Remembering the Teachers in Dire Need

Remembering the Teachers in Dire Need

A section of private school teachers in Gulu City and surrounding areas launched a social media campaign dubbed, “Open our Schools or Feed the Teachers”. At the start of the campaign, they had called out to teachers, who felt more vulnerable by the COVID-19 crisis to register for food aid. Once they had gathered the numbers, they took to social media to highlight the plight of the teachers in dire need of help. 

According to The Independent Magazine, the campaign was successful and achieved its target. Help arrived.

Teachers from private schools in the city received donations of relief food from the Calvary Chapel. Nearly 600 hundred teachers received food packages right at their homes. Each teacher received 10 kilograms of maize floor and 5 kilograms of beans.

Speaking to The Independent Magazine, Openytho William Lucima, a teacher at Nile Progressive Secondary School who was one of the mobilisers, said that most of the beneficiaries were private school teachers who had gone months without pay. 

“These teachers were last paid in March 2020 and are struggling to get a day’s meal, the ultimate goal was to ensure that at least food be given to up to 1000 teachers, all of whom had already registered under their campaign” explained Lucima.

Some of the teachers have taken to alternatives to fend for themselves and their families. Stella Akong, one of the beneficiaries from the campaign and a teacher at Future Hope Nursery and Primary School, said she had resorted to farming in her backyard because she is not certain when schools would be re-opened for studies to resume. She said the food relief supplemented what she had planted in her backyard garden.

Charity Ajok, also a teacher at Mama Catherine Primary and Nursery School, added her voice to the cause. She called on the government to consider supporting teachers of private schools who had gone without a salary for many months. 

By CivSource Team