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Caroline Ayugi

About Caroline Ayugi

Ms. Caroline Ayugi was until October 2016, a news editor at a Christian based radio station, Favor FM in Gulu, northern Uganda. She also worked as the East-Acholi bureau chief at Uganda Radio Network, Uganda’s biggest on-line news agency. Caroline holds a bachelor’s degree in Mass Communication from Makerere University, and has ten years working experience as a news reporter for various media outlets including; The New Vision, Institute for War & Peace Reporting based in The Hague, The Observer, Uganda and Daily Monitor. She is a director at Word Oven Uganda, a company that offers translation, graphic design and editing services. She is also a trainee at International Women’s Media Foundation’s Great Lakes Reporting Initiative, 2017-2018. At Oysters & Pearls- Uganda, she is in-charge of on-line content production.

More blind & visually impaired enroll in computer training at O&P Uganda

Oysters & Pearls-Uganda continues to offer computer training to the blind and visually impaired community members across Uganda. JAWS is a computer screen reader program that speaks aloud the screen for those who are blind or visually impaired. O&P-UG has a Country License agreement which enables us to negotiate an affordable price for education. In Uganda, an estimated 30,000 people lose their sight annually, yet the Uganda National population and Housing Census 2014 shows that already, more than 2.1 million people are living with visual impairment and 250,000 are totally blind.

Robotics Training Gives Students Solid Foundation for Future Science Jobs

Evening’s last light got us disembarking from the last taxi that brought us from Gulu, one of the districts in northern Uganda. Then, the next morning’s first light brought a promise of a long day, going from school-to-school. The work awaiting us, robotics training, would prove enlightening to trainees, on the warm Saturday.

For students who study in schools with ill-equipped computer or technology labs- where there are no robotics instructors-salvation depends on enrolling for a free robotics training by Oysters & Pearls-Uganda, even if that means spending an extra hour in class, or having to forego Saturday’s much needed rest.

To Joyce Atim, an A’ Level student of Lira Town College, spending 30 or 60 minutes more in class, is a privilege. Prior to the Robotics training, Joyce struggled to grasp the concepts in ICT. She experienced firsthand, the effects of lack of practicals in that class. She attended it like she would any other Arts subject.

Much as she desired to have a career in ICT, the prospects seemed grim, given the hypothetical conception she was being given by her school.

“Our class is massive. The teacher can’t handle us one-on-one. Besides, students are always distracted; this demotivates the teacher more,” Joyce observed.

However, this year, Oysters &

Technovation Ambassador Determined to Recruit more Girls to Develop Apps

For women and girls in Uganda, a dream career in computing is still incredibly challenging. Despite its extraordinary rise over the last five decades, and the country’s ever increasing reliance on technology, women and girls still constitute the lowest percentage of the workforce in Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) careers.

The dismal percentage of women in the field of STEM is explained by a number of barriers that smother their ideas right from childhood.

The notion that computing can only be handled by the male gender is deeply ingrained in Ugandan society. Consequently, the few girls who aspire to join the computing world first ponder if they haven’t been overrating themselves, and hesitate to geek.

“During initial mentoring in Technovation, girls took so long to finally share their idea. And when they did I wondered why they were afraid to express it,” said Sabrina Atwiine.

A student ambassador for Technovation in Uganda, Sabrina hopes to change the status quo by recruiting more girls in Uganda to join Technovation when she returns from the international Technovation Pitch event in August in California.

“I want to contribute in changing the misconception that girls can’t handle anything scientific.”

The cultural and systemic barriers to STEM fields has led to

O&P Uganda’s Makerspace Entices Ugandan Teacher to Prep for Retirement

Today is Cosmas Okumu’s first day for a training in electronics at Oysters & Pearls-Uganda’s Makerspace.

A Physics teacher at Negri College in Gulu, Cosmas says he gets thrilled when he makes anything electronic.

“I made an inverter as part of my research at Kyambogo University last year. My supervisor looked at me with respect. I felt good. Today, the feeling is back,” he said.

Today Cosmas assembled a circuit, and the sweet memory of winning came back.

But now, it is not all about the excitement that comes with invention. Cosmas wants to make good use of the makerspace, to craft his retirement job.

“The training is preparing me for old age,” he said.

“When I retire, I will open a shop where I will repair electronics, and earn a decent income,” he added.

Only today, he was able to assemble a circuit; the achievement made his hope soar. Cosmos is ready to learn more in a few months.

Cosmas’ plan for a retirement job is a wise idea, considering that many on retirement in Uganda face challenges acquiring their most basic needs. Although the government introduced the Social Assistance Grants for Empowerment program in 2012, each beneficiary gets only 25.000 shillings (about US $8) each month, and

Giving Gulu University Science Students More Skills in Technology

Gulu-University-Students-of-O&P-tech-Lab1 Gulu University students at O&P Tech Lab

Lack of, or inadequate science materials, in addition to ill-equipped laboratories in most Universities in Uganda have always led to the passing-out of poorly trained science graduates who are unable to innovate, or solve simple problems in the community. Oysters & Pearls – Uganda is filling that vacuum, by giving hands-on training to Gulu University students in Computer Science topics at their makerspace.

In the last week of October, Oysters & Pearls – Uganda trained Gulu University students in robotics and programming, among other technology related topics. More than fifty students benefited from the program, and some of them confessed to have gotten their first hands-on experience.

Now, the students gather at the Oysters & Pearls – Uganda Lab every Wednesday and Thursday, to get more practical skills in various fields in technology.

Fernando Opifeera, a first year student Bachelor of Science in ICT says the makerspace is giving him an opportunity to learn more in his course because; “At the Makerspace, I am able to match the theory I learned at the university with its practical application .”

This initiative is also simplifying the learning process of a number of the science students

Computerized Devices and Text Books Helping Blind Students to Excel

“I am sure one of the six blind students sitting for national examinations will pass with distinctions.” The head of the Special Needs Unit at Gulu High School, Daniel Odoch expressed this firm conviction. Francis Ojukul, the coordinator of the VI department, had the same feeling.

For three and a half decades though, such optimism in the performance of the blind and visually impaired students at Gulu High School was non- existent.

In Uganda, education for Persons with Disabilities was started in 1952 by the Colonial Government. The special needs education services were for a few children with visual, hearing, learning and mobility challenges who were not gaining from the existing educational provision for regular children. However, Persons with Disabilities are still generally marginalized by beliefs and attitudes in society, and so developments in this ‘Special Education’ have been moving slowly since then.

The blind annex of the school was launched in 1986. But it was only five years ago, when Oysters & Pearls started sponsoring and giving study materials and tools to the blind, that the unit started producing first grades, both in internal and external examinations.

“Since 2012, we have registered at least a first grade in the national examinations,” said Mr. Ali Muzamil, a blind teacher of Commerce

Spelling quiz for blind students

Increasing Knowledge of Blind Students through Spelling Quizzes and Group Revisions

Oysters & Pearls-Uganda has initiated a weekly quiz competition at Gulu High School to improve the grades of Blind Annex students.

The initiative, which was kicked off this year by Ojukul Francis (O&P-UG Project Coordinator), sets students in groups of four. Each group is comprised of students chosen from senior one up to senior six. The winning group gets a prize at the end of the session.

Students who are educated using a Brailler typically do not receive corrective feedback on the writing skills, including grammer and spelling, because their sighted teachers often cannot read Braille. Their spelling is poor as a result and words are written phonetically.

Nonetheless, they are enthusiastically joining in on quiz day to sharpen spelling and compete to answer questions from past exams to ensure the best possible performance on exams.

Francis says he received numerous complaints from the blind students that sighted teachers were not spelling words for them during class which is majority sighted, ignoring the fact that they cannot see the blackboard.

“The spelling quiz competition is not only making the students improve their spellings, but also to think fast, because each group is given only ten seconds to answer a question,” Francis said.

Odoch

Oysters & Pearls-Uganda Offers Hands-on Training to University Students

The president of the Faculty of Science at Gulu University, is grateful for the hands-on training given by Oysters & Pearls-Uganda, to students of Information Technology and Computer Science.

Jimmy Lukwago, a final year student of Information Technology at the University, expressed his gladness during a career guidance and practical computing seminar at the University, where Oysters & Pearls was a main contributor.

During the event, Oysters & Pearls-Uganda’s director of technology, Jacob Odur, showed the students how a 3D printer works.

Victor Paul, our robotics trainer introduced the students to embedded systems using Arduino. Victor and the students explored the Arduino hardware; looking at both digital and analog pins, power pins, and barrel jack for external power. Other fields that the students experienced was Arduino Integrated Development environment, IDE, and installation of Arduino software and UNO board drivers.

The students also practiced basic programming, for instance, blinking a Light Emitting Diode, LED, and other hardware, such as breadboard used in electronic prototyping/testing of circuits, among others.

Jimmy acknowledged that many of the science students had not experienced such practical work, and had definitely not seen a number of the materials used.

“The university does not have enough materials for practical work, so a majority of the science students are not exposed. This

Robotics Training Inspires Ugandan Youth

Lack of school fees will not kill Daniel Mwa Okocha’s dream of becoming a technologist. As a teenager, Daniel dropped out of Our Lady of Africa, Mukono, where he was studying Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics.

After dropping out of school, the Makerspace, a technology lab at Oysters & Pearls-Uganda, became a perfect haven for realizing his dream.

Oysters & Pearls-Uganda has been offering the robotics training for communities in Gulu, Northern Uganda since 2013. The Makerspace opened in town in 2016 and offers training to students and interested members of the community, who have a minimum qualification of Ordinary Level and importantly, passion for innovation and technology.

Daniel notes that with knowledge, one can solve any problem.

“I want to make a flying bicycle. Nowadays, transport is a problem, so I want to make my own means of transport.”

At the end of the lesson, Daniel is busy working with a set of wires and batteries. After a short while, the transistor multi-vibrator circuit he has just made, illuminates. He smiles widely at his achievement.

Jude Barnabas Kibwota, is another trainee at Makerspace. To him, the training brings his dream alive. Sitting at a table littered with wires, Jude sees a solution in each of them.

“When I see anything electronic, I want to

We would be very grateful to you for your donation to Oysters & Pearls to support our ongoing educational programs for the students in Gulu, Uganda
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