Inspiring career outlook and future possibilities for students with disabilities under the Tunaweza Inclusive Education project

Under the US Mission Uganda-funded project, Tunaweza Inclusive Education (TIE), the Tunaweza Foundation looked to inspire career outlook and future possibilities for students living with disabilities. Students living with disabilities in Uganda are often considered lucky when given a chance to attain an education. Most parents or guardians of these students don’t even have the time to find out the kind of careers these students are interested in. It is often more than enough that these children have attained an education, but why attain the education if no prospects are involved? At Tunaweza, we believe it is so much more than attaining an education. The TIE project was inspired and rested on fighting notions such as these so that students living with disabilities can plan for the future they want to have.

Under this project, we took on physical and virtual career guidance sessions aimed at having students living with disabilities visualize their futures. We encouraged them to identify their areas of passion and interests as a starting point for identifying the careers they want to pursue. We also took on a storytelling strategy. The strategy was focused on life after school and championed by our Executive director Victo Nalule. Victo shared about her different challenges and how she used them as a stepping stone to becoming the woman she is.

Executive Director Victo Nalule at Wakiso Secondary School for the Deaf in one of the story-telling sessions

We also distributed auxiliary aids like white canes, wheelchairs, crutches, and walkers to these students to make it a little easier for them to maneuver their different disabilities.

One of the inspirational sessions at Kyambogo University with Students with Disabilities

We had sessions on opportunities for People living with disabilities in business and education. These sessions were particularly in Universities where we shared about international exchange programs like the YALI program and Mandela Washington fellowship in the United States. We also offered IT lessons primarily focused on coding and improving students’ knowledge of Information Technology.

Some of the students from the IT sessions

We had several schools and institutions that we visited and focused on for this project, and these include the Uganda School of the Deaf (USD) located in Ntinda, Kampala School of the Physically Handicapped (KSPH) located in Mengo, Ntinda School for the Deaf (NSD), and Wakiso secondary school for the deaf (WSSD). The higher institutions were mainly Makerere University, Makerere Business School(MUBS), and Kyambogo University.

While we acknowledge that it is a huge milestone for Uganda to have numerous special needs schools in place, we can’t rest on that alone. Tunaweza aims to ensure more special-needs schools are instituted, but most importantly, all these schools are inclusive in their operations.