Back to Business!

Now that one of my blog-fans has emailed to say I'm sounding too much like a tourist and had better get back to work (thanks a bunch, Quinn!!) I think it's high time I wrote about what I'm up to here at LOOCIP these days.

First of all, I've been working up operational budgets for the organization and several of our individual projects. It's amazing how much optimism there is going forward when money is so incredibly scarce.

One of the programs I'm hoping will take off is called LECHE -- Longido Early Childhood Education. A wonderful Maasai woman named Sarah has started this program in the past few months. She's a retired schoolteacher and a big supporter of the Montessori method. Her dream is to establish Montessori pre-schools in small rural villages throughout the district, giving 2 to 6 year olds a real leg-up before they head off to the Primary School system. Because the mainstream schools here are primarily of the rote-learning variety (i.e. keep quiet, sit still and write down everything you are told so you can repeat it at exam time) this possibility to introduce creative thinking to young children is really exciting. The rural Maasai children will also become exposed to concepts that may otherwise be foreign to them on arrival at the primary boarding schools such as Kiswahili (the official school language). This should improve their confidence at Primary School as well as their chance of success and interest in continuing their education.

We were given a tour of the two currently-existing school sites last week--one housed in a LOOCIP-owned building in our village, the other about 6 kms away in the sub-village of Oltepesi. The Longido classroom had us snapping pictures like crazy -- 25 or 30 little tykes, ever so cute and busy sitting on their floor mats working with Montessori activities such as puzzles and stringing brightly coloured bottle caps. The Oltepesi school is the one that really captured our hearts though...as of now, the "school" consists of an area under a large shade tree. Because there's no money yet to go forward with setting up a proper Montessori classroom, activities are limited...the children were delighted to entertain us with the songs they've been learning, and to show us how they are learning to write numbers in the sand with sticks. To watch these eager little faces, so excited about coming to school, and yet with absolutely no facilities or supplies...it's hard to see without wanting to help out. We're putting together an information package and hoping to drum up some support from Canadian donors and schools. The project needs surprisingly little...$15,000 Cdn will enable Sarah to go forward with having a building constructed on land which the community has donated in Oltepesi (including living quarters for a teacher, a latrine and a small kitchen area) and will cover the teacher salaries and operational costs for both sites for a full year. If we can help to make that happen, next step is to assist Sarah to go forward with her bigger dream -- expanding to create a network of these pre-schools throughout the District.

Photos below: First, a little charmer at the Longido Montessori Pre-School....



The Oltepesi 'classroom'...















...and one of the Oltepesi students...

Last week also saw me repeating one of my favorite activities from my last visit...giving condom demonstrations and information to a group of women who were attending a training session which Corey was running at LOOCIP. Always makes for an interesting time!!

And, with time marching on, I'm still hoping to get a new project off the ground in Longido. My hope is that we can establish a counselling centre and short-term emergency shelter for unwed pregnant Maasai girls from area schools. I continue to meet with girls who are willing to share stories about the problem as well as other members of the community -- all of whom so far are 100% supportive of the idea, and eager to see it get started. There is such a lack of support for girls who find themselves pregnant. Government policy does not permit them to continue at school, from the moment pregnancy is confirmed. It seems there are virtually no services providing counselling or advice and most importantly, no one working to help bring families on board to support their daughters through the pregnancy but also allow them to return to school later. For the most part, girls who leave school to go home and have their babies are forced into marriage and will not have another opportunity to return to school. The stories I'm hearing are heartbreaking...young girls committing suicide or having high-risk illegal abortions rather than having to return home and give up on their dreams of going forward with an education. What I hope to see, is a facility that will offer caring, non-judgemental counsel and support in a broad range of areas--medical, legal, nutritional and educational, as well as offering a safe place where the girls can stay on a short-term basis.

So yes...perhaps I AM being just a bit more of a tourist this time around...but there is some serious work going on too!