Many Kenyans depend on light from a fire to study in the evening

Last weekend and the beginning of this week have been fascinating. If you had asked me a few weeks ago, before I started to write these blogs if the work I do had anything to do with education, I would have answered with a strong no. I would have mentioned that I train youth in media skills and that I also work with an educational foundation that helps develop solar light capacity in schools. Of course, these activities have everything to do with education. Writing for this blog has highlighted this rather obvious fact to me.

This past weekend, the young people I work with at Filamujuani along with my partner and I finally launched TV Mtaani – community TV in the Kibera slums in Nairobi. This idea was born in early 2009. The community TV is a platform for youth to tell their own stories to the community and about the community they live in. Content will generally be edutainment or infotainment, consisting of local news, local features, adverts and drama among others. It was exhilarating to see the community congregate at the school grounds and watch the show projected on a wall.

Both girls and boys face educational hurdles in Masailand

No sooner had I wrapped up the show in Kibera, than I was on my way to Narok County with Givewatts. This time we were distributing solar lanterns to schools in the heart of Masailand. These communities live among the wild animals, very close to the Masai Mara Reserve Park and many other nature conservation areas. These nomadic communities definitely struggle to achieve education for all – boys and girls alike. Samuel Pere is a teacher at Tumaini Academy, one of the schools we visited. He told me that most parents do not really appreciate the value of education. Boys were expected to accompany the livestock in search of greener pastures and water, a scene we witnessed along the road. Lanky but jovial boys tending to large herds of cattle or sheep, a long stick in hand. This means they miss school a lot especially during the dry seasons when usable pasture is scarce.

Girls faced more challenges with education as they are expected to get married around the age of 14. In all of the schools we visited, the low number of girls in class was discouraging. Mr Pere mentioned that his school has 85 pupils with only 38 girls. He was quick to mention, though, that this was starting to change. The solar lanterns, he added, would make a whole lot of difference as parents who found it a burden to purchase kerosene on a daily basis would now be motivated by the use of ‘modern,’ cleaner sources of light. This would, in turn, have a ripple effect as parents copy each other when they see their neighbors’ children learning by using such lights. The Manyattas (traditional Masai houses) are pitch black with the fireplace as the only source of light, which some students use to study.

As I travel to Germany this weekend for the Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum (GMF) on Education and Culture, I cannot help but reflect on how many things I have taken for granted as I went through my education. I look forward to hearing from participants at the conference about their own experiences and finally meeting the other bloggers.

Libraries have organized discussions for teachers - but none about their rights

Reading Maria’s entry where a teachers’ strike was discussed made me think about dissatisfaction with the Russian education system – both from teachers and others.

What surprises and worries me most is that our teachers never organize strikes or try to make their voices be heard. It happens neither in small cities nor in big ones. I know that most of our university professors do some tutoring or give private lessons throughout the year to earn additional money (for example, before high school students enter a university, their parents often find somebody to give a term-training course to prepare a teenager for the entrance examination). I think a collective demand for better salaries or modern equipment is reasonable – it might result in improving the situation in the whole region (or even several regions), and it is not about giving benefits to any single teacher.
But let’s take a step back – to high school. Several years ago, the process of examination was modernized: Pupils used to take final school exams in June and university entrance exams in July. It meant they had to spend at least 2 months with nerves on end both intellectually and emotionally. Moreover, it seemed to give more dangerous possibilities for corruption: the more links in a chain there are, the more complicated the system is. That makes it easier to find a hole and turn it to one’s advantage.

Forms for the new Unified State Exams

After the so-called reform, the standard pattern of final exams – the Unified State Exam (USE) – was introduced, and the results one earns have replaced the old entrance exams. The government claimed that the new exam would provide students from provinces with more opportunities to study in well-known universities; also, it was supposed to eliminate corruption as the exam marks are not given directly by your teacher but are sent to a special committee that releases its grades only after several days have passed. However, the USE is designed as a set of tests of different types. It is obvious that tests are not enough to discover a student’s creative potential; in fact, they actually obscure creative skills. What about those who want to dive into studying music or arts?

In spite of concerns like these and parents’ complaints, the USE was instated. Recently, there has been a rumor that it may be divided into different levels – from easier to more difficult. I’m afraid it’ll bring back fertile ground for corruption – who on Earth doesn’t want to say they’ve gotten high marks..?

I believe teachers will make their voices heard on the issues relating to the USE. And since we live in a civil society, citizens’ voices on the whole need to be heard. But the question for me is: How much time will it all take?

At one of the training days in Potenciar Comunidades

Apart from my work at the NGO, I have time to freelance as a journalist from time to time. Last week I interviewed Silvio, the director of Los Grobo Foundation. We talked about the role of NGOs in society, the different actors in a community and how to present them to benefit social development. I thought it was worth sharing some of his ideas here!

I need to provide a bit of context. In Argentina, for the last 10 to 15 years, NGOs focusing on a variety of areas (housing, education, social inclusion of disabled people, environment, etc) have flourished. These organizations come about by way of different initiatives: by people in society or by a private company, for instance. In the first case, professionals with an entrepreneurial side take the lead. These NGOs dedicate a lot of efforts to fundraising and attracting donors. Most of these organizations manage to carry out all of their actions with very little money of their own. In the second case, the NGO is an example of Private Social Investment from a particular company. This is true of Los Grobo Foundation: Los Grobo Agropecuaria is a private company (one of the most successful in town), and its NGO has a percentage of the company’s income at their disposal.

Most programs point at developing skills that are core to local economies

One of the programs Los Grobo Foundation runs is called Potenciar Comunidades (“Empowering Communities”). I found it most delightful, and I thought it was worth sharing this initiative here because their work involves a very interesting viewpoint on social inclusion. They evaluate projects that come from different communities and seek out private companies that are willing to support these projects with money and also management know-how. Silvio told me how they generate a context where they bring together the different actors of society (everyday people, company employees, NGOs, and sometimes also government officials) and try to take the best from each sphere.

You can hear more about it in Silvio’s own words here: http://youtu.be/QUG4iAltIO8

Learning to stand above difficult circumstances

Imagine: you have just managed to get to your fifth birthday. It is time to start school! You have watched the neighbours’ children gleefully skip off to school in the morning – heavy backpacks dangling from their tiny backs, shoes shiny, clothes stiff from ironing and faces gleaming with excitement. And now it is your turn. Time to finally learn the alphabet, enjoy curving out letters and numbers as you learn how to write your name. But sadly, all this remains just that – a figment of the imagination.

Instead of school, you have to get up, do the house chores, take care of your ailing parent(s) and quickly grow up! School remains a distant dream. This was the fate of the 40 children I visited today in Kibera, until they met Reggynnah. Or, rather, until Reggynnah met them.

During my Skype interview, I mentioned that it is amazing to see the efforts of everyone in their own right to get an education. This is a story that represents that of so many. I do not like reinforcing stereotypes about Africa, but Regynnah’s story is a story of success.

It was a while back that I had heard about Regygnnah, a 26 year-old girl, who houses and teaches young children affected by HIV Aids. She started angelsofhope-Kibera in 2010 at the age of 24. Most girls her age are trying to figure out the next fashion fad, gossiping about their boyfriends and, if they are ambitious, pursuing their post-secondary education either in the university or in a college. Well, not so for Regynnah. She lives with 8 of these children like their mother at her home in the heart of Kibera.

There is hope

Most of the children have no one else to turn to. They have either lost their parents, or neither their parents nor their relatives are able to take care of them. Survival becomes a priority over everything else, including education. So they turn to Regynnah. She gives them a space to learn the alphabet, learn how to read and write, have a roof over their heads, food in their little bellies and a home.

I arrive at their home just as break starts, and the teacher, who also doubles as a cook, is serving them porridge. After break, it’s time for class. Charts with numbers, days of the week, the alphabet and pictures of animals among others form the décor of the class. Today they are learning about sources of water (something quite scarce in this part of town).

Her typical day starts with her taking the 8 children she lives with to school. She then stays with the children and helps around the school until 4 when she takes the children back to her mothers’ house. She also intends to join a college in town for a course in community development. She tells me she had initially wanted to do journalism.

For many like Regynnah, they know that waiting for the government to intervene in educating these children will take ages. By then, many of these children will have missed out on a chance to go to school and have hope for the future. In my view, she is a heroine in the fight for education for all.

For more about Regynnah, check out this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOtCFQotUEo&feature=youtu.be

My friend Victoria (on the right)

Last time, I wrote about a co-worker and activist named Juan. Now I want to turn to my life-long friend Victoria. As I said before, she couldn’t be more different than Juan: She disagrees with the political party in charge of the administration, and sees no point in political action. She is, however, very much involved with her church community, and, in particular, with Manos a la Obra (which means ‘Shoulders to the wheel!’), a project that was started by a college preaching group in Mendoza (a province in the west of Argentina). Since 2008, it has also been held in San Isidro, the neighborhood in the Greater Buenos Aires Area where Vicky lives. The movement draws inspiration from the Christian faith, and it tries to alleviate the effects of extreme poverty.
‘To me Manos is more than simple solidarity; it’s an experience that helps me develop as a professional and as a person,” she told me.

Victoria and her friends from Manos a la Obra

The project was conceived with an eye to university students who could offer their professional skills to communities in need. Victoria described to me the four pillars of the project: there’s the task, which each volunteer plans out according to their specialty; there’s training, since they need to be personally prepared in order to help others; spirituality comes next, and it is part of working in the community because participants offer their projects to Jesus in prayer and mass; and, finally, leisure time, when volunteers and hosts play games and share the day’s experiences together over mate or tea. The projects the volunteers carry out are designed according to the needs of a given community, and the projects are held once or twice a year.

“Some months before we start, we visit the place and the people. We get in touch with the community in order to acknowledge the needs in situ. It is from this perspective that each individual task (developed in the project) is born. We don’t impose something simply because it is our profession, we always try to offer something that the community needs,” Victoria described.

The faith-based group offers many things: school support, classroom painting, and medical care, among others. My friend often gave dental aid and provided information on hygiene. Victoria said that there is nothing better than volunteering and being able to do what you know best.