AS our placement was before the beginning of the school year , during first three weeeks, we used to help AEE Staff to distribute scholastic materials to the students hwo are supported by AEE under USAID ubaka ejo. We could also go to Kinyinya village of hope where by we could deliver some lessons about healthy, hygene and HIV/AIDS.
As AEE has got many projects, This week has been carrying out different activities depending on the weekly plans of every projects. For instance :
USAID funded program (Ubaka ejo). Being implimented by AEE, people in charge (Donathile and Silvan) have been selecting and new beneficialies ( students to be supported). Therefore, they have also made recruitment of new children who will study some skills like techniques. ( apprenticeship). Those students are also taught t about prevention of HIV/AIDS and human trafficking. CCSP( Child Community Sponsol Program) is also one of the program run by AEE. This week, people in charge , have been involved in forming new self help groups especially in Kigali Rusololo sector. these groups have a lot of income generating project like agriculture, saving some money, enter loans... Although the ICS team spent a lot of their time teaching at various schools, they did also get to do some manual labour work at the Kimihurura Farming Co-operative. The teams main activities were watering crops and hoeing the ground. Whilst the team did this, the women of the co-operative were able to do other jobs such as tending the animals: rabbits, goats and turkeys, and holding their meetings. One of the beneficiaries thanked the team for hoeing the land, as she was pregnant and unable to do that job herself. She said that the team had been a great help to them at Kimihurura.
The team gives their opinion of their time at the farm over on their blog - http://kigali2014.blogspot.com/2014/08/kimihurura-farming-cooperative.html As the ICS volunteer team are coming to the end of their placement - they are wrapping up at the projects they have been working on. On Tuesday the team said goodbye to Blessing Nursery School where they had been teaching three classes of children about fruits, animals and vegetables. The team taught through a variety of songs, posters, drawings, paintings, games and physical objects. They also got to lead the children in games before and after the lessons. The children especially loved 'Duck, Duck, Goose' and 'Follow the Leader'. They visited the nursery school four times and to find out more about this project and what they got up to, go take a look at their blog post - http://kigali2014.blogspot.com/2014/09/nursery-school-visits.html
Today we had our last English lesson with our current team of ICS volunteers. Throughout their placement they have been working with us for three hours on a Friday morning to improve our English communication skills in the form of public speaking a debates.
For the weeks leading up to last and today we have been having one-to-one debating sessions with our own personal teacher from the team. The debates have focused around hot topics such as religion, politics and law. We would decide who would be 'for' or 'against' and then argue back and forth until we had exhausted all our points! Last Friday we began to do group debates where we were split into two different teams, and each team would present their arguments until the umpire - Chinwe - would determine a winner based on who had present their arguments best. Chinwe would be focusing on ideas such as confidence, pronounciation, correct us of grammar and vocabulary. This mornings discussions were on: The Death Penalty, The Institution of Marriage and Racial Profiling in Airports. To find out more about the lessons that we have been having with out ICS volunteers, see their blog post at - http://kigali2014.blogspot.com/2014/08/aee-staff-capacity-building.html One of the main projects that our ICS team have been partaking in is the catch-up school in Gahanga. Here they have been leading three classes of children in lessons such as HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention, hygiene, music and drama and the importance of having ambitions and setting goals. In the last couple of weeks they have begun to follow the schools curriculum leading lessons in English, Maths and Science. They have created a video to document their time at the catch-up school. They have really enjoyed being a part of this project, getting to know the children and playing games as well as learning new games! To read a blog post about their time at the school go to their team blog at - http://kigali2014.blogspot.com/2014/08/kicukiro-catch-up-school-visits.html
Early in July we received our sixth team of ICS Tearfund volunteers. They will be with us for ten weeks until early September, participating in a number of projects, helping around the office, and giving us English lessons. The main projects that they will be taking part in are: Gahanga Catch-Up School, Kimihurura Farming Cooperative, EAR Nursery School, EPR School and various other smaller projects. They have a team blog so if you want to see what they have been up to go to http://kigali2014.blogspot.com
We have recently received our 5th team of ICS Volunteers. (International citizen scheme ... See Sponsors page) They are a mix of UK and Rwandans under 25 here to assist us in our work. Part of that work has been to establish and maintain this site and blog but they are also getting involved in some of the field work that we do among the community. As they go they will update this space with the latest information about what they have done and who they have met. In addition to that the volunteers will help out with the administrative side of running AEE Kigali branch and helping with capacity building for the staff here. So as a welcome treat, here is the result of one of the latest lessons that the volunteers taught at Kanombe catch-up school: |