Teachers' Personal Testimonies

I am Nsereko Ismail, a WSWM teacher of Bukomero Secondary school. The WSWM club is five years old in the school since 2006. I have been a WSWM teacher for 3 years after undergoing training in the Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) issues of the young people aged between 12- 19 years. The WSWM curriculum has impacted me as a teacher in a number of ways:

The young people are experiencing a number of challenges that call for our attention as teachers (elders) in terms of creating awareness among the students, doing guidance and counseling as well as creating confidence among the young ones to address sexual and reproductive issues so I feel with the WSWM curriculum I have been able to play a role in helping my students.

As a teacher, through the WSWM I have had a great opportunity of building my profession and personality. WSWM is an ICT-based sexuality curriculum and this draws me closer to the use of computers as I am delivering the WSWM content.

My use of computers has not only ended with the WSWM work but I have changed my classroom work (History and Luganda) from blackboard work to computer work because I have discovered a lot of learning content from the Internet.

WSWM has also helped me to network with teachers from over 150 schools implementing the WSWM program across the country. The workshops organized by SchoolNet Uganda bring together different teachers from different regions and this has not only promoted WSWM activities but has united us as teachers academically, socially and in personal development. Similarly, the annual school exhibitions have also bonded us teachers together for various benefits.

From the WSWM curriculum, I am proud to mention the fact that the content delivered by me to the students has also had an impact on my life. I now have a different perspective towards sexuality issues, emotions, HIV/AIDS and how to respect gender related issues. I would say as I have been changing the young people’s lives, my life has changed much more for the better.

I cannot forget the opportunity I got from the club of getting connected to the other important ventures like the innovative teachers forum for projects and being innovative, working with the community over solving community problems and getting inspired by role models from the different organizations. The foundation has all been the efforts of the WSWM sponsors and implementers of the program.