The Spring 2021 Capstone Team collaborated with the Global Livingston Institute (GLI) and Children of Peace Uganda (CPU) to conduct a study focusing on the children born in captivity or war, their guardians, and their teachers in order to improve local education systems and increase social awareness of alleviating the negative effects of social taboos and exclusions on these children.
Cornell Institute for Public Affairs Capstone Team
Yihong Liu and Zihan Qian
Faculty Advisor: Laurie Miller
Acknowledgments
The Spring 2021 Cornell Institute for Public Affairs (CIPA) International Capstone Team would like to acknowledge and extend our appreciation to Professor Laurie Miller from Cornell University, Amanya Jerry and Tom Karrel from Global Livingston Institute (GLI), and Jane Ekayu from Children of Peace Uganda (CPU). The GLI and CPU teams overcame tremendous difficulties helping us with focus group interviews during the COVID-19 Pandemic and giving insightful feedback to promote the project. Moreover, Professor Miller has always been considerate and empathetic consistently offering help on information gathering and data collection and providing all the facilities that were required.
Executive Summary
Previous CIPA capstone teams partnered with the Global Livingston Institute (GLI) and Children of Peace Uganda (CPU) to help strengthen the socioeconomic situation of former child soldiers living in the Lira region in northern Uganda. Past projects have included working with members of the Lira community to develop agricultural training opportunities to create income and foster reintegration. This project involves exploring ways to improve circumstances for the children born in captivity, with a focus on learning from teachers and guardians about the challenges these children face. A fall 2020 capstone team revised the interview structure for this project and also analyzed survey data measuring the impacts of the agricultural training, as well as identifying room for continued development.
In order to provide the clients with a deeper understanding of the mental and social challenges faced by children who were born in captivity, the 2021 spring capstone team conducted desk research and literature reviews on the mental health of such children. Moreover, questions were also modified for the guardians participating in focus group interviews. When the outcomes of the focus group interviews are well understood, recommendations can be suggested. Consequently, the research question guiding this study is:
The work outlined in this report aims to improve the living conditions of children born in captivity in Uganda. Building on the close partnership between CIPA, GLI, and CPU, the capstone team conducted holistic research by relying on the help from school faculties and staff a both organizations. This report includes analyzed data from the teacher survey and focus group, revealing the status quo of children born in captivity and their families. Recommendations were also proposed to the local education system help guide further studies.
Background and Scope
The Spring 2021 Capstone Team collaborated with the Global Livingston Institute (GLI) and Children of Peace Uganda (CPU) to conduct a study focusing on the children born in captivity or war, their guardians, and their teachers in order to improve local education systems and increase social awareness of alleviating the negative effects of social taboos and exclusions on these children. Global Livingston Institute (GLI), as a non-profit organization, aims to convene global communities learning and advancing best practices in community development and solve problems in the fields of health, economic development, and the environment (GLI. n.d.). Children of Peace Uganda (CPU) is a non-profit organization targeting to promote human security through holistic approaches creating a peaceful, healthy and self-sustaining community environment (Children of Peace -Uganda, n.d.).
Establishing on previous teams" hard work on designing surveys and collecting related data, an updated version of a questionnaire specific for focus group interviews was designed and implemented to further understand the thoughts of the guardians of children born in captivity. Based on analyses of teacher survey and focus group interview, the research question was determined as:
What measures can school and society take in response to the social stigma and unfair treatment that children born in captivity have suffered?
The scope of work includes the literature reviews, desk research, analysis of a teacher survey, updated questionnaire for parent/grandparent (guardians) focus groups, main findings from the focus groups, and other contents that may appear during the project. The final report will be used to develop articles or other publications providing more information to policymakers and CPU to improve and expand their current programs for children born in captivity or war.
Due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, there were no field trips, and both of the team members worked remotely with CPU and GLI performing the tasks. Also, the focus group interviews v recorded for analysis.
