Kampiringisa Rehabilitation Centre is one of our partner outreaches. It is Uganda’s only juvenile rehabilitation facility, housing +300 vulnerable children and young people at “conflict with the law”. Brass for Africa started collaborating with Kampiringisa in 2014, bringing Music and Life-Skills lessons to their residents twice a week. Before our involvement, there was a strong public stigma against the residents of Kampiringisa. The community wanted nothing to do with them and were against youngsters attending the nearby school. The lack of counselling services also meant that the residents were left in complete isolation. This caused an overall inability to communicate, express emotions and heal. The negative public perception also meant that very few were able to attend school and so the majority of residents were completely uneducated, lacking the necessary basic skills needed to survive. This lack of education, negative public perception and an institutionalised upbringing combined meant that there was little hope for the future of these individuals.
However, since our involvement with Kampiringisa, we have seen an incredible impact on the residents and change in their attitude and self-belief, with over 500 teaching sessions that have been delivered within the centre and nearly 300 beneficiaries directly benefiting from this partnership. We have also held more than 12 annual performances by the Kampiringisa residents to their local community, which in turn has helped to change the public perception of the residents. Pre Covid-19, our teachers were going into Kampiringisa twice a week to deliver these lessons, however as this has not been possible because of the pandemic, we have introduced the new innovative approach of e-learning to successfully continue providing our music lessons to the residents! To do this, we have provided several tablet devices which are kept at the Centre to allow students at Kampiringisa to take part in online lessons. This initiative was developed as we were determined to continue teaching the students but no one was permitted to enter the centre due to the lockdown. There are three brass groups and one percussion group and students gather around a Brass for Africa tablet to meet their teacher who is located in the library at our Kampala Training Centre. Gilbert, one of our Music and Life-Skills teachers, himself spent six years living at Kampiringisa and having worked his way up from being a resident participant there, he is acutely aware of the issues faced by those living at the centre. Gilbert was instrumental in setting up the e-learning, and helping to train Brass for Africa teachers in how to deliver lessons online.
A particular fellow teacher who has adopted this e-teaching incredibly well is Juuko. Juuko is also alumni of Kampiringisa and his journey with Brass for Africa started in 2018. In August he passed his exams and is now a qualified Music and Life-Skills teacher! He has adapted to this e-learning practice and teaching incredibly well and it is so inspiring to see the journey of these two individuals, who have transformed and are now both thriving and inspirational teachers. Finally, this is a tremendous demonstration of meaningful distance teaching and learning, and how we are able to adapt and overcome in these pressing times. Here are some pictures of Juuko teaching mid-lesson!
