Peter Simms – Afghanistan – In these rooms, women had power

After three years, with these five latest CBECs, Children in Crisis has been able to help women become conscious of their identity, of their society. Some will accept that world, some will contest it, and some, or the daughters of some, will slowly, gradually, change it.

This month, classes at Children in Crisis’ current five Community Based Education Centres (CBECs) project in Afghanistan, came to an end. We are now working on opening Centres within other communities that need their support.

Every community project comes to an end and interventions, however long, can never be permanent. These five latest Education Centres run by Children in Crisis have been incredibly successful, helping women and children to access basic education. 300 children, mostly girls, from some of the poorest communities in Kabul have been able to gain a full primary education despite never having previously been to school. In addition, over 1,000 women from these communities have learned to read, write, and develop other critical skills at the CBECs.

The girls and women who came to our five Education Centres will be better off, not only because they have learnt to read, but because they will be granted access to a world of opportunity and hope.

For the girls who came to these Centres they will be half as likely to marry before their 16th birthday, and far less likely to be a mother before the age of 15. The women will be twice as likely to have their own children live past the age of five, and for every year of schooling will have a 20 per cent increase in household earnings.

However, the benefits of these centres go beyond statistics. The girls and women who came to these five Education Centres will be better off, not only because they have learnt to read, but because they will be granted access to a world of opportunity and hope.

From extensive research done around the world, we know that girls who learn to read and write will be more likely to work, to support their families, and to be economically independent. But the realities of life here in Afghanistan pose an added barrier to this empowerment. The lack of access to education for girls in Afghanistan was always a symptom of broader gender inequalities and reflected deep social norms inhibiting their participation in not only schools, but also in society and communities as a whole.

Our Education Centres provided a space for women to be safe, to be collective, to have a voice – literally to speak.

Reducing education to its rate of return is simply inadequate as a measure of impact in Afghanistan. Instead we need to look closer, to look harder at what education actually means to children and women of these communities. Paolo Freire showed how education allows people to be able to read the world – to describe, and then define, their contexts – to be truly conscious.

As I spoke to women in the CBECs it was clear that, despite progress made, their world is still not one of open opportunity.  However, the Community Education Centres offered something more – ‘A place to gather’ was the most common response; ‘a chance to leave the house’; ‘to be outside’. Many said it was where they could share experiences with other women. Our Education Centres provided a space for women to be safe, to be collective, to have a voice – literally to speak. In these rooms women had power, and through shared experience they could develop resilience.

One Community Education Centre is not going to break the deep-rooted structures of gender inequality in Afghanistan, but it can begin a process and encourage dialogue where women have a space to assert themselves and develop their own identities. The skills of reading and writing can then empower that identity, allowing someone to use a telephone, read a medicine box, or help a child with their homework.

Children in Crisis’ latest Education Centres have been incredibly successful, helping women and children (mainly girls) to access basic education.

Children in Crisis will be opening new CBECs in other marginalised communities over the coming year, taking a model that we know works and expanding it to reach even more women and children. We will work in areas where others don’t go, meaning the challenges will be greater and the achievements relative to just how deprived these communities are.

After three years, with these five latest CBECs, Children in Crisis has been able to help women become conscious of their identity, of their society. Some will accept that world, some will contest it, and some, or the daughters of some, will slowly, gradually, change it.

Children in Crisis has currently been able to find support for two new Community Based Education Centres. We are still seeking funding to help us open the remaining three Centres within communities whose children and women need assistance. If you, your company or Charitable Foundation think you could help, please email Peter on peters@childrenincrisis.org

Amy Parker – DR Congo – Picture this

Picture this.

Harvest time is the only time of the year when you have a bit of spare cash. One of your children falls sick, but it is in September before the January potato harvest. You have no money to pay for medical fees. He dies.

Night falls at 6.30pm and the sun rises again at 5.30am year-round. You are in absolute darkness.

Your husband has complete control over you and your family’s life.

You had four children. Three of them died. You’re not sure what of, but they were constantly hungry. Your only surviving daughter is 15 but has never set foot into a school.  

You are bored. There’s nothing to do and no reason to work. You’ll always be poor.

You are a widow with seven children. You are completely isolated from your neighbours who view you and your family as a lost cause.

Over the last eight months we have been running a pilot project with our partners, Eben Ezer Ministry International, on the Uvira mid and high Plateau region of South Kivu, eastern DR Congo. Pamoja (meaning ‘together’ in Kiswahili), is a savings and credit programme that supports groups of 20 – 30 community members to meet regularly, save and then access small sums of money from these savings. These debts are then paid back over three months, with interest, back into the group’s cash box. After 12-months the total amount is shared out amongst members in ratio to the amount they have saved.

I spent time in September last year and last week visiting different groups and talking to members about their experiences and the above scenarios are all real-life testimonies from people I met. They describe major problems encountered by people in this isolated region.

So how is Pamoja helping?

Futina

Members from Tujenge group in Butumba village told me that the fact they now have the possibility of accessing small credits means that they can now save their children’s lives between harvests. Futina, a member of the same group, spoke of how she has used a credit to buy and sell sugar and oil. With some of the profits she has bought torches and batteries so that her family now have light in the long evenings.

Members from Tujenge group in Butumba village told me that the fact they now have the possibility of accessing small credits means that they can now save their children’s lives between harvests.

Women from Mandeleo group in Kahololo village told me of the small but significant changes happening in their lives. As members of the saving group, they are now able to contribute money to their families’ affairs and as a result, their husbands are starting to include them in discussions and decisions about the running of their households for the first time.

Rose, a member of Tujenge group, has used credit to pay for school fees for her one remaining daughter to start primary school. She hopes that this will mean her daughter has a brighter future. Members from groups in Butumba and Gitigarawa spoke to me of finally having something to aim for. Before Pamoja, many villagers would sit idly all day long with nothing to do. Having to save every other week means group members are now actively looking for work so that they can go to meetings.

Notiya

Cultural expectations in this region require people to be able to provide visitors with tea and food. Neighbours stopped visiting Notiya soon after her husband died as she couldn’t afford any refreshments for them. For years she has been ignored, struggling to keep her children alive. Notiya told me that being a member of her savings group has meant she is now able to receive visitors as she should. Her fellow savers have become her family, she is no longer the poor, shunned widow. She is once again a valued member of society.

As a result of being able to contribute money to their families’ affairs, women are, for the first time, being included in discussions and decisions about the running of their households.

 

Pamoja is an example of what poor communities are capable of with technical and moral support. We have six months left of the current project, and we will continue to work hard with our groups and track progress and challenges. It has made me absolutely determined to ensure that we are able to widen the programme to other communities on the Plateau, as well as staying with these original groups so that they can carry on taking charge of their own and their families’ futures.

Pete Simms – Afghanistan – Children’s voices

I especially enjoy talking to children, who seem able to stay optimistic, to dream big, and have real, genuine hope for the future. 

2014 has been a critical year for Afghanistan with elections and troop withdrawal characterising a change in the direction of the country. There is now a new President, one who promises to end the corruption that permeates so much of Afghan politics, and the national military have now taken over responsibility for security from NATO. But what does this change mean for the average person and what does it mean for organisations like Children in Crisis who are trying to bring the right to education to some of the most underprivileged children in the country?

The first democratic transfer of power in Afghanistan’s history was an incredible achievement. Democracy only works if people believe in it, and during the election thousands of Afghans defied the threats of the Taliban, the distance to the voting booth, and the corruption of the political system to cast their vote and have their voice heard.

The challenges to building a stable, peaceful nation are still enormous, but people are now demanding that they be heard, that their voice be listened to. This is a significant step along the path to meeting basic human rights and of building a pluralistic society that values the role of all.

Much of the focus on the election was on the involvement of women, and for somewhere that has systematically and structurally undermined the concept of gender equality, the 38% of voters who were women should be celebrated.

At Children in Crisis we believe that everyone’s voices should be heard and that a society should listen to its most vulnerable as much as its most powerful. I spend a lot of my time talking to the people we work with, listening to their stories and to their hopes for the future. I especially enjoy talking to children, who seem able to stay optimistic, to dream big, and have real, genuine hope for the future. Adults can be cynical, sceptical of change and distrustful of those offering it, but children are not.

I recently spoke to a young girl called Sabera. She had moved to Kabul with her family five years earlier to escape the conflict that still continues in much of the country. Her family was extremely poor and, like most girls in Afghanistan, Sabera had never been to school before Children in Crisis opened a Community Based Education Centre (CBEC) near to her home. Her father is a day labourer and she and her brothers and sisters all work to make sure there is enough food every day.

When I asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up she said she wants to be a teacher. She wants to help other children go to school. What impressed me so much about this 12 year old girl’s answer was how she immediately, unquestioningly, wanted to help others. Her hope and dream was to make sure other children receive their basic right to education.

When I asked Sabera about what she wanted for Afghanistan her answers were a mix of the deeply personal and the universal. She wanted a home of her own, an understandable dream for someone who lives in a temporary shelter and who craves a foundation, a structure to an otherwise temperamental existence. She wanted peace – more than anything she talked about security, about an end to her constant fear. She said she wanted people in Afghanistan to be friends with each other.

Afghanistan has certainly improved in the 13 years since the removal of the Taliban regime. However the decision to draw down the international military support and to reduce the humanitarian and development aid to the country is far too premature. The gains made in bringing quality education to the first ever generation of Afghan children should be celebrated, but while more than half of school-aged children are still denied access and are required to work to help feed their families there should be no thought of turning back.

In one of our CBECs in Kabul I sat with a group of children enjoying the last few days of the autumn, the snow already visible on the line of mountains that snakes around the capital. Rafi told me he wanted to be a pilot, or a football player, and that he hoped that in the future Afghanistan would be like other countries. He listed off the names of the main international contributors – the US, Germany, the UK – these far away countries that he has heard so much about. He said he wanted the different ethnic groups to live together; a pertinent point for this divided country. Nazifa, a bright and precocious young girl who, in line with her dream of one day being a judge, said she wanted the new President to bring justice, to help poor people, and to build more hospitals.

All of the children talked of their wish for the fighting to stop. They talked about ending the sounds of war – the bombs, the guns, the explosions. Sara wanted to be a doctor when she grows up so that she can help her community. When I asked her what she wanted most of all, what she dreamed of, she said to end the violence against girls like her and against women like her mother.

As the troops are pulled out it is more important than ever to step up our work in Afghanistan. We cannot allow the situation to slip backwards. Incredible achievements have been made; people have started to imagine a future of optimism – we have a responsibility to try and make that a reality.

Children in Crisis is delighted to announce that all funds given by the British public between the 3rd September and the 2nd December 2014 will be matched, pound for pound, by the UK government.

Your support of our work has never been more powerful or important.

 

 

Amanda Jones – Sierra Leone – it’s all in the percentages

” ‘some’ soon becomes ‘all’ and ‘get through’ fast becomes ‘reach their full potential’.”

I’m nearing the end of this trip to Sierra Leone and, in meloncholy at the thought of leaving, I am taking the opportunity to reflect upon another month spent in the beautiful Kambia district.

And ‘reflect’ is quite the apposite word to choose, since ‘reflection’ has characterised the theme of my visit to the FAWE team this time, with whom we are implementing a UKAid-funded primary education programme.

This current project began in January 2012, and has targetted 45 schools with teacher training, school governance and management training, adult education support, and establishing community groups who are responsible for supporting the school.  The end of the project is nigh and so we have been talking to key individuals who have been involved throughout the initiative, to illicit their views on the gains made and challenges faced so far.

Before I go on, let me first set the stage.  As all good project teams do, we’ve been assessing ourselves as we go and, so far, our findings have been encouraging.  I will draw upon end of year class test scores as an example.

Looking at the 24 schools targetted in the first year of the project (target schools), the percentage of children who passed their end of year class tests last June increased by 9.4% compared to results from the year before we started our work.  Amongst those who passed the tests, 27.5% scored more than 70% (the pass mark is 50% so scoring 70% or more is a good result), compared to only 11.6% of children who scored more than 70% the previous year; so an increase of 15.9% here.

The percentage of children who passed their end of year class tests last June increased by 9.4% compared to results from the year before we started our work

We compared all of these test results to those from the 21 schools with whom we are working now (new schools), and had not worked with before the tests were taken.  This is where things get really interesting.  Now remember that in our target schools the percentage of children who passed increased by 9.4%.  Well the corresponding figure for the new schools was only 4.1%.  Likewise, the percentage  of children in new schools who scored more than 70% increased by only 0.3% from the previous year, compared to the 15.9% increase seen in the target schools.  I’ve included a table that might explain the findings better than I can put into words… too many ‘%s’ perhaps?

So, tick.  Remembering that test results don’t capture the full extent of learning, and can themselves be flawed measures of progress, the findings suggest that learning is improving, and that our work is contributing toward this positive change.

“Flip charts have been flying, pen lids popping, and stones (for voting) scattering.”

So, motivated by these reassuring findings, we are of course eager to continue.  Now, we know there are still many challenges faced by the 45 schools, and education is still not at the quality that it needs to be to enable children to reach their full potential.  So who better to consult on next steps, but the people with whom we’re directly working?

So, over the past week or so, the FAWE office has been full of Head Teachers, parents learning to read and write, and community group leaders.  Flip charts have been flying, pen lids popping, and  stones (for voting) scattering.  Its been hectic, and a real tell on my Krio (the lingua franka) skills, but the results are now in and they are interesting to say the least!

We asked 12 Head Teachers if they wanted to continue working with us and all 12 said yes.  Great!  So we asked them what they would like us to do directly with the school.  83% said more teacher training, whilst 67% said more School Management Committee (SMC) training and 50% asked for more training for themselves.  Reasons given included:

 “I will prefer H/Teacher training because I am not opportune to be trained by MEST [the Ministry of Education].  I was just an assistant teacher that have been promoted to Head Teacher.  So I need to be trained as H/Teacher” and “The teacher training will be very much important because most of the teachers are not trained and cannot afford to go to college because of financial constraint’”.

But we wanted to know how they would like to go about this training.  We suggested training options – would you like to have refresher training workshops, much like the approach we used last year, or would you like to try something new, and have Teacher Trainers placed in your schools longer term, for more 1-2-1 coaching and mentoring, and training workshops designed more specifically to meet your needs?  Two thirds of the Head Teachers interviewed opted for the more traditional refresher training approach (perhaps we’re onto a good thing here), whilst a third suggested the Teacher Trainer placement scheme.  Why refresher training?  The most frequent reason given was that training content is easily forgotten, and who cannot attest to that?!  What an insight into the need for continuous in-service training, even for qualified personnel (of which there is a severe shortage in the schools with which we work).

We asked members of the community groups that are supporting schools about the support and training they’d received through the project. From this we learnt that people wanted more training in book-keeping, and project proposal writing, so that they are able to access funds from other avenues (e.g. government grants, or grants from embassies).

With adult learners, we learnt that they have very differing aspirations for their own learning.  Some parents are eager to read books (one woman said she wouldn’t have a leg to stand on in telling her children to finish their education if she had not finished her own), whilst others are happy to learn just how to write their name as they do not have time in the day to progress past this level.  This has implications for the design of the adult education programme, as we need to be flexible to people’s  aspirations and availability.  We were also told that adult learners wanted to learn more about business skills (receiving 36% of a vote to prioritise topics suggested by the workshop participants), agriculture (23%), planning daily activities (23%), and family planning (18%).  We also learnt that the main problems facing the adult learning groups are the time constraints of the learners themselves as their other responsibilities make them late for classes, if they have chance to come at all, and means they have little time to study at home.

“back to the flipcharts, back to the priority matrixes, and focusing on planning…”

These are just a few highlights of our findings, all of which are currently being spilled over as we plan our follow-up support programme.  Of course we’re reflecting critically, and not taking things at face value.  Debate is raging in the FAWE/Children in Crisis office at the moment, I can tell you!

So we’re now back to the flipcharts, back to the priority matrixes, and focusing on planning activities that will bring this learning to life.  It’s fun and exciting and I am led to revel, once again, at incredible privilege I have to work alongside the innovative and inspiring FAWE team, school personnel and community members who despite all the odds, succeed in getting some kids through.  I take very seriously my responsibility to support these groups to build on what they have already achieved, so that ‘some’ soon becomes ‘all’ and ‘get through’ fast becomes ‘reach their full potential’.

Thank you for reading and if you have any ideas or questions, please feel free to contact Children in Crisis!

info@childrenincrisis.org / 020 7627 1040

Charlotte: Liberia – The River is boss

“when we reached the community people just threw up their hands and thanked God that we found them, thanking us over and over for coming so far, where nobody else had come before, to help them” 

Having recently joined Children in Crisis as the new Programme Manager for Liberia, I was excited to visit our programmes in Liberia and get to know our local implementing partners, FAWE Liberia. As I have only just returned from two years in Liberia with another large International NGO, I was very interested to see how Children in Crisis and FAWE fare in comparison – and I have to say, I was impressed. Not only are Children in Crisis and FAWE delivering world-class programming for children – we are also practicing what we preach – reaching the most remote and hardest to reach communities.

After arriving on Sunday evening in Liberia’s capital, Monrovia, on Monday morning we set straight off to River Cess – the county where Children in Crisis and FAWE are working. River Cess is a remote county in Liberia’s south eastern region – a region which is widely recognised as an area of huge need, but which is also notoriously remote and hard to reach, so that few NGOs venture there (Children in Crisis and FAWE are currently the only NGOs delivering teacher training in River Cess, and the Children in Crisis/FAWE Vocational Training Centre is the only vocational training institute in the entire county providing skills training and adult literacy for vulnerable women).

The road conditions travelling to River Cess were incredible – a slalom of red mud, rain and river crossings, making it a perilous journey only passable because of the skill and courage of the FAWE driver, and the powerful new four-wheel-drive vehicle we were lucky enough to procure thanks to generous donor support.

The Children in Crisis and FAWE vehicle gets stuck in the mud on the road between Monrovia and River Cess, trying to pass a truck which has been stuck in the mud for days. The team had to winch the vehicle out of the mud – this is a frequent occurrence whenever travelling to River Cess.

This is not something new for the team here – with such difficult road conditions, particularly during Liberia’s heavy rainy season from April to October each year, the Children in Crisis and FAWE vehicle regularly gets ‘hitched’ in the mud, as Liberians say! However, this is only the beginning. Once the team reach Cestos City, the capital of River Cess County (which is more like a small village than a ‘city’!), they have a much longer journey ahead, and one where the trusty 4-wheel drive can’t go. From there, they brave the motorbikes in pairs – and on these roads, it’s not for the faint hearted!

The FAWE Teacher Trainers regaled me with stories of slipping and sliding their way through narrow jungle pathways, or hauling their motorbikes over their heads to wade through rivers waist deep which intercept the thick jungle pathways. And then there is always that inevitable point where the ‘bush’ (the jungle) gets so thick even the motorbike can’t get through, and our FAWE colleagues continue on foot – often for up to 4-5 hours, and with numerous perilous river crossings along the way, forcing the team to wade through shallow waters, travel in dug-out canoes, or cross tentative bridges made of single tree trunks on their hands and knees because there was nothing to hold on to. The River really is boss in River Cess, as the name implies.

The Cestos River and its many tributaries branch across the county, paying little heed to roads or bridges in its path (or houses and schools, for that matter!). But FAWE have been working in River Cess for years, and the team know the terrain, and are familiar with the determination of the River – but their determination is even greater, and it’s truly inspiring to see the lengths they go to, to reach these remote communities.

So many of the communities we are working in are so remote and so far from the road, no NGO has ever ventured there before, let alone Liberia’s under-resourced government – during a recent baseline assessment (which Children in Crisis and FAWE undertook to identify the most vulnerable schools to target for the project this year) one of the Children in Crisis/FAWE Teacher Trainers described how “when we reached the community people just threw up their hands and thanked God that we found them, thanking us over and over for coming so far, where nobody else had come before, to help them”. She quoted one community leader who told them “no NGO has ever reached us before. We are so happy. Thank you for finding us.”

So, why do we do it? Because Children in Crisis and FAWE believe that every child has the right to education, no matter where they are – we are committed to ensuring all children receive the education they need for their flourishing and wellbeing and to help transform their lives. Where resources are few, where education is needed to heal the nation, and where it is too remote for others, we are determined to support children to read, write, think, pursue their life goals and contribute positively to their communities and their countries – and this means ALL children, not just those who are easy to reach.

Gallery of photos (click to enlarge and browse):

The Children in Crisis and FAWE vehicle gets stuck in the mud on the road between Monrovia and River Cess, trying to pass a truck which has been stuck in the mud for days. The team had to winch the vehicle out of the mud – this is a frequent occurrence whenever travelling to River Cess.

Teacher trainers balance their way along a log-bridge on their way to conduct PTA Training.

Teacher trainers Plaka and Jarvis, and Education Manager Rufus, cross a river in Zolay town by canoe to reach a community cut-off by water to provide coaching to trained teachers.

Teacher Trainers, Cora and Satta, wade across one of the more accessible river crossings on foot to conduct observation visits to teachers in remote schools who have been trained by FAWE.

Martha J Waye – small in frame, but big in passion and determination – who walked for 4 hours and travelled for another 2 hours by canoe to reach the PTA training.

Principal Kofa Nagbe from Boboe Public School.

We also do it because equitable access to quality education and development opportunities is essential for maintaining Liberia’s peace. The brutal civil war, which tore Liberia apart between 1989 and 2003, was triggered by the frustration caused by the stark inequality between the few who ‘had’ and the vast majority who ‘had not’, and widespread poverty and exclusion in Liberia’s most remote rural areas left thousands of people (particularly disenfranchised young men) frustrated and vulnerable to being mobilised by warlords and militia groups. This is just one of the many reasons why it’s so important that Liberia’s post-conflict transition and recovery includes development for all, not just development for those who are easier to reach – not just to ensure Liberia’s growth and development, but also for lasting peace.

But doesn’t reaching the most remote mean spending more time, energy and resources, I hear you ask? Well, it’s not so much a question of how much you invest, as a question of what return you get from that investment, and I’ve seen first-hand that when you go the extra mile (quite literally!) to reach the hardest to reach, you get that effort back tenfold from the communities.

For example, while in Liberia, I was lucky enough to observe our fantastic Teacher Trainers in action during some Parent Teacher Association (PTA) training. Children in Crisis and FAWE are not just committed to improving access to and quality of education through training teachers and school administrators, building and rehabilitating schools and distributing school materials – we’re also committed to empowering and mobilising communities via PTAs to take their children’s education into their own hands to inspire lasting, sustainable change – this PTA training helps to equip PTAs with the knowledge and skills they need to do this. During the training, I witnessed first-hand the commitment and dedication of the parents and teachers in the remote communities where we work to grab this development opportunity with both hands and make life better for their children. Like our FAWE colleagues, they too are determined, no matter how long and perilous the journey they have to take to get there (to minimise the distance participants have to travel, make the most of limited resources, and so PTA members can learn together and share their experiences, we cluster the training into groups of communities, to get as close as possible to the schools, but with such sparse and remote communities, this still means a long journey for most).

Martha J Waye is a Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) member from Yarnee District in River Cess. She is pictured here, presenting group-work back to her fellow participants at the recent Children in Crisis/FAWE PTA training in Cestos, River Cess, in September 2012. She walked for 4 hours and crossed the Cestos River for another 2 hours in a dug-out canoe to reach the training, but she was delighted to be there – Martha told us how happy she was to be part of the training, and how she would have walked even further to be there, because she is so happy that now she knows how to be a good PTA member and how to make the school better for children. She said she would carry all the good lessons back to her school and do everything the trainers taught her. She thanked FAWE and Children in Crisis for everything they are doing for her community, and for not forgetting their community because they are too far.

Martha J Waye – small in frame, but big in passion and determination – who walked for 4 hours and travelled for another 2 hours by canoe to reach the PTA training.

Children in Crisis and FAWE work hard to reach the furthest and most remote communities, who are often forgotten and miss out on basic services like education, but when we get there, the passion and commitment of community members like Martha make the journey worth every step. Their determination, passion and commitment to make the most of every training opportunity or resource provided and work tirelessly to improve their children’s education means that any investment we make is magnified and has a massive impact of the most vulnerable children. So, even if the investment of time, effort and resource we have to make is slightly higher to reach the hardest to reach, the return on that investment is so huge, and the impact on children so great, it’s worth it.

I will leave you with a single image of Principal Kofa Nagbe from Boboe Public School (he was trained by Children in Crisis & FAWE in 2011), who we met along the road one day on our way to Logan Town School. Unfortunately, we reached a point where the bridge was impassable (a heavy-duty log-bridge had been transformed into a raft-like structure, barely clinging to the banks of the swollen river below), so we had to bid farewell to Principal Nagbe, who has a long journey ahead on foot, through rivers and jungle, to reach his school and community. But he won’t give up – he will keep walking, no matter how far and no matter what the weather, because like so many of the teachers, community members and children we work with, they are determined to rebuild their lives and look forward to a brighter future.

I left Liberia feeling incredibly proud to work for Children in Crisis and in partnership with FAWE. It is truly inspiring to see the lengths the team are willing to go to reach the hardest to reach, and even more inspiring still to see how far communities are willing to go to improve education for their children. With such passion and determination among Liberians, whether beneficiary communities or our dedicated local partner colleagues, I have no doubt that Liberia will recover and re-build, even if it is a long road ahead…

Sarah J – Sierra Leone – Second post

‘Tell me, and I will forget. Show me, and I may remember. Involve me, and I will understand’

What’s been happening?

Since my first blog, an Advisor in participatory appraisal from Rwanda has travelled to Kambia to train the ABC project team and  nine community facilitators from across the communities we are working with In rural Kambia. As a result, the facilitators are already playing a crucial role in supporting their communities to identify and analyse their problems, which will enable them to decide the activities they want to undertake to tackle the problems with help from us. All in all it’s been a busy and exciting few weeks and I’m keen to share a bit more about what has been happening with you.

 

Photo: Kambia family

We’ve been asking some questions . . . .

‘Participation’ is all the rage in development work. We hear this term all the time. It seems that all the donors want it and all the NGOs claim to be doing it. But what does it really mean? What does it look like? How can we tell when something is truly participation and not just consultation cunningly disguised as participation? How do we need to be thinking and acting to be truly participatory and for communities to really take the lead? If we are in the business of community empowerment, what does that imply for how we go about our work? These are just some of the questions that have been at the forefront of my mind for the past few weeks as our very skilled Rwandan Advisor has been leading the training in participatory appraisal with the ABC team and facilitators.

And finding some answers in Participatory Education Appraisal . . .

The facilitators and the team have been training in participatory appraisal and field testing the approach with their communities almost every day for the past two and a half weeks. What is interesting is the emphasis in this process on our attitudes and mind sets as development workers. It requires us to really believe that the community are capable of analysing their problems, of coming up with an activity plan and budget for how they want to tackle the problems, and monitoring and managing those activities themselves –with our support, but firmly taking the lead. It is about respecting not undermining the knowledge the community already has. It’s also about slowing down, spending time and helping everyone to truly understand the situation and issues so as to tackle them most effectively. To borrow a phrase from our Advisor, we want to ‘pick and stay’ not ‘pick and go’ –we stay with communities and help them to deeply analyse, understand and act on their problems for the long run.

Photo: a facilitator engages with a community during a Participatory Education Appraisal (PEA) in Kambia

With support from the Advisor and the ABC team, the facilitators have been helping their communities understand the way people are living together now (defining social categories) so that they can decide how to improve their lives from where they are; drawing a social map of the community which is owned by the community and will help them evaluate how their situation is improving or getting worse and use this evidence to ask and analyse why this is the case and then take action; and identify the big problems communities are facing and decide on the main problem they want to tackle now (the others are not ignored –we will discuss with communities how else they could tackle them and where they could seek support). All of this is working towards the communities developing proposals of activities they want us to support, based on the key problem they have identified and after considering what their own contribution to the project will be.

Photo: Left – Francois, Rwandan Advisor. Right – Matthew, Children in Crisis in-country Programme Manager

On a final note . . .   

Until I write with my next update, let me leave you with a well-known Confucian proverb that captures the spirit of the process we are in the middle of now and that will guide the rest of the project: ‘Tell me, and I will forget. Show me, and I may remember. Involve me, and I will understand’