For the second year running, the Cross-Cultural Foundation of Uganda (CCFU) in partnership with TotalEnergies EP Uganda has trained an additional 36 primary and secondary school teachers and 4 district official and resourceful persons drawn from Nwoya District in establishing and managing vibrant heritage clubs through the Heritage Education Programme (HEP).
Eighteen (18) schools, each represented by two people; a school administrator (head teacher or deputy) and a teacher who is expected to be the club patron, attended the three-days training held at Flight View Hotel in Gulu City from Wednesday, March 12th to Friday, March 14th, 2025.
They included; Anak Central School, St. Kizito Bidati Primary School, Kulu-Amuka Primary School, Alokolumu Gok Primary School, Agung P.7 School, St. Luke Te-Olam Primary School, Lamoki P.7 School, Patira P.7 School, Agungu Community Secondary School, Paraa Primary School, Purongo Primary School, Aparanga Primary School, Gotngur Primary School, Olwiyo P.7 School, Oruka Primary School, Purongo Secondary School and Wii’Anak P.7 School.
This brings the total number of schools with heritage clubs in Nwoya district to 28, from 10 schools that were trained last year. It also brings the total number of schools in the country with heritage clubs to 230 ever since the Heritage Education Programme was established in 2011.
“This is a great milestone for us. It helps to bridge the generational gap between young and old in terms of their appreciation of cultural heritage and facilitates knowledge and skills transfer, as young people spend a great part of their time in the schools, detaching them from their family environment where they get to learn their culture,” said Simon Musasizi, CCFU’s Heritage Trust Programme Manager.
“Participation of young people in cultural heritage preservation and promotion not only creates more jobs but also opportunities for young people to gain an understanding and appreciation of their own culture and that of others, which in turn strengthens their ability to recognize the role of culture in development and specifically to resolve conflicts and foster respect for cultural diversity,” he added.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, UNESCO estimated that the cultural and creative industries represented 30 million jobs worldwide and employed more people aged 15 to 29 than any other sector. With millions of young people currently facing unemployment or increasingly dropping out of school due to the lack of school fees, expanding access to the cultural industries and building a base of young cultural entrepreneurs is more vital than ever. It contributes to achieving SDG 4, Target 7, which calls for all learners to acquire an appreciation of cultural diversity and of culture’s contribution to sustainable development.
To contribute to achieving SDG4, Target 7, CCFU in partnership with TotalEnergies aims to grow and strengthen the Programme’s footprints in schools/education sector in the Albertine graben. As a vehicle for youth development and civic engagement, culture plays an essential role in promoting sustainable social and economic development for future generations. This Programme feeds into the Uganda government programmes aimed at empowering young people such as the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development’s Youth Livelihood Programme (YLP), designed as one of the interventions to the high unemployment rate and poverty among the youth in the country. There is also the Uganda Skills Development Project (USDP) under the Ministry of Education and Sports aimed at skilling the youth, and new curriculum for lower secondary, which focuses on building competencies and creativity of students outside the classroom.
The teachers are trained on how to deal a well-thought toolkit, with themes such as: where to find cultural resources in our communities, knowing your cultural rights, managing cultural diversity, expressing your culture, using heritage resources for livelihood, etc.
The Programme also supports the schools to participate in the national Music, Dance and Drama competition, as a way of ensuring that young people participate in expressing their cultures.
About CCFU
Established in 2006, CCFU is a nongovernmental organization whose mission is to promote an appreciation of culture as vital for human development that responds to our diverse identities.
In area of heritage education, CCFU in 2011 initiated Heritage Education Programme (HEP) to enhance heritage education in Uganda, recognising the role of young people in promoting cultural rights and heritage. The Foundation has engaged the National Curriculum Development Centre (NCDC) to mainstream aspects of culture into the new national curriculum for lower secondary schools.
Currently, aspects of culture are part of the History and Political Education subject under a topic called culture and ethnic groupings in East African. In 2017, CCFU received support from UNESCO for a 3-year project that aimed at raising awareness of the management and academic staff in 4 universities (Kyambogo, Kabale, Uganda Martyrs and Islamic University in Uganda) in Uganda on the relevance of intangible cultural heritage in Uganda’s current development context. The project led to the development of a Bachelor of Cultural Studies and being pioneered in the aforementioned 4 universities.
The organization champions the cause for safeguarding and promoting built heritage and has since documented and produced maps of historic buildings, sites and monuments in seven cities/towns: Kampala, Entebbe, Jinja, Fort Portal, Mbale, Mbarara and Soroti. Further still, the organization has demonstrated that you can sustainably manage historic buildings by restoring two properties, opening them up to the public as museums: Uganda Railway Museum in Jinja City and Semei Kakungulu Museum in Mbale City.
