Life Skills Education and Counseling - Mpumiro - Mpumiro Primary School

Visit by Lorna Katagara on 2021-12-01

Report ID

15160

Created by

Lorna Katagara

Created date

2021-12-02 08:24:12 UTC

Modified by

Lorna Katagara

Modified date

2021-12-16 13:19:25 UTC

Trip Time

22:15-18:00 (-5 h 45 m)

Village Time

12:30-16:00 (3 h 30 m)

Travel Time

-8 h 15 m

Life Skills Education and Counseling community lesson

School

Mpumiro Primary School 

Lesson Taught

What are Gender Roles?,Relationship Skills: Love,Relationship Skills: Gender Roles,Relationship Skills: Managing Emotions 

Girls Attended

5 

Boys Attended

6 

Total Student Attendance

11 

Teachers Attended

0 

Fathers Attended

2 

Mothers Attended

15 

Total Parent Attendance

17 

Staff Attendees

Lorna Katagara 

Government Attendees

LC1 

School Staff Attendees

Life Skills Teacher 

Visitor Attendees

None 

Total Attendance

0 

Learning Objectives

By the end of the lesson the community knows what Bride Price is and that whether it is important to pay bride price or why it should not be paid.

Notes

Lorna went to Mpumiro village to teach about Bride Price. Bride price is a form of payment in monetary terms, gift terms , animals which are given to the brides family for many underlying reasons. Locally it is called “ Okugula omuwala” literally translated as “ buying the woman”. We teach this lesson to encourage parents to look at bride price as a form of Appreciation and not ownership. That girls should not be seen for wealth purposes. However as is before , Lorna starts by meeting the teens then the adults. With the children in the previous meeting, one child Kagoya mentioned some nasty words about the chairman which was not respectful. Unfortunately Lorna did not get to address it but in today’s lesson, Lorna discouraged the children from listening to their parents conversation because like before the chairman mentioned that he did not blame Kagoya but the parents of Kagoya. Lorna asked the children to stay away from such conversations because they will lead them to disrespect the older persons in the community. She urged them to be respectful and obedient children in the community. When they are disrespectful they will miss out on good things, blessings,rewards that would come from being respectful and obedient. She also addressed the case of some teens who used abusive language towards each other and the adults in the community. Lorna strongly discouraged such mannerism and reminded them of thinking skills where you think before you act or talk. Such abusive language may cause fights, enmity. She urged them to watch their tongue, respect their peers, honor their parents that it may be well with them and that they may live long. We then reminded ourselves of previous lesson which was on the immune system and since it was 1 December World AIDS day we also looked at HIV/AIDS history, transmission,preventions and care for PLWHIV/AIDS. After the lesson, Lorna waited a while before the parents came to the meeting. When the community members had come, we started the meeting as usual with an opening prayer. The meeting consisted of mainly women and yet today’s lesson was about Bride wealth / price which concerns the men too, since they are directly responsible for this part. We also did a review of the previous lesson which was on gender roles and responsibilities of father , mother towards their children. Since it was mainly women present we looked at these roles among which were; nature children into responsible citizens, love their children equally, speak positively. Lorna mentioned a woman can break or build a house as borrowed from Proverbs among others. We then went to the topic Bride Price where we looked at the introduction of what is Bride price is looking at Busoga culture and how it was / is done. Lorna started by asking what Bride price was and they mentioned that it is what a man uses to buy a woman. That the parents of the girl decide what they want and give it to the grooms family as a requirement to marry off their girl child/ daughter. Lorna asked the elderly women to tell us how it was done back then. Hajjat mentioned that the family of the boy would look closely at a certain family where their person of interest the bride was and after looking at their way of life, hard work, religion, they would let their son know then they would pay a visit to show their interest. They would then be required to go and return with a certain list of items; 4goats, 1 cow , kanzus, Gomesis , among others. She said back then it was cheaper unlike before. She mentioned that now days there was a lot of competition and unnecessary things. She mentioned that these things are irrelevant because she has seen most marriages like that not last even 2 years why, because they are very materialistic tasking and take away the meaning of Bride price. She added that it brings misunderstandings in the marriage especially if the man / groom got a loan. Another lady mentioned before , marriage was easy as it was somewhat cheap, also the marriages would last because the women were patient but these days the women are too materialistic and want to copy every trend and if the man doesn’t fulfill , there arises trouble, disrespect and maybe bringing an end to the marriage. Lorna asked does that mean bride price should be scrapped off? They said no. She asked who was in support of bride price, they all put up their hands. We looked at some advantages of bride price like; creates a sense of value for the woman, it esteems the family of the woman in the community and among peers, Aziz also mentioned that those same cows can be used by the brother of the bride to marry the woman of their choice. Lorna thanked them for these responses and asked that in the next meeting however we needed to mobilize the men too since they play the main role in this part of marriage. We agreed to continue with this lesson next week with men present. It will be a debate. We will start here next week and introduce decision making. Lorna thanked the women for coming and asked they bring their children too. The chairman also thanked the community members for coming to the meeting and urged them to put these lessons in practice. He mentioned they had a meeting else where and what Lorna was teaching them was in the end what they were taught. He urged them not to just come to the meetings as a requirement but to also use these meetings as a learning ground. He concluded by a dividing them to be security conscious since many goats in the village were being stolen. 

Next Visit

2021-12-08 - Purpose: Conclude previous lesson and Introduce new and last topic in this village Decision making.

Program Success

Community members embracing the program

Program Critical Needs

Decision making

Program Ownership

Good participation

Other Program Observations

Maintaining their sanitation

Program Expected Of Village

Men attending the next lesson as on this lesson, they were barely present

Program Staff Preparations Next Visit

Call prior , prepare notes

 

Report Photos

The lady in the picture in a white dress, was giving a preview of the previous lesson.