TESS

The Life Skills Conference 2011 was held at Bethany Girls School in Soroti. We had approximately 160 TESS students on the Conference.

The Conference began with a trip to Murchison Falls National Park. We left at 3am in the morning and didn't return until 12am the following evening. Whilst the staff and facilitators were exhausted the students had a wonderful time seeing elephants and scenery that they had never before witnessed. (They even tried their hand at pushing the minibus through the sand when it got stuck!).

We once again had the pleasure of welcoming the CEWIGO team to teach the students in the morning sessions. They ran a similar programme to 2009 including teaching on employability skills, knowing and respecting each other and the impact of gender based violence on the community. On the Friday afternoon we also ran a day long Conference for male guardians of the TESS students to sensitise them to the same issues that their children are facing.

The afternoon sessions were run by the visiting TESS staff and sponsors. The students were each assigned a group and then carried out the same themed activities for the 6 days. These included photography, jam and juice making, computer skills, tailoring, puzzles and games, heath and nutrition and environmental care.

The idea being that the students would get an in depth knowledge of the particular skills and would then be able to use this information at home in their communities.

Each group of students also spent 1 day at the Shalom School site helping with the building process.

We ended the Conference with our usual final celebration. Students gave a series of dramas and speeches and we even had a fashion show! (Courtesy of those students studying fashion design). The male guardians were also at the final celebration and so were able to join the dancing and singing along with the TESS students.

Thank you so much to all sponsors and TESS donors who again supported the Conference to make it a huge success - we could not have done it without you!

Would you like to come to the Conference next year? Would you like to run a coffee morning to raise money for the Conference?

On behalf of all the sponsored students thank you so much!