Global Campaign for Education

Please note that VSO is in no way connected with or responsible for the content, comments and observations in this blog: these are solely my own in a personal capacity.

Hi all,
did you know that 1 in 5 adults cannot read this? That is....scary! Otherwise....I hope you are all well. I received a parcel with more books and 'Kinderschokolade' and 'Haribo' from Munich today. Awesome!!!! Thank you Sabine and Christoph!!!! Pics are on the wall already.
It was a great day anyway as Ruth came to the District and brought cheese and 2 packs of Pringles. We just could not get over it all day long that we .....we had......we had.....we had cheese!!!!! Cheese at lunchtime and Noddles with cheese for dinner and there is still a bit of cheese left for tomorrow. This was definetely a gooooood day!!!

Otherwise, we had a big celebration in Kibungo, as this week is Global Action Week. Therefore there were quite a few events all over Rwanda with these topics:
What is the future for children with special needs?
If 9 year basic education is for all, why are there children that are still not in school?
What is literacy and how can we improve literacy?
Reinforcement of adult literacy.
Access to Quality Education is a right.

I will give you some background information:
With 75 million children out of school, GCE is calling for more and better quality assistance to developing countries. Aid to basic education is less than 50% of what is needed to achieve universal primary education, and less than 25% of what is needed to achieve the full set of Education for all goals by 2015.

GCE (Global Campaign for Education) is calling on donors to prioritise teachers and declare how many professional teachers they will assist to train, hire and retain, backing such words with substantial predictable aid flows, that can be spent on teacher salaries.

Only 17 % of aid to basic education is available for teachers' salaries. 18 million teachers are needed to be trained, recruited and retained in order to meet the 2015 goals.

You can get more information on www.campaignforeducation.org .

Because of the Global Action Week we had this huge event in our District and 6 different Primary Schools read stories, showed sketches and so on.... and of course.....we had to listen to a lot of speeches.

The children played really well and you can see them on the pics. The blog is playing up on me and I cannot write anything next to the pics. Sorry!

Ruth had organised a baseline survey on drop outs in 126 villages in 3 sectors and did present the results of the survey to all participants. Good base for future work!!

After the celebration I met Suzanne in the bar for a drink and we had a very good chat about work, life, friends, home and so on. When I went home....there was .... more cheese involved....and 'Kinderschokolade'. Great!!! I think the Kinderschokolade is the best thing I did eat since January, even though it was totaly melted.....but soooooo veeeeerrrryyyyyy goooood!!!

Now I am in my room and am talking to another stupid Mosquito. I am telling her that my blood is really not that great. And, as I am a fair person, I am warning her, that she should really not take the risk of biting me, as I am just waiting for her to flatten her up!!! The problem is....I think she cannot understand English.....as she is starting to attack...and...so, I really have to go. Have some Mossi buiss to do.
I hope you all had a great weekend.
xxx Tina