Time to explain a bit what I am doing here.
The VVOB is the Flemish Association for Development Cooperation and Technical Assistance, a non-profit organization. Commissioned by the Flemish and the Belgian governments, they contribute to the quality of education in developing countries. Their core business is to provide technical assistance in educational projects and programmes. This way VVOB supports local capacity building as a means to stimulate sustainable development and poverty reduction.
This is the theoretical explanation, but what does VVOB Kenya do now in concreto?
VVOB Kenya has three programmes: a Healthy Learning Project, ICT-integration and the School Link Programme.
Last week I travelled to Kajiado for the Healthy Learning Project. We were on a monitoring and evaluation mission. Schools have established kitchen gardens, called shamba, or a poultry project or a hay harvesting project or… Together with that they have a better variety of food for school meals or they can gain income from their production to invest in the school or pupils. At the same time the teachers and students are educated in these methods of gardening and it is taken up as examples in mathematics for instance, so in the learning process. We also checked the hygiene conditions (washing hands facilities, enough toilets, deworming actions, etc.)and the financial administration. No soft approach. No no, cristal clear conditions and goals to achieve. I saw similar projects in Peru, in the form of the school gardens or biohuertos. On my trip I was accompanied by the programme officer of VVOB Kenya Lut, Walema en mr Guleid. These last two were from the Ministry of Education, department Health. The person in charge of this programme, Tom, has just left this morning with Grace from the office to another district to do the same.
ICT-integration in the department of Education has a set of sub-projects: the senior level at the Ministry of Education has been taught on how to use a computer (log on/ off, open a programme, print and using the @) to upgrade their awareness on new technology, but there are many other plans down the pipe. I will be preparing a workshop about ‘ I go to a meeting or I get a document and I have to write about it. Now what? ‘ That is under supervision of Paul and Maaike.
And finally there is the School Link Programme. It connects schools in Flanders and schools in the South. Their relationship can take on very different forms. From sending photographs to a physical exchange... From learning each other's language to sharing teaching materials... From writing letters to development aid... I am mainly assigned to this programme. I will be visiting the three schools: a primary school in Magadi (Masai Area)linked to BS Molenveld Denderhoutem, a secondary school in the slums of Nairobi linked to Maria Assumpta Laken and a girls secondary all Muslim school in Lamu (coastal area) linked to Spermalie Brugge. I will be helping them with the reports, the action plans and set up possible activities they can work out this year. Read more here
