Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Three weeks at Fantsuam
Foundation Thanks to British
Airways
Pamela McLean
I arrived in Nigeria early on
Tuesday September 21st and
returned home on
Monday October 13th. I spent all
the time with Fantsuam
Foundation at Bayan Loco,
Kafanchan, Kaduna State. I have
been working (in a voluntary
capacity) with Fantsuam
Foundation for several years,
and have been much helped by the
travel opportunities given to me
by A Ray of Hope and British
Airways.
This time my visit had a dual
purpose. I was going in order to
do some training, as usual, but
I was also along taking a
contact of mine, Marcus Simmons,
to do some training of a very
different kind.
Marcus is from an organisation
called Eco-Shelter. He is
interested is low cost
sustainable approaches to
building, and also in wider
issues of sustainability such as
permaculture. He was taking
advantage of the arrangements FF
had made for me, so he could
travel at the same time into
this rural area, meet my
contacts, find out for himself
the realities of rural Nigeria,
and do a small experimental
building, helped by local
people. Fantsuam Foundation is
setting up a sustainable village
project. Marcus gave free
valuable training and advice –
which would probably not have
been arranged without my trip
taking place.
My own challenge this time was
to help develop the recently
opened Knowledge Resource Centre
(KRC), and also to help develop
the work of the Children's
Computer Club.
The problem that John wanted me
to help him tackle relates to
the local culture of teaching
and learning. Local schools rely
largely on rote learning, and
strongly discourage any idea of
pupils asking questions. This
puts people at a severe
disadvantage when they are given
the opportunity to learn for
themselves through the KRC. They
expect a teacher tell them what
they need to learn and give them
all the facts to remember. John
has provided the FF KRC as
somewhere for adults and
children to be able to learn as
Self Directed Learners (SDLs) –
but they need to develop new
skills and attitudes in order to
take advantage of the
opportunities and resources.
I worked with a group of
potential Self Directed Learners
for two weeks, and gave them an
experience of self-directed
learning. I set up some project
work for them to do. Then I
helped them to build the skills
that they needed, by looking at
DVDs, going on the Internet,
asking each other, and being
ready to seek help from teachers
at a distance. By the end of the
course they were posting
messages and photos to their own
blogs, were exchanging
information through yahoo
groups, and were beginning to
behave like SDLs in their
readiness to connect with other
people world wide. This blog is
evidence of what was achieved.
http://dadamacsdl1.blogspot.com/
The words of praise are rather
extravagant by our standards,
but that is the Nigerian way.
However the things we covered
during the training are
accurately listed.
I had helped to get the CCC
involved in a project organised
by Teeside University, before I
travelled. This project, called
People and Place, is to help
build friendships and
understanding through exchanging
photos online with schools in
the UK and elsewhere. The first
photos were exchanged before I
travelled and during my visit I
was able to help the People and
Place participants to get more
actively involved and start to
look at photos sent by the other
schools and start to send
messages. See
http://www.peopleandplace.co.uk/
I also spent time in
additional informal teaching
activities and visits to update
my local knowledge.
I hope that the work we are
doing at Fantsuam to increase
communication and exchange of
information will contribute to
the bonds of understanding and
friendship that A Ray of Hope
seeks to foster. Please convey
my thanks to those at BA who
make my journeys to Nigeria
possible.
