Sixteen days of unlearning, learning and relearning around climate change in Hamburg, Germany

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Sixteen days of unlearning, learning and relearning around climate change in Hamburg, Germany

Abdallah, community gatherer at SHIPO, had the honour of representing Tanzanian youth in the 2022 DAKA Exchange Program as a climate change activist and environmental enthusiast. He was one of 10 youths selected for the program. The initiative links educators, social workers, and environmental and climate change activists from Hamburg, Germany and Tanzania. This was his experience:

I was pleased to discover that Hamburg is almost entirely green when I arrived. When I asked my hosts how they do it, they responded that the main factors contributing to the city’s green status are tree conservation and city planning. Because Hamburgers value nature, the necessity of conservation has been emphasized in all engineering and building designs, and each person is taking personal responsibility for it.

We spent the first week looking at some similarities between Tanzania and Germany with our Hamburg colleagues (Dar es Salaam – Hamburg in particular). We were able to investigate certain ongoing projects, such as waste management programs, educational programs, and community centres, and their functions in transforming social problems into workable and long-lasting solutions through cooperative systems.

Experiences from Week Two.

The second week’s activities were primarily focused on indoor workshop learning and practical workouts on a variety of subjects, including sustainability and education, climate change, decolonization and system changes for former German colonies in Africa, and mental health in relation to current affairs of crisis, COVID-19, and climate injustice. As we applied our daily community intervention activities, we were also given coaching on facilitation strategies, public speaking, and appreciative inquiry procedures during the learning sessions.

Night of networking and presentation for personal activities. 

We had the opportunity to interact with and network with invited experts, Hamburg City employees, teachers, and other stakeholders during this session. As a young climate activist, I was humbled to be given the opportunity to exhibit the work I love to do the most in my category. On that day, I discussed how community involvement and cleanups might help to address the issue of improper trash management. People gained knowledge from my presentation regarding waste and brand audit (WABA) and data exchange among the crucial community stakeholders.

Take home learning and opportunities.

1. I discovered the importance of community centres and open playgrounds in preserving urban environments and ecologies. I believe we can engage the regional authorities of Njombe within the “Multi-stakeholder climate action plan” to explore that and to incorporate it into their urban planning initiatives.

2. Networking with Hamburg-based transformational leaders who work in the permaculture, composting, and recycling businesses. The establishment of an upcycling centre, where residents of the neighbourhood drop off their used and/or unwanted items like clothing, books, shoes, and other home necessities, was one of the best ideas I’ve ever seen. When people in need pass by the shop, they can choose the items they need and donate any small sum of money they can afford or wish to.

3. First week of November the colleagues from Germany will also visit Tanzania, and it was advised that all youths from Tanzania who visited in Hamburg should also meet in person and have sessions for 10 days in order to make them (participants) from Hamburg to explore more about Tanzania and learn as we did in Germany. 


LUDEWA TEACHERS TRAINED ON THE 3R COMPETENCIES

27 teachers from Madope, Lubonde, Milo, Mlangali, Mawengi and Luana wards benefited from the residential INSET on pedagogical competencies linked to the new syllabus on reading, writing and arithmetic. The training was conducted at SHIPO from 7th June 2021 through 16th June 2021. A total of 24 primary schools were involved in the training that was honored by Mr Joseph Lupogo who represented the Regional Education Officer.

The objective of the training that was facilitated by Vikindu Teachers College was to improve the learning outcomes of pupils in the project schools; thus a need to help teachers to:

  • Improve their capacity to teach the trained reading, writing and arithmetic topics
  • Identify, prepare and use teaching aids or tools relevant to topic and environment and capacitate other teachers who did not attend the training on these skills and techniques.
  • Prepare and capacitate other teachers who did not attend the training on how to teach the trained reading, writing and arithmetic topics and how to prepare lesson plan for their daily teaching/learning process.
  • Use different books (text books, supplementary and teachers’ guide) when preparing lesson notes in class and capacitate other teachers on the same

Upon returning to their working stations, the benefiting teachers will use the prepared schedule to apply the newly acquired knowledge and practices.

Both government employed and community hired teachers were regarded during the training. Out of the invited 28, 27(96.43%) participated. They were very grateful for the opportunity and calls for the government and stakeholders to ensure good teaching and learning environment via their collective efforts. Doing so would advance education provision and consequently improve the general school academic performance


SHIPO UNDERTAKES A RESIDENTIAL TRAINING FOR SCHOOL COMMITTEES

48 school committee members from Madope, Lubonde, Milo, Mlangali, Mawengi and Luana wards benefited from the residential training conducted by SHIPO from 21st June 2021 through 25th June 2021. A total of 24 primary school were involved in the training that addressed leadership, management and school administration

The training was honored by his Excellency Marwa Rubirya, the Njombe Regional Commissioner and facilitated by the experts from the Agency for Development of Educational Management (ADEM). Apart from the 48 school committee members, the training was also attended by the Acting Regional Education Officer, District officials including: District Academic Officer, District statistics and logistics officer, and the District school Quality Assurer. The 6 ward education officers of the respective wards also participated.

Basically, the training aimed at taking the members through the following training subjects:

  • Formulation, roles and responsibilities of School Committees
  • School governance, students and staff welfare
  • Community resources mobilization and management
  • Management of school funds
  • School Quality Assurance Framework and Handbook (tools)
  • Development of a supervision program for the 24 schools for the next 3 years
  • Whole School Development Planning (including evaluation of the 2018-2020 Whole School Development Plan and preparation of the 2021-2023 Plan).

Participants were very grateful for the opportunity and calls for the government and stakeholders to guarantee support in realizing the whole school development plan targets. Doing so would advance education provision and consequently improve the general school academic performance of the 8332 pupils including 4213 boys and 4119 girls in the project schools.

Mavala primary school committee chairperson enjoying with the MAMMIE Education Cup after receiving it from the guest of honor.

SHIPO Celebrates Global Action Week for Education ‘GAWE’

SHIPO under the WeWorld support celebrated GAWE on the 6th May 2021. The event that was globally arranged to happen from 26th through 30th April 2021, took place at Mavala primary school. SHIPO could not celebrate it on the very week due to schooling and curricula schedule interferences. The event theme was financing education.

The 2021 GAWE objectives included: community awareness raising for them to contribute in education provision improvement, addressing the education challenges and commitment on their resolutions, and general community awareness raising on the importance of education. There was also a side demonstration regarding plastic recycling that aimed at environment preservation thereby adding value to improving teaching and learning environment.

The event was attended by 703 participants including: 361 males and 342 females. The stakeholders involved: pupils, parents, teachers, religious leaders, journalists and authorities ‘village, ward and district levels’. The neighboring schools comprising: Milo, Luvungo and Mapogoro were also invited. It was honored by his Excellency John Makorere, the District Education Officer who represented the District Commissioner. The event was outrivaled by choirs, poems, sports, shows, music performances and speeches from various invitees and front-runners.

Stakeholders from countless viewpoints are welcomed to collaborate in these endeavors that are organized yearly to ensure Education Excellency that would consequently guarantee potential graduates thus quality social services and holistic community development.


Boresha Elimu Mbozi 2021 Q1 updates

Boresha Elimu Mbozi, the project implemented by SHIPO in collaboration with Mbozi District Council under the support of Pestalozzi Children’s Foundation (PCF) keeps moving forward. The main activities conducted from January to April 2021 are the following:

Two days refresher training to child protection committees, conducted at village level in 19 villages

The reason behind this activity/output is to improve parents engagement in education process of the children.

SHIPO in collaboration with Gender Desk, Welfare Officers and Community Development officers from Mbozi District, conducted a 2 days refresher training to child protection committees in each village within the project coverage (19 villages). The main purpose of the training were to remind the committees members about their responsibilities and raising and reporting the child abuse cases. This activity reached directly 412 (Males 259 Females 153) child protection committee’s members at village level.

SHIPO together with local government authorities (LGAs) from Mbozi District conducted a refresher awareness creation meeting on child rights among parents and the community members in each of the 20 schools’ villages in five wards.

The output of this was to improve parents engagement in education process of the children. The topics discussed in the meetings were: childs rights, how to keep children safe in their surrounding environment, how to raise child in good manner and safe one, how to engage on their childrens education so as to raise their performance. This activity reached 2,500 (1,500 male, and 1,000 female) parents/community members. The methods which were used during the creation of awareness are public address system, questions and answers and group discussion.


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BORESHA ELIMU MBOZI project 2020 updates

Boresha Elimu Mbozi project is centered on improvement of parents’ and community engagement in education process of the children; improvement of teaching quality in target schools; increase of school attendance among boys and girls; and improving performance of school management. What follows is a summary of the main results achieved during the last year.

Children protection committees training

5 Child protection committees at ward level and 19 child protection committees were formed and trained through the project support at village level (covering 20 primary schools). Currently 13 (68 %) child protection committees are functional.

Children’s clubs formation and training

Formation and training:

  • 20 health and environment clubs (200 boys and 200 girls) formed and received the training on health and environment
  • 20 child rights/protection clubs (200 b and 200 g) formed and received the training on child rights/protection
  • 20 girls clubs (280 girls) formed and got trained about menstrual hygiene management.

On average 3 meetings were conducted in 20 schools within the project coverage. All 20 clubs undertaken the meetings as follows:

  • 7 schools’ clubs conducted meetings only once
  • 6 schools’ clubs conducted meetings twice
  • 1 school’ clubs conducted meetings three times
  • 3 schools’ clubs conducted meetings four times
  • 2 schools’ clubs conducted meetings six times
  • 1 school clubs conducted meetings seven times.

Improvement of water facilities

Due to the current situation where children fetch water from the downstream, water facilities will be improved.

Teachers training on 3Rs and Improvisation

50 teachers (14 male and 36 female) involved on 3Rs and improvisation training (application of competences of curriculum), capacitated on how to identify, prepare, and use teaching aids or tools relevant to topic and environment. 10 (50%) of schools started/managed to prepare and use teaching aids/tools relevant to the topic and environment.

Training of school committees

171 (99.4%) out of 172 expected committees’ members [118(69%) male and 53 (31%) female] were capacitated on the important issues related to school management and leadership, structure and responsibilities of school management committees (SMCs) and gender mainstreaming for effective and efficient management of the schools. Specifically the training enabled SMCs’ members to acquire knowledge and skills on school management and supervision; perform duties and responsibilities as stipulated in the circular No.1 of 2018; and address challenges associated with cross-cutting issues (specifically gender mainstreaming) in schools.