UgandaFund.org - Empowering Communities

The Pader Girls Academy (PGA), in northern Uganda’s Pader Town was founded in 2002 by the Christian Counseling Fellowship (CCF) as a reception center for girls escaped or rescued from Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) captivity. Under the leadership of PGA Director, Alice Achan, and with funding from the Uganda Fund and other international donors, PGA was later transformed into a secondary boarding school that fills a major void in service to girls affected by conflict: it is the only school in northern Uganda where girls who are pregnant or have children can be educated.

PGA engages community leaders in villages throughout Pader district to recruit former LRA abductees – most of who were forced to commit atrocities as combatants – and other young mothers who lived in squalid Internally Displaced Persons camps where sexual violence was common. PGA’s vision is to create a community of girls affected by conflict who are self-reliant, can achieve personal security and economic independence, and are equipped to support their children through acquisition of quality education.

In 2010, PGA enrolled 280 students. Nearly three-fourths of students live on school campus with 65 infants. PGA curricula include: a six-month vocational program, which provides practical skills in catering and tailoring; a six-month accelerated learning program to help students who have been out of school for long periods catch up; and the standard secondary education program, which teaches the Ministry of Education syllabus in preparation for national exams. The school employs 18 teachers, five tutors and seven child caregivers. Girls receive instruction in hygiene, breastfeeding and HIV prevention and undergo routine psychological counseling. PGA works in partnership with the Pader Health Center to provide medication (when available) for HIV positive girls. PGA takes an active role in the lives of students. On average seven girls drop out each year. School administrators visit the girls in their home villages to discover why they have dropped out and encourage them to return. PGA is a unique educational setting in which young women, who suffered sustained violence, have the rare opportunity to give birth and care for their infants in a supportive, empowering educational community.