people are living with visual impairment and 250,000 are totally blind.
The 2018 Science & Technology Challenge sponsored by Oysters & Pearls-Uganda was won by Kiira College Butiki. Their winning entry was a model of a ‘Smart Farm’, an automatic greenhouse designed to solve the problem of unpredictable weather, the burden of manual irrigation and pests and diseases.
Evening’s last light got us disembarking from the last taxi that brought us from Gulu, one of the districts in northern Uganda. Then, the next morning’s first light brought a promise of a long day, going from school-to-school. The work awaiting us, robotics training, would prove enlightening to trainees, on the warm Saturday.
For students who study in schools with ill-equipped computer or technology labs- where there are no robotics instructors-salvation depends on enrolling for a free robotics training by Oysters & Pearls-Uganda, even if that means spending an extra hour in class, or having to forego Saturday’s much needed rest.
To Joyce Atim, an A’ Level student of Lira Town College, spending 30 or 60 minutes more in class, is a privilege. Prior to the Robotics training, Joyce struggled to grasp the concepts in ICT. She experienced firsthand, the effects of lack of practicals in that class. She attended it like she would any other Arts subject.
Much as she desired to have a career in ICT, the prospects seemed grim, given the hypothetical conception she was being given by her school.
“Our class is massive. The teacher can’t handle us one-on-one. Besides, students are always distracted; this demotivates the teacher more,” Joyce observed.
However, this year, Oysters &
For women and girls in Uganda, a dream career in computing is still incredibly challenging. Despite its extraordinary rise over the last five decades, and the country’s ever increasing reliance on technology, women and girls still constitute the lowest percentage of the workforce in Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) careers.
The dismal percentage of women in the field of STEM is explained by a number of barriers that smother their ideas right from childhood.
The notion that computing can only be handled by the male gender is deeply ingrained in Ugandan society. Consequently, the few girls who aspire to join the computing world first ponder if they haven’t been overrating themselves, and hesitate to geek.
“During initial mentoring in Technovation, girls took so long to finally share their idea. And when they did I wondered why they were afraid to express it,” said Sabrina Atwiine.
A student ambassador for Technovation in Uganda, Sabrina hopes to change the status quo by recruiting more girls in Uganda to join Technovation when she returns from the international Technovation Pitch event in August in California.
“I want to contribute in changing the misconception that girls can’t handle anything scientific.”
The cultural and systemic barriers to STEM fields has led to
Today is Cosmas Okumu’s first day for a training in electronics at Oysters & Pearls-Uganda’s Makerspace.
A Physics teacher at Negri College in Gulu, Cosmas says he gets thrilled when he makes anything electronic.
“I made an inverter as part of my research at Kyambogo University last year. My supervisor looked at me with respect. I felt good. Today, the feeling is back,” he said.
Today Cosmas assembled a circuit, and the sweet memory of winning came back.
But now, it is not all about the excitement that comes with invention. Cosmas wants to make good use of the makerspace, to craft his retirement job.
“The training is preparing me for old age,” he said.
“When I retire, I will open a shop where I will repair electronics, and earn a decent income,” he added.
Only today, he was able to assemble a circuit; the achievement made his hope soar. Cosmos is ready to learn more in a few months.
Cosmas’ plan for a retirement job is a wise idea, considering that many on retirement in Uganda face challenges acquiring their most basic needs. Although the government introduced the Social Assistance Grants for Empowerment program in 2012, each beneficiary gets only 25.000 shillings (about US $8) each month, and
Gulu University students at O&P Tech Lab
Lack of, or inadequate science materials, in addition to ill-equipped laboratories in most Universities in Uganda have always led to the passing-out of poorly trained science graduates who are unable to innovate, or solve simple problems in the community. Oysters & Pearls – Uganda is filling that vacuum, by giving hands-on training to Gulu University students in Computer Science topics at their makerspace.
In the last week of October, Oysters & Pearls – Uganda trained Gulu University students in robotics and programming, among other technology related topics. More than fifty students benefited from the program, and some of them confessed to have gotten their first hands-on experience.
Now, the students gather at the Oysters & Pearls – Uganda Lab every Wednesday and Thursday, to get more practical skills in various fields in technology.
Fernando Opifeera, a first year student Bachelor of Science in ICT says the makerspace is giving him an opportunity to learn more in his course because; “At the Makerspace, I am able to match the theory I learned at the university with its practical application .”
This initiative is also simplifying the learning process of a number of the science students
