Jokudu Catherine arrived in Uganda in 2017, fleeing war in South Sudan. She and her family settled in Village 18, Zone 5 Ayivu Cluster, Greater Bidibidi Refugee Settlement in Yumbe District, and began rebuilding her life, farming, raising five children, and finding a way forward in a place that was not home but had to become one.
Like many parents in the settlement, getting her children into early learning was not straightforward. The only option was a nursery school far from the village, and even then, the quality left much to be desired. Her children were attending, but they were not really learning.
That changed when officers from LABE came to the community to sensitise parents about Peace Early Childhood Development (ECD) Centre. Jokudu enrolled her children, a daughter who was three years old at the time, and a toddler son. That was three years ago, and she has not looked back.
Under the Kulea Watoto Project, a three-year Conrad N.Hilton Foundation-funded initiative aimed at improving early childhood development and transforming livelihoods of refugees and communities that host them in Uganda, LABE has been supporting Peace ECD Centre with caregiver training, infrastructure upgrades, including a new kitchen, scholastic and play materials, and parenting sessions rooted in responsive caregiving targeting parents with children aged zero to three.
The difference in Jokudu’s children is visible and tangible. Her daughter, now in Primary One, writes with confidence and knows her ABCs. Her son, still in Baby class, already comes home and describes what he learnt that day. They sing. They speak English. And Jokudu notices something else, too: they are respectful.
“Even my son in Baby class can describe what he learnt at school,” she says, and the pride in that observation is hard to miss.
But the change has not been limited to her children. Through parenting sessions and community meetings, Jokudu has learned about nutrition, the importance of play, and what it means to be present for her children in a way that actually supports their development. One of the most grounding exercises was developing a household vision plan, a structured process that helped her and her family name their goals, put them in order, and keep sight of what they are working towards. It gave shape to ambitions that had always been there but had never quite had a frame.
She has also joined a Village Savings and Loans Association (VSLA), and that decision, guided now by the clarity of her vision plan, has transformed her household. From her savings, she has paid school fees, put food on the table, and recently bought two chickens to expand her flock. It is a deliberate choice: eggs and meat for a balanced diet, a small but steady investment in her children’s health. Her longer-term goal, written into that plan, is to save enough to buy an acre of land for farming.
When she thinks about her children’s futures, her face lights up. She asks them sometimes what they want to be when they grow up. Doctor. Teacher. Nurse. The answers change, but the ambition does not.
“This excites me,” she says simply.
Peace ECD is the only ECD facility in the community, and its value is not lost on the families around it. Other parents send their young children there too, drawn by what they see in their neighbours’ homes. Jokudu knows what it means to have had no such option, and she is clear about what she would say to any parent still holding back.
“I would tell them to send their children to school,” she says, “so that they do not end up like us, who did not study.”
She has one request for those who support the centre: keep going. A feeding programme, she believes, would help keep children coming. And she hopes the support will follow her children beyond ECD, through the levels of education that lie ahead.
“I want them to grow up, study hard, and get good jobs in future,” she says. “And I know it starts here.”
