By Godwin Abedican

Arua

Access to education by the girl child remains a huge battle for the girl child to win especially in the rural setting, something that has drawn the concern and attention of the Alur cultural institution, “Ker Alur”.

This therefore has led to a number of initiatives towards reversing the mindset that, girls are meant for generating wealth with no chances for education, something that has been baiting early marriage among the girls in the Alur sub region.

To address this, the Alur community in Arua while organizing the annual cultural festival, Held at the OPM grounds in Arua city January between 26^th and 28^th 2024 chose the theme, “Educate a girl child, she can be a better leaders of the country.”

Gracing the occasion as the chief guest, His Royal Majesty Rwoth Philip Olarker Rauni III, pointed out that as an institution they intend to focus on intensifying the fight against factors that limit education of the girl child. “We have a program in our strategic plan to ensure that we take proper care of our children, send them to school and ensure that they remain in school until they complete the basic levels they are supposed to achieve. We have a partnership with Plan International to extend out project called “Educating the girl child ensuring that they stay in school” for the next five years until 2029, which I believe can address some of these challenges that the girl child faces while in school.” Olarker said. 

The cultural festival organized to highlight on the plight of the girl child in line with education while maintaining culture and tradition among the young girls is one of the tools the kingdom has chosen to use to address girl child education challenges which gala drew the Alur speaking community from the greater Alur Sub-region and the entire West Nile sub region as well as the Alur from the democratic Republic of Congo.

Charles Ichogor, the Resident City Commissioner (RCC) Arua, while delivering his communication based on the theme of the cultural festival called upon parents to ensure that that they pay keen attention to the education demands of their children including the girl child. “In my tenure as the RCC that I am going to focus on is education. Education is key for social economic transformation,” Icogor called.  

Speaking during the festival, Kalsum Abdu Fadimulla, the secretary for social services Arua city, recounted that the former Arua municipality now city which has benefited a lot from the Alur community. “We had staff from Alur Community who were original staff from the former Arua Municipality, thy left and retired without any criminal cases at work, they were never interdicted this is a value attached to the Alur community,” Fadimulla appreciated. 

Dr. Amos Nyathirombo, the chairperson Alur community says that the unity among the Alur community if sustained can be used as a foundation for education stressing that this could bless the efforts towards ensuring girl child education takes center stage.

According to plans on ground the same event for 2024 may take place later towards the end of the year since this was a belated function pushed forward from December 2023 due to tight programs that could not allow His Royal Majesty Rwoth Philip Olarker Rauni III the Alur King to grace the occasion as planned.

COVER PHOTO: His Royal Majesty Rwoth Philip Olarker Rauni III the Alur King speaks during the cultural festival By Godwin Abedican