Having entered year # 2 !
A week from now, the big UPLIFT family will gather for the annual Graduation Ceremony – the highlight of the year. Little more than a year ago, Friends of UPLIFT received the message from FOKUS that Norad had accepted our application for funding; UPLIFT Women in West Nile will receive 4,2 million NOK (400,000 USD at the time) over a five-year period. And the first year has been successful in every way, with the goals achieved and the final 2023 report submitted to FOKUS. [See last year’s membership letters, April and October, respectively).
So, wholeheartedly as friends, we can say “Well done!” to UPLIFT, allowing ourselves [as of April 1st, 2024] to celebrate the ‘1st Anniversary’ with an ever so small Announcement:
“Friends of UPLIFT have got a ‘new’ website – i.e. updated and in a new look! It has been an extensive process, and today we are declaring the new www.upliftvenner.no to be officially opened!” More on this below.
But first we want to say a little about the UPLIFT training itself. With this FOKUS-anchored project, continuously documented by reports from project visits and supplemented by a number of photos and videos received from UPLIFT, the ‘women’s health’ theme has naturally received the most attention. After completion of the first year, a completely new curriculum has been tested and gained experience. As mentioned before, now with 6 separate themed chapters translated into Alur. Then we, as friends of UPLIFT, become curious. Has the course in women’s health, with a focus on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), almost taken over the literacy training?
Last year’s graduation: Demonstrating literacy and numeracy (– only, isn’t there a digit missing?)
Oh no. Literacy remains the foundation, and the method is the same. The big change lies in the content – the topics being referred to, according to which one learns to read and write. While these were linked to the daily challenges of village life, the focus is now more on women’s specific life situation – including girls’ upbringing and education. Then some other topics have to give way, because the course is extensive, when knowledge and skills are to be integrated. With so much new material, this does not only apply to ‘learners’, but also to mentors and coordinators who are continuously trained by a midwife in each county (District).
One topic was not left out – the scholarship-based tailoring course. As proudly testified with certificates!
And now, to the news: The new Norwegian website of the Friends of UPLIFT. Some English-speaking friends may have already spotted the ‘new look’ that fluttered out before it was officially launched. After all, there was always a section in English in the Menu. But we hope this will be a surprise for most of you and give an impetus, on mobile or Facebook, to invite friends to look at what we are interested in. The English ‘chapter’ in our FUP website is now up and running, while a website for UPLIFT West Nile in English is still in the making.
Though mainly in Norwegian, let us highlight some of the structural and design changes:
* The notices are simpler and less fragmented.
* New web design is far better adapted to navigation on a mobile screen.
* On computer, the pages are clearer too, with only one added column beside the main text.
* The texts are more often cross-linked with a ‘Read more’.
* The newsletters appear under Nyheter/Arkiv (News/Archive), chronologically back to 2012.
* Finally, after numerous requests, we’ve put in a ‘blue button’ to facilitate contributions.
‘This, in all modesty’. We shall not rest on our laurels (although we wish for our web designer Torbjørn Kristensen and web editor Helge Kragh to have a break). As has been repeatedly mentioned along the way, “a website is never ‘finished’ – if so, something must be wrong” – and it is our hope to feed it with new material and gain more experience.
When the first website was created more than ten years ago, we invited visitors to stroll back and forth’ around the website and get to know it. At the time primarily thought of on PC screens. For today’s majority on mobile phone, we may rather say, ‘scroll up and down’ etc. And don’t forget that the screen can be rotated to landscape format. So much better, isn’t it, for videos and such.
Video from a class session
At this very time of writing, our (FUP) Managing Director, Michael Vitols, once again back in Uganda, participates with the UPLIFT management team at a Fokus seminar now in session in Kampala. Next week they are off to West Nile for the annual UPLIFT Graduation Ceremony – this year to be held in Pacwach District (formerly part of Nebbi District).
And on that note, for ‘sentimental reasons’, I have retrieved an early photo from celebrations in that area – prior to the formation of Friends of UPLIFT. It was taken during a visit by members of the Norwegian Bahá’í Office of Social and Economic Development (NorSED) after the first Norad-funded project within the UPLIFT programme. On that occasion a football match ‘finals’ of two teams of the youth programme (discontinued after 2018) was part of the local pre-graduation ceremony!
Once upon a time in Agwok – with role models.
Best wishes, on behalf of the Board of
Friends of UPLIFT, for a fruitful UPLIFT year.
Gunnar Lange-Nielsen
Secretary