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Resources on Education |
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*Vanier Education for All project is undertaken with the financial support of the Government of Canada provided through the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) |
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| VEFA > Malawi Study Trip 2009 > News from Malawi |
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7 Vanier students and 3 staff members (Melanie Hadida, Cari Clough and Dale Robinson) are presently in Malawi. As part of our Education for All project, a project supported
by Vanier College and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) , they will focus on the need for universal primary education in sub -Saharan Africa and will visit various primary
and secondary schools and offer support in classroom settings. Moreover, they will learn about the strengths and challenges of the schooling system, as well as the specific importance of
gender issues with respect to education. Upon their return, they will create awareness about the necessity for universal education as they share their experience by giving presentations to
students from various high schools and colleges. We invite you to follow the development of this project through our website.
Find out the latest news from Malawi below: |
Vanier Students in Malawi
James Arruda, Katherine Poirier, Victoria Slodki, Jennifer Barbato, Sarah Lone, Audrey Vanasse-Bédard and Cathy Bernard
Student Journals | Parent Information
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Malawi, June 27, 2009.
From Melanie Hadida – Team supervisor
This past week has been really wonderful. On Monday we began working in the schools. Katherine, Victoria and I have been working in the primary schools and have already been asked to conduct
lessons and the headmaster even sent a student to Makupo with a large box of corrections for us to do! We are mainly working in Standard 8, which is the last level before students test
to get into secondary school.
The three of us have been comfortable standing up in front of a class of some 90 students and giving lessons in math, grammar, and writing.
Audrey and Sarah have been working very hard at the school for the Blind, which has much smaller classes. We presented the school with the Braille paper on Thursday. Apparently the headmaster was so overjoyed about the paper he actually "squealed" with delight!
On Friday, Cate, James, Cari and Jen, along with Doug presented the secondary school with 5 laptops. The students and teachers at the school were extremely excited and grateful. The laptops have been set up in the schools (incredibly small and sparse library).
In addition to our work in the schools the students have been working enthusiastically on their own research projects and personal endeavors. Audrey is working towards starting up a support group for younger women in Makupo dealing with tough issues. James and Cate are helping Doug with Makupo development business activities and Jen (our chef!) is learning a lot about Malawian cooking from the women in the village and the restaurants in town.
In the mornings we have been in the schools and in the afternoons we have been doing all types of activities on Tuesday we went to meet the District Education Manager of Kasungu who explained to us that there are over 187,000 students in the district and only 2000 teachers! On Thursday we visited the Kasungu Teacher Training College where we learned about training to become a teacher in Malawi.
Today, a special event took place for all of us: the Vanier College group, alongside Makupo villagers planted trees along the perimeter of the village! This was extremely difficult and exhausting work and we all got the true experience of what it is like to farm in Africa. We helped the women carry gallons of water on our heads for long distances (we all fared pretty well) and we all took turns digging holes in the earth with hoes. The work was tough but we really took a lot from the experience. Namely, how hard people (especially women) work around here.
Dale is of course getting some phenomenal photos, he has an excellent eye for images and his camera equipment is outstanding! He's also gotten a lot of film footage including the women of Makupo singing beautifully and casually while they prepare our meals.
Cari is also being a great help to the group, especially while helping the students to develop their interview skills, as next week we all will begin recording Malawian personal histories of students, teachers, and villagers and their experiences with education.
Everyone is taking every possible opportunity to interact with the locals and many of us, especially James, is establishing meaningful relationships with the people here. The girls have all bought traditional Malawian wraps and wear them proudly around the village and school campus. We're all picking up some Chichewa too!
That's all for now! In one week we will be at Nkhata bay and we will have much better access to internet!
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