Educational opportunities in Kenya & Uganda

In mid- February, we held Goals training, the first central training session for all our summer volunteers. We set out EPAfrica's overarching strategy and approach, and gave our volunteers a more detailed sense of 'why education': because we see education as having a huge multiplier impact on the communities with which we work. We also discussed the importance of partnership, and ensuring our partner schools are able to buy into and own any initiatives that EPAfrica develop. Our volunteers were given an opportunity to discuss the five EPAfrica Goals: facilitating learning, improving health, supporting student welfare and rights, realising post-secondary opportunities, and strengthening school organisation. They reflected on the importance of achieving these in collaboration with local stakeholders and steered, as far as possible, by their priorities.

In early March, the Skills session gave our Project Workers the opportunity to build understanding of some of the cultural, project management and teamworking skills necessary to deliver a successful summer project. They were introduced to two different approaches to projects, traditional project management and the development-focused appreciative inquiry method, and encouraged to consider the benefits and issues with each. We set PWs a teamworking challenge, asking them to construct a load-bearing structure out of spaghetti and sellotape, and reflected on the importance of planning and trial-and-error in that process. PWs were briefed on the importance of sensitive cultural engagement, and how best to keep themselves safe in East Africa. The day ended with an intensive project simulation, cramming the activities of an entire summer into one hour, where PWs were encouraged to respond swiftly and with agility to changes affecting their plans, such as a teachers' strike or delays beginning the project. 

Kate Bulteel, one of EPAfrica's committed volunteers and a facilitator for both training sessions, has given her take on the central training days: 

"I haven't delivered training for EPAfrica for several years, and had almost forgotten how much I enjoyed the sensation of putting new ideas in front of our Project Workers, encouraging them to work together, develop, and prepare for the summer. I tried to make the training as practical as possible, even though the session I delivered was on the importance of Monitoring and Evaluation, so that our volunteers could see why it really matters."

As always, delivering these sessions was a very rewarding experience and a chance to get to know our volunteers and welcome them to EPAfrica. Feedback from these two sessions suggested that Project Workers were increasingly excited about the prospect of running their projects in the summer, and had a more tangible idea of what they would be doing, and the cultural context in which they would be working.