British Council-Investing in youth

Transcript of the podcast

‘Our Planet’ radio show from Kampala, Uganda

Presenter: Welcome to this week’s edition of ‘Our Planet’. This week the programme comes from Kampala in Uganda. With me in the studio is Lillian Masuga development expert. Welcome Lillian

Lillian: Thank you so much

Presenter: Lillian, you’re closely involved with young people in Uganda – can you tell us something about your work

Lillian: Of course. I work for an nongovernmental agency – an NGO – our aim is to help as many girls as possible to complete their secondary education in Uganda

Presenter: Why is it so important for girls to stay in school

Lillian: For so many reasons … When a girl completes secondary school she has better chance of getting a job. She’ll probably marry later and have fewer children than normal. A better job and fewer children means that her family will be looked after better

Presenter: I see

Lillian: You know, if a girl marries before completing secondary school statistics show that she’ll have a poorly paid job, and will have more children. Those children will have fewer opportunities because their family background will be poorer – this is why I’m really passionate about girls staying on to complete their secondary educations

Presenter: And your other areas of work

Lillian: School’s a good place to inform young people about HIV – about how the virus is transmitted and how they can protect themselves. We’re having some success now in Uganda, infection rates are going down, but it’s been hard work

Presenter: What’s been the hardest thing

Lillian: Well you know the virus causes terrible human suffering. So many children have lost both their parents. When this happens often the grandparents look after the children, they can’t send the children to school, so children stop their schooling. Later these children can’t find good jobs, they live in poverty

Presenter: Awareness and prevention is the key

Lillian: That’s right, we take the message to the schools, young people need to know how to protect themselves from the virus

Presenter: Lillian, are you optimistic for the future

Lillian: We have made progress in Uganda, there’s still a lot to do, but yes, I am optimistic

Answers