Okushoma kwa Boona – Education for all!?

Okushoma kwa Boona means “education for all”. Under this title, twelve young people from Germany and Uganda spent one and a half years working on Sustainable Development Goal 4 – quality, inclusive education.

The journey

• 2023 – preparation: selection of the 12 participants and six online seminars on intercultural competence, SDG 4 and inclusion.
• February/March 2024 – exchange in Uganda: six German participants visited St. Helen’s Primary School (an inclusive school for blind children), Nyamitanga College, Bishop Stuart University and St. Peter’s Senior Secondary School in Mbarara. Highlights included a fishbowl panel discussion and an International Women’s Day celebration at the Ruhaama Community Resource Centre.
• 2025 – digital return exchange: because five of the six Ugandan participants were refused Schengen visas, the return visit took place online – with virtual visits to partner schools in Berlin, Bendorf, Andernach and Neuwied.

Results

• All 12 participants completed all five project phases.
• Together they identified five kinds of barriers to education: physical, socio-economic, gender-related, linguistic and institutional.
• The participants co-wrote a joint final report.
• A network of four German partner schools now exists for future projects – and the partnership with ABI continues beyond the project.

The experience feeds directly into our training series “Education for all …?!”.