People like to talk up new technology in education, but there is a catch...

On Wednesday, the third plenary session of the DW Global Media Forum focused on education as the milestone for sustainable development. Denis Goldberg, a social activist from Cape Town, South Africa, argued, “The focus of education should shift to sustainability because we depend on it.” Doing so requires taking action on issues including overpopulation. One of his suggestions for limiting population growth was expanding social safety nets. By doing so, people move away from the idea that having children is the only way to ensure a stable future.

I thought to myself that he was right. However, the entire debate seems to be missing something. The other speakers at the plenary each discussed how to get young people – teenagers and children – more interested in education, in terms of everything from reading habits to new media and new technologies applied to education. That is all well and good, but from my point of view, we must not forget the basics of personal development. In a poverty-stricken region, if a child does not go to school and is not getting an education anywhere else, it is probably because he is also not well fed.

Aside from the basics, we need to consider what kinds of opportunities we are providing people. Professor Barbara Ischinger (Director, OECD Directorate for Education), presented three stages in maximizing the use of skills educators try to impart: in the short term, putting skills to use; in the mid-term, training in different skills; and in the long term, developing relevant skills according to each country’s economy. Her presentation was very relevant to the NGO where I work. We are developing a new online platform aimed at vocational education. The objective is to provide information on different career paths with a focus on science and the energy industry. One of the discussions we have is whether or not to include training programs for specific skills, since we want teenagers to feel encouraged to take the university path.

Traditional educational outlets, like libraries, got less attention at the conference

The truth is, though, young people these days often need to start working at an earlier age in light of their lacking economic stability (if they have any at all). Another presenter spoke about permeability –the idea that a person could start in a vocational training program and then later be given the chance to continue their studies in a university. Employing people, giving them skills, is the foundation of economic security, and these prospects must be in place for higher education to work.

We have a tendency to overlook some elementary problems when thinking about educational strategies. One of the conference speakers, Verashni Pillay (Online Deputy Editor, Mail & Guardian, South Africa) nailed the main problem in clear words: “Let us get the basics down before we bring in another futuristic view of education.”

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.

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.

A circus show at Barrio Mosconi, a public school

I read Pavel’s entry, and I was thinking about how extracurricular learning environments work here. Clubs obviously exist, but access to them is limited by how much money families have. Pavel suggests in his entry that people tend to look for alternatives outside of the educational model because it hasn’t kept up with the world’s development. For poverty stricken communities in my country, it’s the opposite: kids are falling out of the educational system because they can’t even keep up with its basic demands. That’s due to the fact that their needs are unmet.

Many things are being done against this trend. As far as institutions go, all public schools and some private catholic schools provide meals for the kids. For most of them, it is the only place where they can get something to eat. So schools become not just spaces to learn but also dining halls.

Then there are also political associations that work to address these needs. Usually a group of people go inside slums and spend a whole morning giving school aid to kids, or organizing different artistic workshops, like dance classes, etc.

Finally, NGOs are also trying to give new hope to young people from impoverished areas. At the NGO where I work, there is a program called the Moving Circus. The project offers circus classes to kids in poor neighborhoods, and it travels from town to town.

During the opening meeting for the circus comeback in Barrio Mosconi, a poverty-stricken neighborhood in the district of Ensenada, a lot of interesting things came up. We had managed to arrange a meeting with the head of a primary school, the head of a secondary school, the coordinator of a co-op called ‘Futuro Ensenadense,’ and the director of a sports club in Mosconi along with some primary school teachers. They agreed their main challenge is figuring out what to do with kids after school hours. Since the mornings are taken care of, many projects focus on finding extracurricular activities for students in the afternoon. Children and teenagers in this neighborhood don’t usually have a proper home to go back to after their school day is over. Their parents are either working or not looking after them, so they spend most of their free time in the street.

Later, it was the kids who took the stage...

Luis, the head of the sport club, told us how he tried to keep kids off drugs through sports. He managed to put together a football team, and a lot of the boys in the neighborhood joined. Liliana, the head of primary school, told us how they managed to bring together some volunteers who formed a readers’ group for first and second graders.

“But we couldn’t have that for long,” she said, “Because the young women in charge were very willing and enthusiastic, but they were not trained tutors.”

Truth is, skilled people’s qualities are a must when dealing with kids that come from poverty-stricken homes – and usually little ones don’t find the emotional support they need.

The moving circus in this sense was part of a solution for giving kids something to look forward to in the afternoons. But was it really? I wondered: the dire situation is so overwhelming sometimes: Is this just a drop in the ocean?

But it turns out it did make some impact in this community. Liliana told us that they had put up a small circus for the end of the year concert, and the kids had a chance to show teachers and parents their new skills. This was a total surprise to the rest of the team and me – real proof that something had changed here.