Learning Spaces are Viva’s response to the urgent, post-Covid need to help children catch up on lost years of education. Matt Coulson describes how his eyes were opened on a visit to one such centre in Cambodia. Sometimes we might think our eyes are open, but really they are closed. Closed to injustice; closed to …
The lives of almost 10,000 girls are being changed for the better through our long-running Girls’ Education Challenge programme in Kampala, Uganda. The Covid pandemic has been a massive obstacle in the way of progress – but in spite of the challenges there is good news, as Mim Friday explains. In 2013, Viva partnered with …
Finding local solutions for local challenges in countries like Nepal. Before the pandemic, seven-year-old Samir was receiving after-school support at a Learning Space run by Viva’s partner network in Nepal. During those early days, the staff described him as a shy boy with irregular attendance who was at risk of dropping out of school altogether. …
BY ELEANOR SIMPSON With the support of Viva and its partner network, CRANE, teenage mothers in Kampala, Uganda, are now able to return to school whilst free child care is provided for their babies. They also receive training, which provides them with knowledge about how to best take care of their young children. The family …
BY BECCA MARTIN It’s the school holidays, but from one classroom not far from Kampala a song by Sia blasts out through the windows. “I put my armour on, show you how strong I am. I’ll put my armour on, I’ll show you that I am, I’m unstoppable.” Inside, a group of girls decide on …
BY ANNAH MARY TUSIIME Rachel’s is a story of a life that was forever changed. She was raised by a single mother who farmed other people’s gardens for a living and, with the little she had, she supported Rachel until Senior 4 (aged 15 years). Unable to find any lasting work within her community, Rachel’s …
BY VICTORIA PRICE Health educators through Viva’s partner network, CRANE, in Uganda, are being equipped with life-saving knowledge on maternal and child health, which they are passing on to local communities through their peer-to-peer activities. Eighteen peer educators in two districts in Kampala have now reached over 1,000 parents and their children. With increased maternal …
BY ANDREW DUBOCK Following on from our four-year girls’ catch-up education programme in Kampala, Viva and its Uganda-based partner network CRANE have secured a new seven-year contract with the British government’s Department for International Development (DFID) to continue to build on and increase this crucial work. By 2024, it will directly benefit almost 10,000 girls, …
BY VICTORIA PRICE A new textbook has been launched by Viva’s partner network CRANE in Uganda, which creates brand new learning opportunities for deaf primary school-aged students in Kampala, through the creative use of pictures, videos and sign language tools. According to UNICEF, approximately 2.5 million children in Uganda live with some form of disability, …
BY JUSTINE DEMMER Justine Demmer, Viva’s Network Consultant for Asia, gives us a glimpse into a recent trip to Cambodia where she visited a floating church, and the children who call it home. I step outside of our accommodation in Siem Riep, North-Western Cambodia to find an open wagon drawn by a motorcycle. Our child …