PROJECT: Child sponsorship

Skozi objave sva se pogosto dotaknila težav izobraževalnega sistema v regiji Ahanta West. Izobrazbena raven je tu še vedno zelo nizka - kar sedem od desetih otrok v višjih razredih osnovne šole ne zna dobro brati in pisati. Zaradi odročnosti ravnatelji zelo težko privabijo učitelje, ki povečini ostanejo za leto, dve, potem pa poiščejo boljšo priložnost. Izobraževanje, tudi osnovno, še zdaleč ni zastonj. Šolnine predstavljajo za družine, ki se ukvarjajo predvsem s poljedeljstvom in ribarjenjem, velik strošek. Kako prav pride vsakršna pomoč -  najsibo bo to pomoč prostovoljcev, bralne urice ali pomoč v obliki zvezkov, knjig, ter ostalih šolskih potrebščin - sva začela globlje dojemati, ko se je projekt nagibal h koncu, ko sva že dodobra spoznala šolski sistem, učitelje, učence. Angažiranost ter entuzijazem nekaterih ravnateljev ter učiteljev, ki sva jih imela tri mesece čast spoznavati, je izjemna. Med njimi, kljub težkim razmeram, še zdaleč ni apatije.  Svojega poslanstva nikakor ne jemljejo le kot službo, temveč želijo v teh spregledanih, obrobnih vaseh puščati pečat, vnašati spremembe. Na drugi strani so otroci, z minimalnimi možnostmi. Ne omenjam privič, da je v teh razmerah že srednješolska izobrazba dosežek, kaj šele univerzitetna. Le-ta predstavlja skorajda nepredstavljiv cilj. Ni bilo enostavno sprejeti misli, da se bo večina otrok, ki sva jih poučevala, kljub inteligenci in marljivosti, odpovedala svojim željam, načrtom. Zdaj še sanjajo, se ob tem pridno učijo, a le redki starši si bodo lahko privoščili srednješolca. 

S ciljem pomagati posameznim otrokom dokončati izobraževanje, je društvo Humanitas leta 2001 zagnalo projekt botrstva. Poudarjajo, da pri tem programu ne gre za brezpogojno in nenamensko pomoč v obliki dajanja denarja ali materialne pomoči brez nadzora in selekcije, temveč za pomoč pri dvigovanju osnovnega standarda otrok ter predvsem pri razvijanju njihovega izobraževanja. Z mesečnim prispevkom boter krije šolnino, priskrbi šolske potrebščine, po potrebi zdravila, mize za učenje, nujna oblačila. 

Zgolj majhen del najinih otrok ima botre. Kako jih prepoznate? Tisti z botri imajo čevlje, imajo torbo, svinčnik, zvezek. V začetku sva mislila da ti otroci prihajajo iz ekonomsko bolje stoječih družin. Ob Ebenezerjevem obisku ob koncu projekta, ko smo imeli zaključne ure po šolah, pa sva bila kar osupla. "Oooo, vidita, to so čevlji, ki jih je fant dobil preko programa botrstva nekaj let nazaj", se je Ebenezer prešerno nasmejal ob pogledu na enega od otrok. Podobno ob pogledu na majce, torbe. Otroci z botri so  tisti, ki bodo obiskovati tudi srednjo šolo - program namreč velja do zaključka le-te. 

O različnih programih botrstva sva že pred Gano veliko slišala. V času krize smo prišli celo do situacije, ko botre potrebujejo tudi slovenski otroci. Sama sem sicer pristaš misli, da svet rešuj najprej na svoji ulici, pa vendar mi izkušnje ter zgodbe, ki sem jih v teh mesecih spoznala, narekujejo, da naprošam tudi za otroke, ki niso del moje ulice. Vsi, ki želite s približno dvajsetimi evri na mesec podpirati katerega od otrok, se povežite z društvom Humanitas: http://www.humanitas.si/?subpageid=23. Ne moremo sicer pomagati vsem, lahko pa vsak pomaga nekomu.

Sonja

PROJECT: Reflection, Fourth part

MV was a problem child in the beginning. Some kids are mischievous by nature in the best possible way and MV was one of these. She loved action and loved causing a ruckus. It is unfortunately true that I spent a disproportionate time with the children who caused problems, and eventually Sonja and I had to devote quite a bit of time to MV. It turned out that she had just been bored, after we gave her some attention she became one of our best students, and especially loved working with Sonja.

A more difficult case was X. X was one of the older students, but somewhere along the line something must of happened to make her overly afraid of being wrong. She never wanted to attempt things; many of the other students had this problem, but not to such a degree as X did. Instead of correcting her own attempts during our writing exercises she would rip out a page from her book and write them all again. In our classes, where most children write extra small to conserve space, tearing out a page is an extreme action. She had little confidence in her own abilities, and would not read unless I stood by her, validating her every pronunciation, most of which were correct or very nearly correct anyway. I hope we were able to give her some confidence in her abilities.

N. was unusually quite and studious. Among our students the quiet personality type was very rare only 4 or 5 of the bunch would sit quietly and read for the entire class without taking some sort of break or nap on occasion. N. also stood out as the only student who liked the Winnie the Pooh books. Winnie the Pooh is a fixture of American culture (in which this particular brand has been over-commercialized with an abandon reserved for few others). Because of this I was very surprised by the lack of interest in the Winnie the Pooh books, N. was the only student who liked them. He would sit and sound out the words and read, I mostly left him alone only checking up on him every so often, or answering his questions about the pronunciation of specific words. He was already at the point where my involvement would have probably just hindered him, he had already learned how to learn and he needed the book more then he needed me. In addition, and what I found extremely interesting, was that N. was not among the best students in the class, at least in the beginning and certainly not when he started reading the Winnie the Pooh books. Although it is difficult to say with certainty, I believe that N. was the student who improved the most during our time here.

Despite the occasional problem the enthusiasm the children brought to reading was incredible. Given that we taught at the end of the day I found it hard to believe they would be able to last an additional hour and a half. But usually they did without a problem. Especially when we started writing exercises as well. Some students didn't want to stop reading at the end of class and I basically had to pull the books away from them (even on the last day, right before vacation).

As mentioned in previous posts we began writing exercises around the middle of our volunteer-ship. I wish we had started it sooner, but I didn't because I thought that children of such varying levels couldn't benefit from the same drills. But I was wrong, even the children who didn't understand the drills probably gained something from copying them down. We mostly had the children unscramble sentences. These drills proved to be a good difficulty level for most of the children in the class.

I felt blessed to be able to have this experience. It deepened my respect and gratefulness in so many ways. I encourage everyone with the time and the will to take on such a project, as is usual in such situations, you get more then you give.

//Tomaz

(V četrtem delu refleksij nadaljujem s ohlapnim pregledom najinega dela ter situacij s katerimi sva se soočala. V prejšnjih delih ste že spoznali nekaj profilov najinih učencev, zadnji del pri tem ne bo izjemaJ)

MV je zelo nagajiv otrok (v najboljšem smislu besedeJ). Rada ima dogajanje, akcijo, rada kakšno ušpiči. Prišel je čas, ko sva ji, ravno zaradi njenih nagajivih prigod, posvetila več časa. Presenetljivo - hitro se je izkazalo, da je želela le pritegniti najino pozornost, saj je po tistem postala ena najinih najboljših učenk.

Drugačna, bolj kompleksna situacija je bila z X, eno od najinih najstarejših učenk. Je zelo nesamozavestna, ima izredno malo zaupanja v svoje sposobnosti in znanje, kar je otežilo njeno vključevanje in sodelovanje v skupini. Bila je tiha, v ozadju, vsako sodelovanje in izpostavljanje je predstavljalo zanjo velik stres. Že ob najmanjši napaki je bil pri njej opazen slab občutek in sram. Upava, da sva s svojo vzpodbudno držo vsaj malo omilila njeno težavo. Upava tudi, da bo kateri od prihodnjih učiteljev ali dolgoročnih prostovoljcev zaznal njeno blokado in ji jo pomagal preiti, ter razvijati njene številne talente.  

N. je zelo tih in študijozen. Med tamkajšnjimi učenci je tak značaj bolj izjema kot pravilo. Bral je skozi celotna srečanja, brez premora. Sedel je, ter mirno, počasi, glasno bral. Razen tega, da sem ga vsake toliko pogledal, mu morda pomagal s katero od besed, N. ni potreboval veliko pomoči. Bil je že na tisti stopnji, ko bi bilo moje vmešavanje kvečjemu moteče. Bolj kot mene je potreboval knjige. Kljub študijoznemu značaju, N. ni bil med najboljšimi učenci v skupini, vsaj v začetku ne. Zdi se mi, čeprav seveda ni mogoče trditi z gotovostjo, da je N. v času najinega projekta najbolj napredoval.

Ob misli na entuzijazem, s katerim so se učenci vsako uro znova lotevali branja, sem ganjen. Zdi se mi prav neverjetno, posebej zato, ker so bile najine ure ob koncu šolskega dne, otroci pa utrujeni. Posebej začuden sem bil vsakič ob zaključku naših srečanj,  ko sem pričakoval, da bodo veseli odvrgli knjižice ter oddrveli domov, a je začuda peščica učencev vedno znova ostala v klopeh in brala. Tudi ko sva že pospravila učilnico in svoje torbe, so oni še kar sedeli in skušali izkoristiti zadnje “bralne” minute.

Od zaključka najine odprave mineva že mesec dni. Izjemno počaščen in vesel sem, da sem imel priložnost pridobiti to dragoceno življenjsko izkušnjo, ki je v številnih ozirih poglobila moje spoštovanje in hvaležnost. Vsakega od vas, ki vas privlači misel na podobno izkušnjo, vzpodbujam – ne odlašajte, bodite pogumni in se priključite kateremu od številnih podobnih projektov. Prejeli boste toliko več kot boste podarili!

PROJECT: Reflection, Third part

Due to the differences in ability among our students I felt that doing exercises [as a class] would be unfeasible (how could it benefit both E. and C. [from part 1] to do the same drill?), so early on we started instructing the class to split into individual reading groups, and had each group of three read books. Luckily the children enjoyed reading the same books over and over again (otherwise we wouldn't have had enough books in the beginning), which was great practice for them anyway. As I became more confident of their reading ability I added harder books until half of the class could spend time reading individually and half the class could read in groups of two. I also made an attempt to add a much harder book [one with no pictures in it], I tried to get E. to read it, but he lost interest. No one else ever wanted to take it either.

Teachers are lacking in the villages of Butre and Azani, class sizes are around twice the size of what we are used to in the west. It is difficult to induce teachers to stay in these outlying communities. Over the last 3 year period only one teacher has stayed in Butre, in Azani the situation is also difficult. Teaching is also done with the absence of textbooks (what I say applies to the primary-level in Butre and Azani, Sonja and I briefly toured some of the other schools in the region and the same seems to hold there as well).

Due to the absence of textbooks, teachers will copy part of a text to the board and then the students will copy it down into their notebooks and study it. They also do exercises just like we do in the west. It is a difficult system for both the teachers and the students.

In these difficult circumstances EHT and Humanitas assist the teachers and students in three ways: through the foster parent program, through the library, and through the volunteers. The goal is to support children through primary and secondary school to increase the chance that the children will go to college.

When we first came to Africa everything seemed so chaotic to me, from the streets of Accra to the development patterns of villages, to the free market anarchy that I suppose reigns in other African countries even more completely then it does in Ghana which is relatively rich. In Africa things seem to be more about relationships then about goals. Scheduling is impractical for a wide variety of reasons, but as a result people are much more flexible. Once, in the beginning, when I arrived to Butre late ER. asked me if she should go call the children back. I was still thinking in a western context so I thought: that's not going to work, what child would come back to school? How long would it take ER. to visit all the children. But later I learned that it was quite ordinary for such things to happen and that rounding up the children was quite efficient (one child gets two children, two children get four children, four children get eight children etc.). You don't really need to be so precise if you have a system like this, which relies completely on people. In 15 minutes many of them could already be reading. Everything is local here. Everyone walks. Everyone talks to their neighbors. It's different, you must be flexible and learn to sit quietly in the shade so you don't sweat too much and get too tired as you wait for your students to collect.

//Tomaz

Zaradi velikih razlik v znanju učencev se skupinske vaje niso izkazale za dovolj efektivne. Težko si je predstavljati, da bi enaka vaja učinkovala tako na E. kot na C. (glej First part). Zato sva kaj hitro učence razdelila na bralne skupinice po tri. Začeli smo z skromnim izborom otroških knjižic s temami iz afriške kulture. K sreči se niso naveličali branja enih in istih knjižic, kar je bila v vsakem primeru dobra vaja za njih. Sčasoma sva dodajala nove, težje knjižice, ki so omogočile polovici skupine individualno branje, ostali polovici pa branje v manjši skupinici po dva. Proti koncu najinega programa sem poskušal tudi s precej težjo knjigo, brez ilustracij. E. jo je sicer vzel v roke, a ga ni dovolj pritegnila da bi jo dokončal.

Tako v Azaniju kot v Butrah je velik manjk učiteljev, razredi so (pre)polni, v vsakem je približno dvojno število učencev glede na zahodne standarde. V odročnih vasicah, kot sta Butre in Azani, je učitelje težko privabiti, predvsem pa težko zadržati. Večinoma prihajajo za leto, dve, potem pa poiščejo boljšo priložnost drugje. Odročnost in neperspektivnost pa nista edini težavi s katerima se soočajo. Skupaj z večino ganskih učiteljev imajo izjemno omejene možnosti učnih metod, saj je tabla edini učni pripomoček, ki jim je na voljo. Učenci nimajo učbenikov, tako snov učitelji pišejo kar na tablo, otroci pa jo prepisujejo v zvezke.

V teh težkih razmerah je za otroke že srednješolska izobrazba dosežek, univerzitetna izobrazba pa skorajda nepredstavljiv cilj. Čim večje število teh otrok skušata Ebenezerjeva organizacija EHTN in slovensko društvo Humanitas pripeljati do univerze. Skozi osnovno in srednjo šolo jim nudita podporo preko treh programov: programa botrstva, knjižnjičnega projekta ter pomoči prostovoljcev.

Prvi vtis Afrike je bil kaotičnost. Kaos vsepovsod. Od ulic v Accri, organiziranosti (oz neorganiziranosti) vasi, do anarhije ekonomskega sistema prostega trga, ki v afriških državah dominira. Posledica kaotičnosti in neoprijemljivosti sistema je izjemna fleksibilnost ljudi, na kar sva se prav tako morala privajati. V začetnih tednih se je primerilo, da sva zamudila v Butre. Šolsko dvorišče je bilo prazno, pričakala naju je ena od učenk. Hitro se je ponudila, da pokliče ostale. Takrat sem razmišljal še “zahodno” in se mi je zdelo nerealno, da bi učenci, ko so enkrat že doma, prišli nazaj. Takrat še nisem razumel, da to za njih ni nič nenavadnega, in da, presenetljivo, tak način zelo dobro funkcionira.

Sčasoma sva tudi midva opuščala svoje zahodne navade in postala bolj fleksibilna. Ko sva čakala in čakala učence, sva mirno, neobremenjeno, v tišini sedela v senci in potrpežljivo čakala začetek šolske ure.

PROJECT: Reflection, Second part

E. was already among the most talented students in our class when we came. He also seemed to hold a somewhat privileged position vis-a-vis his peers. In some way that was impossible for me to pin down he was in-charge. During our first day of class we played some simple games with the children to assess their knowledge; first we asked them to count upwards, and stopped them around thirty, then we went over directions (asking them to point left, right, up, down etc): a few had problems, after this we started to test knowledge of articles of clothing, opposites, building materials, animals etc. It quickly became apparent that the knowledge of English of various students differed widely (see some of our beginning posts for more details). The less knowledgeable students more or less followed the lead of E. Our first class was held in one of the outdoor classrooms in Azani (all the classrooms in Butre are indoor). Teaching outdoors was our preference in the beginning; a gentle breeze cooled us as we stood in the shade and there was plenty of light, but we couldn't stay outside for long.

Naturally, many children wanted to be included who weren't in the program and this led to chaos after the teachers who were helping us left for the day. This is why teaching out-of-doors proved impractical. During the classes we held during the strike we taught out-of-doors, but it was a major problem getting the other children to leave and go home.

Children who knew how to read a little bit benefited the most from our program, and happily this included most of the children. The progress we saw was edifying, a few children improved drastically.

The children are so happy to read. Most schools in the west have a "school library", a small room stocked with books. Nothing similar exists here and this is unfortunate.

All of the parents of the children are motivated to send their children to school (even government schools charge tuition and education is not compulsory): some through a genuine desire to better the lives of their children, some are motivated by social pressure. Nevertheless, sending their children to school is an enormous sacrifice for most of them. Consider this: 10 Liters of Sashi water costs 70 Euro Cents, but most of the children do not drink sashi water but instead drink water from streams or wells. At our final meeting the children were just as happy to receive the sashi waters we used to keep the coca-cola cold, as they were to receive the coca-cola itself. Most of their parents don't know how to read, few know English. They don't have many books at home.

This partially explains why they are so happy to read books, but it is at most contributory to the main cause. The main cause is that they are happy, intelligent and motivated children who are curious and positive and love good stories, just like people everywhere.

--Tomaž

Prvi dan pouka sva pričela s preprosto igro osnov besedišča – začeli smo s štetjem, nadaljevali s smermi neba (kazali smo levo, desno, gor, dol itd.), z naštevanjem oblačil, nasprotij, gradbenih materialov, živali ipd. Tako sva vsaj približno dobila občutek na kateri stopnji je znanje angleščine najinih učencev. Hitro sva opazila da so med njimi velike razlike. E. je bil eden do tistih, ki so zelo izstopali. Tako glede stopnje znanja, kot tudi glede pozicije v razredu. Bil je vodilni glas v skupinskih utrjevanjih in ponavljanjih, ki so mu ostali sledli. Za E.-ja so bile bralne urice zelo poučne, a ugotavljava, da so od najinega pouka največ, še več kot E., odnesli učenci, ki so pred najinim prihodom brali solidno. Veseli naju, da to skupino predstavlja večina. 

Nasploh je v obeh krajih, tako v Azaniju kot v Butrah, vladal velik entuzijazem glede branja. V Gani namreč ne obstaja nič takega kot “šolske knjižnjice”, ki so v zahodnih državah nekakšen standard. Otroci tudi doma nimajo knjig, večina njihovih staršev ne zna brati, le izjeme znajo angleško (ki je v Gani uradni jezik).

Čeprav v Gani šola še zdaleč ni zastonj, starši podpirajo izobraževanje svojih otrok, pa najsibo to zaradi želje po boljšem življenju, ali zgolj zaradi družbenega pritiska. Šolnine predstavljajo za družine velik strošek. Za boljšo predstavo: čeprav 10 litrov sashi vode stane (le)70 centov, večina otrok pije vodo iz vaških vodnjakov. Ob zaključnem srečanju niso bili nič manj veseli hladnih sashi vod, s katermi sva hladila cocacole, kot samih cocacol.

To delno razloži navdušenje nad knjigami, a je v resnici le dodatek k središčnemu razlogu – da so ti otroci veseli, inteligentni, motivirani, radovedni in pozitivni, ter da imajo, kot njihovi vrstniki drugod po svetu, radi zanimive zgodbe.