Child's Rights Teacher Training: Arusha

Because our organization has so many programs, I am making a concentrated effort to accompany staff on field visits. I think it's important to have a full understanding of the programs, not just sit in my office and develop monitoring tools for them to record their progress. Plus, the field is always fun and breaks up the monotony of the office life.

This weekend I accompanied our community engagement staff on a training for teachers in "child's rights," though it was really more of a workshop on progressive teaching methods, aka, you don't have to physically and emotionally beat a child. The department has been working with primary schools in the two cities we work in (Arusha and Moshi), holding a series of four workshops focusing on modern teaching methods and techniques. All too often, teachers simply read from a lesson book, write on the blackboard, and have the students feverishly copy down the information without really absorbing it. Even worse, if you fail to properly follow protocol, you will get beaten with a cane. There is even an established method of beating children in schools (girls get it on the hand, boys on the butt). 

Being in Arusha, it also gave me the opportunity to venture out of Moshi for the first time. The city is located about an hour and a half west of Moshi, a 3000 Tsh ($2.00) bus ride. I met a co-worker at 6 a.m. in the bus park and we boarded a very old rickety bus that, to my surprise, left before it was full. It has been my experience in developing countries that buses typically wait until they are absolutely packed to the brim before leaving and I was extremely pleased that we only waited about a half hour. I think the route is well traveled enough, with probably a dozen or so stops, giving operators an opportunity to pick up more passengers on the way. 

Map of northern Tanzania showing Moshi and Arusha. 

I was also pleased that the route was served by a full size bus, as opposed to a smaller and more claustrophobic "dala dala". Although buses typically stop more often to pick up and drop off passengers, dala dalas have you stuffed in like sardines, usually wedged between some enormous person with a puking baby and a goat strapped to their back. 

Full size bus. 

"Dala dalas".

I loved the ride to Arusha in the early morning. Mt. Kilimanjaro provided an awesome backdrop to the journey and as it disappears to the east, the slightly less grand (no snow on the peak) yet still majestic Mt. Meru comes into view. Mt. Meru is to Arusha as Mt. Kilimanjaro is to Moshi; a stunning mountain towering over the city to the north. The trip also gave me a chance to see outside the bubble of Moshi. Villagers queuing at boreholes with donkeys to transport water, 12 year old kids shepherding goats, small villages with simple brick houses and thatched roofs...having spent my entire time abroad in rural areas, I felt a strange pleasantness to be out of the city and view life as it probably is in most of Tanzania. 

View of Mt. Meru from our workshop location. 

Life on the move. 

When we arrived to Arusha we made our way to a hotel where the workshop was held. It was a very modest hotel with a conference room on the top floor and to be honest, it was much nicer than I had expected. The workshop was on a Saturday since teachers were obviously busy during the work week. The school we were working with was a large school with 48 teachers for over 2000 students. 

The workshop was a very rewarding experience as teachers were very engaged in the material and lacked the classic workshop look of "I'm just here for the free food and travel stipend". Although the entire workshop was in Swahili, some handouts were in English and I could get the gist of what was being discussed. There were four staff from our organization and they helped to translate some of the more important topics. I was also able to discuss with teachers their thoughts and feelings on the workshop, which were quite insightful. Many expressed the feeling that the government had not provided any meaningful skills training so they were happy to attend and build their skills. 

Workshop attendees work on an exercise.

Our facilitator, Amani, was awesome. It makes all the difference in these workshops: you can have the best programming but without someone who knows how to actively engage the participants, it will be in one ear and out the other. I was especially impressed since his energy remained high throughout the day as I struggled to keep my eyes open (I had to wake up at 5 a.m.). I also liked that the final activity was an exercise designed to outline the changes in policy the school intended to make, as well as policies they would like the government to implement. 

Our facilitator Amani runs through an interactive activity with participants. 

Attending the workshop was invaluable, especially considering I had read the reports from earlier reporting periods. I really felt that what we reported wasn't capturing the true value of the workshops, especially seeing how expensive they were to run. I think funders aren't too excited to fund this type of work because the results aren't as tangible as say, building a new classroom or providing some kids with books. But anyone who has ever been in a classroom in a developing country knows that the importance of modern teaching methods can not be understated!

More workshop work.