Reflections on HOW projects
New ventures for Hope One World
Hope One World first carried out workshops in Malawi in the summer of 1998, at the new SOS Children's Village in Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi. The 1998 team were tutors Dominic Williams, Terri Philips, Brenda Duncan and Jim Moore, with students Irene Campbell and Lewis Dinsdale. Teachers' workshops on English were run. The team reported receiving a warm welcome at the village, and left in no doubt that the teachers wanted more from Hope staff and students in future years! A second team followed in 1999. This time, teachers' workshops in Drama and in Mathematics were offered. The team consisted of tutors Lucy Kay, Jane Louden, Barry Grantham and Mary Stevenson, with students Angela Nolan and Olive Dillon. Building on the success of the previous team, the tutors organised Drama workshops in the mornings, and Mathematics workshops in the afternoons, to minimise disruption to the school day. Meanwhile, the students were busy working in the classrooms with the children, where they taught English and Mathematics. The children loved their new 'teachers' and many wrote little affectionate notes to them which soon adorned one whole wall of their house!Teamwork
Tutors and students lived together in the village, in the self-catering visitors' houses. An important part of successful Hope One World projects is the way in which tutors and students work together as a team, both on and off duty. We were able to share our ideas for teaching and to discuss the new challenges and experiences we encountered daily, even in something as simple as walking down the street. We had some fun haggling for vegetables on the market stalls and cooking meals for each other! At weekends we were able to visit other places and see a little of this beautiful country, and the way people live.
SOS Children's Villages UK
Hope One World's work in Malawi is supported by SOS Children's Villages UK, the British branch of SOS Kinderdorf International, the world's leading support organisation for orphaned and destitute children. The fundamental aim of the Malawi project, as with those in India and other African countries, is to improve the quality of teaching and learning at SOS Children's Village schools, through the provision of in-service workshops for teachers.
Malawi
Malawi, in south-east Africa, has a population of around ten million. Chichewa is the national language, but English is Malawi's other official language and is the principal language of instruction in schools. Malawi is one of the world's poorest countries, its economy being based on agriculture, particularly export crops such as tobacco, tea and sugar-cane. Almost ninety percent of the population live in rural villages and around half are illiterate. Infant mortality is 20%, and average life expectancy is low. There is a growing AIDS problem in the country, and one of the consequences of this is that increasing numbers of children are being orphaned. The Children's Village SOS Children's Village Lilongwe opened in 1994 on a sixteen hectare site on the outskirts of the city. There are twelve houses which are home to over 140 children. Unlike the townships nearby, the village has running water and electricity. There is a kindergarten, a primary and a secondary school. Over six hundred pupils attend the schools, the majority of whom come from the local community. There is also a village clinic and a rehabilitation clinic. The latter treats children from a wide surrounding area, who come with a variety of physical disabilities.
Overall I find it difficult to explain the impact that working for Hope One World projects abroad has had on me. I know other people say the same thing. It is both a tremendous privilege and a real challenge, to work with fellow professionals and school children whose background, culture and way of living is so different from our own. Yet it is also enlightening to learn just how much of our experiences are actually the same. A genuine exchange of ideas happens. I have come away with my 'world view' significantly, and I think permanently, altered and enriched.
Mary Stevenson
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