Days before the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, Ugandan weightlifter Julius Ssekitoleko disappeared from the Olympic training camp. His disappearance sent the Uganda and Japanese governments on their toes and together, set out to search for him. He left only a clear note before fleeing: that he wanted to find work in Japan and requested to return his belongings to his family.
Four days later, he was found and sent back to his hometown immediately. The Ugandan government promised him continuous rehabilitation to support his career, but soon after, he was detained for more than 48 hours. This action was criticized by the Union of Uganda Sports Federations and Association saying, “he deserves sympathy, not harsh treatment”. His lawyer also told the media that Julius wasn’t the first athlete to disappear in a foreign land, seeking work due to the little support they get from the country they represent. And who wouldn’t? When his pregnant wife and was immediately evicted from their rented home after he fled to Japan. His only source of hope and income was his talent: his craft – his sport.
Leaving jail wearing his medals, Julius Ssekitoleko captured the hearts and sympathy of people across the globe. People started to support him on Twitter using the hashtag #StandWithSsekitoleko and lawyers rushed in to offer him help for free. Walter Mwesigye, a Ugandan TV producer and writer organized a drive to help Julius on his financial and legal battles. He has put up a project in Airfunding called “Stand Up for Julius Ssekitoleko” which raised $2,883 from people across the globe.
It seems that many citizens of Uganda resonated with his story, finding themselves in the same boat as someone who wishes to leave the doorstep of home and find themselves in a better place in a foreign land.
Find out mote about this project at https://www.airfunding.net/project/418711
This time, we will continue to deliver the contents of the first live stream of Airfunding participated by Nigeria, Uganda, and Indonesia. In the previous post, we introduced each NGO and its owner and summarized the education of Nigeria. If you look at it together, you will deepen your understanding, so please check it out! We also have detailed information about the activities and the origins of each NGO on our past note.
This time, we asked NGO owners in Uganda
and Indonesia about the current state of education and its problems.
Why
are children not able to go to school in Uganda?
Andrew, the founder of Faith Angels Ministry, who works in Uganda, talks about how education is managed in the country.
“Education in Uganda is managed by
the Ministry of Education.
Three years in kindergarten, seven years
in elementary school, four years in junior high school, two years in high
school, and then university. Depending on what you are learning, the number of
years you study at a university varies.”
You see that the general education
system in Uganda is a little different from that in Japan. In Japan, there are
three years of kindergarten, six years of elementary school, three years of
junior high school, and three years of high school. There are differences in education
depending on the country.
This is an elementary school student
studying at a school run by Faith Angels Ministry. There are things that are
different from Japan, but in any country, it is the same as helping each other
to study! ✨
But! He says that there are many
problems related to education, as the system does not seem to be widespread
among the fixed number of years of education.
“Uganda currently has different
educational challenges.
(1) Many of them leave high school; (2)
a student attending school may become pregnant; and (3) the younger the parent
is, the child has little knowledge or understanding about education.”
It is said that there is a problem between the recipient side and the recipient side. The problems that Andrew points out have a big impact on the awareness and interest of the recipient in education.
Why are they less conscious and
interested?
These are influenced by the negative
social chain.
Financial problems, as they give birth
to young children and grow up without education, they don’t understand going to
school, they can’t afford the funds because there is a limit to how they work.
It is clear that education is necessary,
but the prevalence and problems of the receiving side are urgent. We need help
to break the negative loop.
To break this negative chain, Faith
Angels Ministry is working to support and promote education for children in
poor areas.
However, it is very difficult to provide
education to many children with limited resources and time. So, we provide one
way we can help with the Airfunding Overseas NGO Support Program.
What
is Indonesia’s education system actually like?
Next, we asked about the current state
of education in Indonesia. The owner of Sasak Satu Swara, Levi, explains
Indonesia’s education system.
“I think Indonesian education is
actually a good thing. The government-run system allows us to get free
education up to nine years as compulsory education.”
This is the same as the number of years
of compulsory education in Japan. In other words, students can study for free
until the third year of junior high school. So, if you look at this, it looks
like Indonesian educational institutions have established a system, and there’s
no big problem… I thought, but Levi continues:
“But I don’t think that’s the case
if this system works really well. This system is just a theory, and even if it
is free, going to school will cost you money. In this situation, not all
children have enough money, and as a result, many children are unable to go to
school.”
In Indonesia
・ Free nine-year compulsory
education
・ It’s free with compulsory
education, but you can’t go to school with no money
This contradiction is born. About 40% of the students have not completed this compulsory education, and the low penetration rate of the system is a major problem in Indonesian education.
Are
Indonesia’s culture and education affected by globalization?
He also mentioned that there is another
serious problem in Indonesia.
“Moral issues in Indonesia… In
other words, moral problems are occurring in education. The Western culture has
been advancing due to globalization, and the culture of Indonesian culture that
remains strong is deteriorating. There is an opportunity to learn about
morality in class.”
And the moral of this is that we’re
going to build upon Indonesian culture.
– How do you relate to people around
you?
– How can mutual understanding be
deepened?
– How do we relate to God?
It is a kind of connection between the
mind and the mind that you can’t learn by just studying.
As Indonesia is an island country, each
island has its own culture and community and has been protected. Therefore, the
school on the island was a kind of institution that had many opportunities to
interact with people and learned how to be a community. However, I think that
this kind of culture is disappearing in the trend of Westernization in modern
times. I think it is no exaggeration to say that the coexistence of new and
existing cultures is a common issue in the world.
How did you summarize the current
situation and problems of education in Uganda and Indonesia? Although the
concept of education is the same, I think that it was understood by comparing
information that contents and policies vary from country to country. In
addition, the issues of culture and money that each country faces have been
clarified.
NGOs work day-to-day to promote
education among children in each country. However, there is no big influence
and financial power, so external support will become important.
The Airfunding Support Program for Overseas NGOs is a crowdfunding program that can help you take such a step forward. Your support will be transformed into their great driving force, and you can increase the number of children who can receive an education!
You can also participate by sharing the link to the upcoming project👍
If you work in the Ministry of Education
in your country and promote education in areas with various problems, what kind
of approach would you take? What do you think we can do in the distance? In my
opinion, knowing the current situation as much as possible will be a small
help. It may also be easy to start sharing information with others! If you have
any ideas, please let me know in the comments section! 👌
Support is now available from $5 (about
500 yen) in the Airfunding Overseas NGO Support Program! 🎉
I think that there is an image of
crowdfunding as “We have to support by making a large amount of
money”, but it is recommended because it is relatively easy to challenge
with one coin! If you are interested, please check here for more information!
🌍 Airfunding Official SNS for Overseas NGO Support Program ✈️
It’s getting warmer and warmer, how are
you all doing?
This time, we will show you the Airfunding live delivery that was conducted the other day, only on the note.
At Airfunding, Back2 School Africa from
Nigeria, Faith Angels Ministry from Uganda, and Sasak Satu Swara from Indonesia
participated in the commemoration of the first live, and exchanged views on the
situation related to “education” in each country.
Vol.1 will introduce the founders of
each NGO and discuss the current situation and activities at Back2School Africa
in Nigeria.
Introducing
the owners of NGOs in each country!
Anklin, founder of Back 2 School Africa
in Nigeria. Back 2 School Africa is committed to supporting children who are
not able to attend school under the mission “Make Education Available to
All Children in Africa”.
Mr. Anklin participated in this live
show from Germany. I am impressed again that I can communicate smoothly with
various people around the world because of the spread of remote… !
Next, I would like to introduce Levi,
founder of Sasak Satu Swara in Indonesia.
Sasak satu swara is an NGO that creates
opportunities for children who do not have sufficient education in Lombok
Island, Indonesia, and creates an environment where they can be active on the
island. We are working on our mission to create a millennial who works in the
community with the power of education. On the day, the children of Lombok also
participated in the Live distribution!
The last one is Uganda’s Faith Angels
Ministry with its founder, Andrew.
Under the mission of “The Power to
Survive the Socially Vulnerable in Africa,” Faith Angels Ministry is
working towards the vision of “Free Everyone from Poverty and Creating an
Independent Community.”
The three countries and organizations
share the same thing: education.
What’s the challenge? And what kind of
activities are you doing to solve it?
Vol.1 introduces Back2School Africa from
Nigeria.
Nigerian
girl describes this reality. Now, the problem they face is… ?
A Nigerian girl, supported by
Back2School Africa, spoke about two challenges that are preventing domestic
education.
Internal
conflict in northern Nigeria
At present, internal conflicts are intensifying in Nigeria, especially in the north. There are also terrorist attacks by bombs and explosions in schools. In fact, some schools were burned by a fire caused by a bomb, and some children were unable to go to school. The public sector has rebuilt the destroyed school and is working to improve it so that as many children as possible can attend school.
Child
abduction
A more serious problem in Nigeria is the
kidnapping of children. He says there is a daily loss of access to education
through kidnapping and violence.
Currently, in Nigeria, we are working to
improve the environment with the help of NGOs like Back2 School Africa to
deliver an educational environment to the whole country in accordance with SDGs
guidelines!
At Back2 School Africa, we want to correct the education of children and elimination of gender discrimination from an educational perspective.
The children gave us a song of thanks. I was very much encouraged by their message “you are special because it’s you” (you are special because you are the only one).
May there be a wonderful future for
cheerful, cheerful children✨
Back
2 School Africa Founder Anklin Talks About Education in Nigeria
We’re going to go on to talk about
education in Nigeria with Mr. Anklin, founder of Back 2 School Africa.
“To be honest, education in Nigeria
is far from satisfactory. Nigeria has the highest number of children out of
school in the world, with roughly 30 million children.”
As the population of Tokyo is about
13.96 million (as of 2021), there are about 2.1 times more children who are not
attending school. If you look at the numbers, you can see that there are still
challenges in the education situation in Nigeria.
“It’s also a reality that the
government is not doing well (toward improving education). The level of
education that is implemented in the country and the right to go to school are
not as high as we expect. There are many things we have to do in light of this
situation.”
“That’s why Back2School Africa works with a sense of purpose. First of all, we have introduced “STEM education” to improve the quality of education for children. (STEM Education is an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, and is a general term for the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.) In the United States and Europe, etc., we are actively involved in education that meets the needs of today’s IT society and the times.) By doing so, you can learn scientific and technical skills. The introduction of this method of education has enabled many children to receive an education.
We also have an educational system for children living in rural areas. Compared to the city, it has been difficult for children living in rural areas to receive an education. Many families cannot afford to send their children to school because they are full of money for farmers or to live their lives. Therefore, we are working to improve the environment so that Back2School Africa can go to such a place and receive an education.
Pray that low-income children can go to school and receive an education. We are working to be something of the future for our future.”
In this way, the Back 2 School Africa is
going to focus on
・ Introduction of a fulfilling
education system
-Creation of a system to enable the
education of children living in poor communities and rural areas
I’m putting emphasis on.
There are problems such as social conditions and unstable education levels on the part of the country that provides education, and poverty and location on the part of the education received.
We hope that the activities of organizations like Back 2 School Africa will provide more opportunities for children to receive an education.
Final
Remarks
This time, in vol.1 live, I’ve focused on education issues from the perspective of Nigeria Back 2 School Africa. We will continue to update on notes on the educational perspectives of Indonesian and Ugandan founders and local children. This is the only note that can see the contents of Live distribution, so please keep checking!
In this live broadcast, we were able to
hear voices from children who are actually going to school in each country.
Personally, the uniforms that the students are coming to are different from
each country, and I was attracted to it because it is colorful and very lovely!
Well then, everyone, please have a good
day🌿
If you want to know more about
Back2School Africa, or if you want to support it, click here👇
The monthly supporter plan is available
from (approximately) one coin! ($5~) If you are interested in this note, please
visit 🌎
Hello, this is Aria Intern. How are you
all doing? This time, I would like to introduce to you the International
Organization for Migration (IOM), which is engaged in entrepreneurship training
in Sierra Leone as the second step of the introduction of NGOs participating in
the Airfunding Overseas NGO Support Program.
Where is Sierra Leone in the first
place? What kind of country? There are many questions, and I think it is a
strange country. So, I will explain about IOM while also taking into account
the basic information of Sierra Leone.
Facts
About Sierra Leone
The official name for Sierra Leone is
the Republic of Sierra Leone. It is located on the west side of the African
continent and its capital is Freetown. The population is 7.97 million and it
takes more than 30 hours to fly from Japan to Sierra Leone! Sierra Leone was
originally a British colony and became independent in 1961. After independence,
it was not stable immediately, and it was difficult to establish an economic
social infrastructure (social infrastructure) due to civil war and military
coup d’etat.
The civil war has calmed down, and as
soon as the economy gets a little bit on track, the Ebola outbreak will take
place in 2014. The Ebola outbreak has been a serious blow to the country, as compared
to other countries, the infrastructure is still more unstable and vulnerable.
After Ebola’s convergence, mineral resource prices supporting the economy in
Sierra Leone declined, resulting in lower foreign currency revenues and
economic damage. In Sierra Leone, youth unemployment is the highest in Africa,
with two out of three people unemployed and suffering from a situation of
incomplete employment. There are many people who are seeking economic stability
and jobs and are illegal immigrants to Europe.
IOM
Mission & Vision
Work and earn money to support your family and yourself. For us, it is not something that the people of Sierra Leone can do. The current economic and social vulnerability makes it difficult to find a new path in the desperate situation of living tomorrow. For this reason, the IOM was created with the aim of supporting the young people of Sierra Leone who want to start a business and encouraging the growth of the country.
The mission of the IOM is to promote the
employment and entrepreneurship of young people. For sustainable development,
it is essential to train young people in Sierra Leone to start and operate
their businesses on their own, rather than introducing work abroad or migrating
as immigrants. The long-term vision of the IOM is to reduce the number of young
people who become illegal immigrants.
IOM
Activities
IOM focuses on three main initiatives.
The first is vocational training, which
increases job aptitude. Through vocational training, we have provided support
for about 2,000 people so that the younger generation and women have more
employment opportunities.
The second is training to become an entrepreneur.
We provide business startups and advanced management training so that you can
start and operate your business on your own.
The third campaign is for the
suppression of illegal immigrants. As I mentioned earlier, more and more people
are staying as illegal immigrants in Europe and other neighboring areas in
order to get out of the difficult situation facing the country. But living in
other areas as an illegal immigrant is dangerous. For that reason, we are
promoting domestic growth by conducting awareness campaigns to inform the
dangers of illegal immigration.
Airfunding
Overseas NGO Support Program Official Page
Hello, everyone who has seen this note.
Here’s an intern. The rainy season is over and the weather will continue to be
bad, but I hope I can spend every day with a happy heart! Now, this is the
third time we introduce NGOs, so we will introduce Faith Angels Ministry in
Uganda!
Facts
About Uganda
It takes about 17 hours from Uganda to
Japan. Uganda’s official name is the Republic of Uganda, located in the center
of the African continent. The area of the country is roughly the same as
Japan’s Honshu, with a population of 42.72 million. English, Swahili and
Luganda are spoken as official languages, but because they are made up of
various ethnic groups, they have various languages. Africa has a lot of ethnic
groups!
Uganda’s per capita GDP is $776.8.
Japan’s GDP is about $40,146, so I think you can see the economic difference
from the figures.
In Uganda, where Faith Angels Ministry
is active, more than 21 million people have not been able to obtain safe water.
Water is a precious resource that supports our lives, and we always need water
to live. In fact, water is essential in daily life because about 65% of the
adult body is water. However, if it is not clean and safe water, it can cause
diarrhea, dehydration can occur and life can also be lost. Sanitation,
including water, is a major issue in Uganda.
The low enrollment rate in children’s
education is also a problem. There are many children in Uganda who have not
finished primary and secondary education due to poverty. In addition, there are
many orphans in Uganda, and more than 2.2 million people in Uganda.
Faith
Angels Ministry Mission and Vision
Poverty prevents us from drinking safe
water, and we don’t have the education we want. In order to improve the current
situation of people who are weak in their social position and unable to live
sufficiently, Faith Angels Ministry is working on the mission of creating a
society where people can escape from poverty by creating an “education and
health environment”. We have set a long-term vision to create an independent
community free from poverty, and we have established Face Angels Nursery &
Primary School to provide educational opportunities. Currently, 193 children
study hard every day. The blue school uniform is very cute! Now we are also
considering adding more schools to increase student acceptance.
It also takes about 60 minutes to get to
a place where you can drink safe water, which is very inconvenient. For that
reason, we are running a project to improve the environment for drinking clean
water through Airfunding. If the project is successful, not only the school but
also the surrounding community will be able to secure safe water.
“If we have the opportunity to get
a good education, we have the opportunity to grasp the future for these
children,” says the founder of the NGO. Education is a great investment to
brighten the future country. Faith Angels Ministry continues to support
children in their future. We hope you will support us!