Rockbrook Teacher Visit October 2008
Two teachers from Rockbrook Park School in Dublin, Jude Mulligan and Edward Kellett, recently spent a week in Nairobi on a WorldWise Teacher Visit in order to visit their partner school located within the vast slum area of Kibera on the edge of the city. Rockbrook is currently in its second year of a linking programme with the John Paul II Mixed Secondary School in Kibera.
Kibera is the second largest slum in Africa, and was host to many of the clashes that occurred amid the political turmoil in Kenya during January of this year. Jude and Ed stayed in a hostel just five minutes from it, and travelled in and out of the area throughout their stay. Each day of their visit they spent several hours in the John Paul II School, quickly fitting in with its timetable and mixing with its young staff. They had meetings every morning with the school coordinators of the linking programme, Cosmas Kivindyo (the principal) and Geoffrey Marwara (a teacher), in order to work out a sustainable Partnership Agreement for collaborative activities between both schools over the coming years. Naturally a highlight of the trip for the Irish teachers was interacting with the Kenyan students, both within the classroom and outside it; they found the students bright and open, and very ready to engage in discussions about African and European culture and politics. Interacting with the school staff over lunchtime was great, and provided an opportunity to swap notes and ideas on subject areas.
Some of the Kenyan students brought Jude and Ed home to their homes one afternoon, which was an eye-opener in terms of the conditions these boys and girls live and work in. The ground in much of Kibera is literally composed of refuse and rubbish, and many of the huts can collapse when the slum experiences flooding, which it does whenever there is heavy rain. The area is incredible cramped. Few huts have vehicle access, and most of them are arrived at through a complex series of lanes, which often have open sewers. The challenges facing the John Paul II students are great, as are their needs. There is a high rate of petty and serious crime in the locality, and drugs are prevalent. Most of the children in the school have no water at home, and many do their homework at night by lantern or candle light.
By the end of their trip, the Rockbrook teachers had received an in-depth exposure to life in Kibera and in their partner school, and had forged real friendships with the staff there. The trip was very successful, and a detailed partnership programme resulted from it (which will incorporate numerous development education exchanges between the students in both schools in areas such as human rights, literature, art and photography, social service projects and information technology).
In addition to the activities during the school year, a group of Rockbrook students intend to personally raise funds to travel to Kenya on a service project next July to spend quality time engaged in activities with the students in Kibera, which will include debating, manual work and curriculum integration.
By Jude Mulligan
