Kathleen Blanco identified education as one of the rebuilding blocks of Louisiana, and I believe such an approach could work to eliminate poverty and slums in Uganda.
© debelzie / Flickr.com
Conclusion Despite these limitations, I was able to get some interesting results. As previously stated, my research was meant to provide insight into the way education is attained on the other side of paradise and the barriers to attaining education in the slums of Uganda. I realized that many people in slums do not have access to the resources that would provide them with a good education. Many of the respondents do not have a university-level education, and the unending cycle of poverty is passed down through generations. My research was also meant to provide an insight on the issue of why slums still exist. From the results, I found that many people migrate to slums, most of them with low levels of education and jobless, to look for cheaper settlements. My research shows that barriers to education in slums start from larger global phenomena and ul-
timately affect a smaller population in the slums. In other words, the problems are caused globally by the SAPs and continue down to non-transparent governments that do not provide enough opportunities to the poor and finally down to the poor in slums, who do not have enough skills to attain a good income so that they can educate their children. My research continues to show that disadvantaged people need help in the form of long-term skills that will help them to be able to fend for themselves. I believe that is what the disadvantaged need most: long-term donations. On a large scale, change can be achieved through lobbying for transparency of governments and/ or international organizations to provide a safe world for all. On a smaller scale, change can be begun by building more schools in the areas that need them.
Due to these SAPs, the cost of living in cities for these immigrants also becomes high. SAPs make the poor developing countries import more than they export (“Uganda Trade”). The prices of imported commodities like oil are determined by international organizations, and these commodities have high and fluctuating prices in the importing countries. Therefore, the price of, for example, imported petroleum affects the transport sector which in turn affects the price of basic needs like food. The European Commission reiterates this factor by suggesting that many factors influence the rise of commodity prices including “supply and demand . . . Nevertheless, petroleum prices raise input costs and increase demand for . . . products” (“High Prices on Agricultural Commodity Markets: Situation and Prospects.”). Expensive imports mean that people in slums may resort to taking care of their families rather than putting an emphasis on education.
1
Volume 3
51