Bob Dewar

An outing to Zuma Rock

Met up with nine teachers from UK, Nigeria and Kenya who are involved in the British Council’s innovative Connecting Classrooms programme. In this case it involved three schools in each country- from Hull in the UK’s case. 

Went out to the government science secondary school and met a couple of the Nigerian students who had been to Hull as part of the exchange. They were full of their experiences and how this had broadened their understanding of each other and the world. The teachers were similarly complimentary, including about how this helped each school with its curriculum and priorities. The Kenyans and Nigerians had found it very interesting to compare notes on everything from standards in school to the differences of culture.

We all went off briefly with some students for a joint outing to Zuma Rock (see photo) which is the geographical centre of Nigeria.

Education is the basis for everything. And the quality of education is so important- which depends on good teachers. So it was very inspiring to meet such dedicated teachers, all of them proud of what they are doing.

Posted at 16:34 11 March 2009 by Bob Dewar  |  Comments[0]

An evening with VSO volunteers

Had an inspiring evening last week with Voluntary Service Overseas volunteers, many of them just arrived, together with the local organisations they work with. I was a VSO a long time ago now and got far more out of it than I gave. But I’m very proud of my time in Sudan as a teacher. Jenny, my wife, was a VSO teacher more recently in Northern Nigeria.

It’s great that VSO has now been going for over  50 years and still adapting to be as useful as it can. It brings experienced and qualified professionals to offer skills and experience to the new Nigeria. Their focus is helping the disadvantaged in a variety of ways. The partners are valiant Nigerian groups and individuals working to build up civil society capacity, small business, HIV/AIDS work, work on gender, work with children, the deaf and so on.

I spoke to the lady who runs Lady Mechanic and heard how her organisation gives technical skills (and then hopefully jobs) to women who have often had a difficult background. The only organisation dealing with child abuse in Nigeria was also present, as were others who spoke hopefully about how civil society is growing in confidence, although in an environment dominated by powerful vested interests. 

The volunteers deserve every encouragement and support. This is a really valuable contribution from this UK based organisation which is now genuinely international- present that evening were volunteers from UK, Canada, Germany, Denmark, Nepal, Netherlands, Australia, India, Uganda and Kenya. What an impressive organisation.

Posted at 16:52 04 March 2009 by Bob Dewar  |  Comments[1]