GENDER BASED WORKSHOP FOR TEACHERS IN THE CLASSROOM CONTEXT

Help-One Women's Organization is engaged in providing gender based workshop for teachers in the
classroom context, workshop pamphlets are issued out to the participants who attend the workshop so
that there is improvement of teaching without bullying and teasing the girls.. The workshop follows the
order below:

(a) Background
(b) Culture and gender
(c) Possible solutions
(d) Conclusion

BACKGROUND:

Help-One Women's Organization was formed to address the plight of women and its main focus is on
creating gender awareness to help create gender equality through advocacy and secondly to support and promote the education for the girl child.

Help-One Women's Organization is also engaged in sensitizing the community to stop violence against
women or unjust and inhumane treatment of women so that the image of the women can be improved
while at the same time presenting a case for gender equality.

Beside the above, Help-One Women's Organization is providing training for women in tailoring and design
and intends to do the same in the line of IT training (computer literacy) and offering training in poultry
farming. By so doing the Organization has helped create new jobs for women and hopes to create more
jobs in the future as it takes root.

Furthermore Help-One Women's Organization is engaged in dissemination of information on human rights
with emphasis on women's rights and the rights of children .The women are informed about the right
organs that they can reach in case they are abused.

Yet still, Help-One Women's Organization is giving help to people, especially girls with disability, orphans,
widows, and marginalized and exploited or abused women like prostitutes gain access to vocational
training while at the same time engaging in STD/HIV /AIDS awareness campaign with the aim of reducing infection and also provide information on environment protection.

In doing this Help-One Women's Organization targets teachers, schools, community leaders, decision
makers, and the whole community at large.

CULTURE AND GENDER:

Put simply culture can be said to be all that which is socially transmitted as a learned complex of belief, knowledge law or custom and other activities or habits acquired by man as a members of society. These
are all developed through many years or generations. There is material culture which include things like artifacts, buildings objects and furniture while non material culture can include things like words values
and beliefs all of which are transmitted through language. On the other hand gender can simply be
described as the state of either being male or female.

How does society view men and women in community here?

The society up till now looks at men as being superior to women and because this has gone on for a long
time the women have also kept to their place and think that is the normal order of things yet this kind of attitude ought to be changed. This belief has led to gender stratification- which means that there is a difference between men and women in the distribution of societal resources of power, prestige, and
property.

Women therefore are still assigned the traditional social role of reproduction (that of bearing children)
and bring up the next generation besides keeping the current labour force well fed. From time to time
they are reminded that their role still remains with doing domestic chores although this has changed a
little in the urban areas where a few women have attained education and managed to gain employment.

In terms of distribution of power, say in the sphere of politics, educational institutions, business entities,
and in religious circles women hardly gain the top positions due to the belief that they are not good
leaders and do not have the driving ambition to get to the top as their male counterparts. On the other
hand men are thought to be the bread winners and heads of families and therefore should have their
women just one or two rungs below.

In relation to the above it has made it generally difficult for women to rise to the top and further made
it hard for girls to gain access to education because they are still believed not have the same intellectual
ability as their male counterparts and if they gain education the society believes that they will continue
to play the same traditional roles assigned to them. For instance the women are most times if not
completely excluded from clan or family meetings and is very rare to find a girl made heir.

This kind of belief has made some few women who manage to make it through education choose only
those courses that society regard as women's occupation, one of the them being secretarial studies.
What has furthered this institution is the co-operate tradition and prejudice against women which ought
to be challenged through sensitization and advocacy for the improvement of the image of women here.

Secondly schools should provide proper career guidance to release the girl children from thinking that
some of their training is just for gaining traditionally defined jobs that suit them.

Thirdly the belief that women lack ambition should be changed. Role models should be cited so that the
girls can raise their self esteem and think more positively about changing what society has levied upon
them.

Fourthly there is the feeling that men don't feel comfortable with women at the top since they are used to thinking about them as lower case human beings in which case women here should be made to realize that
their position is not just below that of the men and men should also learn to integrate and accept the
women.

GENDER BASED CLASSROOM TEACHING:

Beside every thing else the classroom will have students of both sexes except in unisex schools. The
teachers should strive to:

(a) Deliver their lessons in a manner that is gender sensitive. He /she should try as much as possible
to avoid segregating the male students from the female ones.

(b) Deliver his /her lessons without unnecessarily teasing and bullying the girl students as this will certainly make the girls uncomfortable.

(c) Deliver his/her lessons in a manner that does not promote the feeling that girl's roles are basically for reproduction and dealing with domestic chores. This could come in form of statements that make the girls comfortable, encourage them, and by so doing improve their image and boost their self-esteem and confidence.

(d) The male teachers should avoid touching the girls in a manner that could constitute harassment
or even avoid making advances to the girls. We do not suggest that this happens normally happens.

(e) Be partners with Help-one Women's Organization by sensitizing people in the community about the importance of girl education, make the society develop a more positive attitude toward women, and encourage the girls to aim higher in their educational pursuits.

THE BIGGEST OBSTACLES TO GIRL EDUCATION

There is acute poverty in many communities in Uganda. This is because some family heads have no jobs
and income generating activities and this make them unable to educate their children. This is some times
made worse by the big polygamous family systems where one head of a family could have up to twenty or
more children and with no job or source of income surely, the children will not go school especially the girls
who are always the most unfortunate.

Traditional Beliefs:
Traditional beliefs is another major obstacle to girl education in Uganda . Many people still believe that educating the girl child is a waste of time for the following simple reasons. One, the girl child is taken as
an asset in the family who will be married off and she will bring dowry to the home. Being a girl and
educating her only means that she has attained the necessary skills which she will export to the family of
her husband. Another reason is that the girl may get pregnant at one point in the course of her education
and that the money that will have been invested in her education will have been put to waste.

Gender Stereotype:
Gender stereotype still plays a large role in being on obstacle to girl education especially when one looks at
the women's role in the society. Society here still believes that a woman's roles are basically united to that
of reproduction and doing household chores. She should be in a subservient position and show servility to
her male counterpart and should never rise above the man.

Early Pregnancy:
Both family and society turn to blame and condemn the girl and no support whatsoever may be given to
her. She becomes an outcast and an unwelcome member of the community.

Disability:
Disability is another factor that stands as a obstacle to girl education. These girls stay far away from
school and on top of that do not have the facilities to ease their movement to and from school let alone
the long distance they have to travel to and from school. The girls also lack support either from family or
the community. There is also no program of integrating and accepting the students into the school system
and the larger community.
Bereavement and lack of parent/society models add to the gravity of the matter. When these children lose
their parents or guardians, who used to support them gain access to education they resort to prostitution, making them a very vulnerable lot and in turn they are abused and marginalized and the lack of models
makes them lack the drive to take them to the top. All they have to do is end up in marriage and that
they should maintain their second position to men.

CONCLUSION

This workshop is designed to help create gender awareness with the aim of creating gender equality in
the society. Help-One Women's Organization requires working partners as a force to achieve some of its
goals, like improving the image of the women and advocating an end to violence, and to unjust and
inhumane treatment of women. We therefore ask all those who have attended this workshop to bring this message to their various communities.

DISSEMINATING INFORMATION ON HUMAN RIGHTS, WOMEN'S RIGHTS,
AND THE RIGHTS OF CHILDREN

Help-One Women's Organization is also engaged in disseminating information on human rights, women's
rights, and children's rights. This is done in the form of workshops where these documents are presented
to our target group which include community leaders, decision makers, teachers and schools, and the
whole community at large. The pamphlets are distributed to those present. The women are also informed
about the social organs that they can approach in case of abuse, for instance the probation office.

AIDS AWARENESS CAMPAIGN

Help-One Women's Organization creates general awareness on STDS, HIV/AIDS to the community. The
focus of the organization are on:

(a) Disseminating information on the different ways on how one can get infected.

(b) Disseminating information on means of prevention with emphasis on safe sex, and also encourage abstinence and condom use. Condoms are distributed free of charge.

(c) Encouraging people to take HIV tests so that they can know their status and avoid irresponsible behaviour that can lead to infection.

(d) Informing people on avoiding stigma.

(e) Giving support to those infected and how their families can cope with the situation.

(e) Distributing leaflets about HIV/AIDS with regard to informing them on the different ways of infection, prevention and support.

(g) Giving support to widows and orphaned children whose parents have died of HIV/AIDS.

AIDS AWARENESS CAMPAIGN (IS IT THE ONLY ANSWER?) AN OBSERVATION.

For may years countries in the developing world have emphasized Aids awareness campaigns as a means
of mitigating the spread of HIV. This has been done through the media, publications and dissemination of information on HIV/AIDS. This has surely worked but it only does so to a limited degree and a more holistic approach ought to be adopted

Phenomena like poverty, economic empowerment and policy prioritization should be included in the agenda. Poverty especially among the women has left them very vulnerable to HIV infection because they have no
jobs and no form of getting any income. What follows is that they will turn to prostitution so that they
should be able to earn a living.

There is therefore a need for economic empowerment of the very poor and economically marginalised
women. They should be offered income generating activities and also vocational skills through training so
that they can possibly find jobs that can help them earn a living. This could supplement the HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns.

Need for change of behavior is also necessary to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS. Many communities in
Africa still believe in the inheritance of property including the wife of say a deceased brother. Such a
person could have passed away due to HIV/AIDS infection and inheriting his wife will certainly get infected.
Sharing of sharp objects during circumcision can also lead to HIV/AIDS infection. In such communities, the people should be told that they stand the risk of infection if they share sharp objects, say at circumcision.

The unfortunate situation in which women find themselves makes them vulnerable and this makes them
enter into unwanted relationships with men which increase their risk of acquiring HIV/AIDS or unwanted pregnancies.
Help-One Women's Organization is currently offering vocational training in tailoring and design and intends
to offer training to women in information technology (computer literary) and poultry farming.

MALARIA PREVENTION CAMPAIGN

Malaria still remains the number one killer in sub Sahara Africa, especially among children under five years.
Help-One Women's Organization has engaged on a campaign to disseminate information geared towards prevention. The community is also informed about the symptoms and advised to visit the hospital in case
they begin to feel unwell.

OFFERING VOCATIONAL SKILLS TO WOMEN

Help-One Women's Organization is currently offering vocational skills to women in tailoring and intends to
do the same in the field of IT (computer literacy) and poultry rearing.

STAGE ONE ADULT LITERACY CLASS

Offering basic writing and reading lessons to women who never went to school.