From Isack in Tabora

Hello friends around the world – this is Isack! I hope that you have been enjoying the stories from South Africa by Erik, James, Beruk, Jody, Charles, Ben and others. On my side I’m back at school. I’m studying at Uyui High School in Tabora region.

I am now very happy to tell you about my friends Bryony Kite and Nadia from London. Bryony is Jody friend. She came to Tabora with her friend Nadia to visit me, Roots & Shoots and the Orphanage. It was my first time to meet with them but we became good friends and we ate together most of the time and discussed different issues.

Nadia and Bryony are primary school teachers and when they were in Tabora, they used to come to school to teach students English. In the evening they would go to play with the kids at the orphanage, so when I came back from school I would meet with them at the orphanage and we would play with the kids. Bryony and Nadia don’t know how to speak Kiswahili, our national language, but most of time they asked me about different words so that they could use them to communicate with the kids. They played with kids from 1 to 5 years old; they loved the kids and the kids loved them too. In Tanzania, it is not usual to see people playing with kids in the orphanage like Bryony and Nadia, so from my side I learned something new. I think kids they feel happy to play and they need people like Bryony and Nadia who can play with them.

After playing with the kids Nadia, Bryony and me would go to the school to meet with Root & Shoots members. My dear friends, you can’t believe what Nadia, Bryony and I introduced as a new thing in Tabora…. we introduced a girl’s football team at the school! The first time when Nadia and Bryony came to our school they meet with Roots & Shoots members to discuss about Roots & Shoots Uyui High School action plan for 2008. Mr. Arimas, president of Roots & Shoots at the school, told them about the club’s sports plan - here at Uyui we have a plan to establish a Roots & Shoots football team. During the holiday we will be going to the villages to educate people about different issues then we will play football between Roots & Shoots team and village team from the place we visit. We have agreed that football is a way of joining people together and also we can teach them before the match. We believe that so many people will come because they like soccer.

Now, Nadia and Bryony have introduced a football team for girls!!! It is new because we had no girls playing football before but now we have been introduced to it by Jody’s friends, Bryony and Nadia. Nadia gave exercises to the girls and then Nadia and Bryony gave two footballs to the girls to use for practice.

Nadia and Bryony then went to visit Gombe National Park (the land of chimpanzees) in Kigoma and after that they went to Arusha to meet with Salley. Right now they are in Zanzibar after that they will travel back to London on Monday. I wish my new friends all the best and I hope that one day we will meet again. Thanks for introducing a football team here at our school. That is a gift for us. It is a golden chance because you show us new ways to go forward.

Thank you Jody for introducing me to Bryony and Nadia. Also thank you all for visiting our blog. You are welcome again and you can tell others to visit this blog too to here about different programs in Africa.

With love,

Isack Nyasilu

Hello from Hippo River

Dear Moms!

This next blog finds us all well, despite a weekend where many of us turned as green as the creamy-whipped-spinach we ate for lunch on Saturday. That night was a long night for most of us, although the lucky few with their own unique strategies, managed to get a full night of beauty sleep. Strategy #1 - Stick to familiar KFC-like chicken legs and avoid the green stuff (Jaime). Strategy #2 – Develop a hearty resistance to any baddies lurking in your food and joyfully embrace a large rich portion of greens (Beruk & Ronel). Strategy #3 – Avoid carbs at all cost, unless presented with any edible form of mucus (Erik). The alternative analysis of what happened, however, is much more exciting. You see, the woman who prepared the creamy-whipped-spinach, also owns a funeral parlour. Culturally, the man who slaughters the goat (symbolizing the spirit of the person who died), is not permitted to attend the funeral for fear of bad spirits transferring to the food that has been prepared. Unfortunately, when news spread that a number of people had become sick following the creamy-whipped-spinach lunch, rumours then started to spread that bad spirits had entered our food. Luckily, further gossip was nipped in the bud through discussion with the local chief, although we are still nibbling cautiously at our lunches this week. Basically, you never know….

Otherwise, greetings from Limpopo Province! On Friday night, we drove three hours north from Johannesburg to a beautiful riverside lodge, just past the town of Groblersdal. The place we are staying overlooks a wide river filled with hippos and crocs but other than a boat trip during the Sunday sunset, most of our time here is spent traveling past the orange groves to Groblersdal and then on to the smaller town of Motetema, for this week’s professional development program (PDP). The program, which consists of innovative sessions for educators on Early Childhood Development, Numeracy & Literacy, 21st Century Skills and Digital Arts for young learners, is based on months of work by Maskew Miller Longman (MML), Pearson Education, and the Pearson Foundation, and was launched last week in Johannesburg, Gauteng province, South Africa.

The week in Gauteng was a great success. The PF team was joined by MML representatives from Cape Town and Gauteng, Longman reps from Nigeria (Femi) and Tanzania (Belinda), Pearson reps from UK (Michael and Duncan) and expert facilitators for three of the programs (Mariam, Jenny and Vanessa). My personal highlight was the Family Book Night. Preparations included visiting five different schools and taking pictures of the sweetest kids holding random objects followed by late nights huddled in our room working out how to print the stickers of the kids holding the random objects. Those evenings, conversations were pretty basic, with the main line of dialogue being, “He is SO cute!!”, “She is SO cute!”, “Ah, I love her!”, “Ah, look at her smile, she’s SO cute!”, “He is hilarious! Look at Busi’s smile!”, “Ah, she’s doing a Busi!”, Ah, he is SO cute!”, “Ah, she is SO cute!”…(See the Shutterfly link to the right). Ronel performed an amazing logistics feat to get everything else ready, and then the whole community came to attend a wonderfully lively family book-reading night as well as graduation of some of the PDP participants. On the Friday we held a Movie Premier afternoon, with the cool young students sharing their Sara movies and then the ‘old’ people (teachers – ha, love it!) proudly sharing their Movie-Maker extravaganzas.

So far this week, things here in Limpopo are going well; lots of hard work during the day, and evenings spent by the river, listening to the cicadas and frogs, and trying to save Erik and Ben from likely death-by-hippo if they were to row row row the rowing boat into the darkness of nighttime… Erik has developed a fanciful new language, named by Jaime as ‘Germanskin’ or by Beruk as ‘Jah-Man-ski’. By day, Erik claims to speak English with a New York accent while by night he transforms his own style of Afrikaans-German-totalnonsensense-ness and spends hours in hot political debates with Krista, the Afrikaans-speaking lodge owner who is fond of pink. Fortunately, Ronel is able to translate this elusive language. Krista very much enjoys Erik’s attention and adorably, Erik ‘gets into the moment’. We’ve also had Ben’s measurements taken (long story but in summary – fiancée Staci on the phone with Ben asking for Tuxedo measurements…we heard one side of the conversation…and then Mariam asking, “What measurement must be taken before the wedding? Ha...), and yep... we’ve done the Macarena!

We will be here until the end of the week, and then all of us are flying back to Cape Town. Half of us will remain in our new Cape Town home, whilst the other half of the team will fly home to the US. During our brief separation, Benyamini Don (yep, Ben) will marry his beloved, and from those of us who will be there, and those who will only be there in our hearts, we wish you and Staci a beautiful life of love together.

Keep it real. One Love.

Hi Y'all From Nairobi

Hi Y’all –

Greetings from Jaime, Beruk, Ben and Jody, blogging from Nairobi. This is the first time for most of us to visit Nairobi so it is a particularly exciting trip. Also, we heard so much from Jody, Erik, Andy and Charles about the residency in Kenya earlier this year so we were looking forward to meet some of the girls from last time as well as the Longman team.

Our expectations have been exceeded. Hurrah! The Longman team (Kakai, Peter, Evelyn, Victoria and Caroline – who is a wonderful intern) has been great again and Kenya Girl Guides Association (KGGA) has embraced the hosting of the residency and has many ideas for how they can grow the program throughout Kenya after we leave.

We have nine student mentors from the previous residency in April with us this time. The mentors are all girls who are studying in vocational programs in some of the most economically disadvantaged areas of Nairobi. Some of the mentors from the earlier program have stepped up and taught their own sections of the program. They have all risen to the task of mentoring and supporting the new participants this week and are visibly walking taller because of it.

We also have girls from different corners of Kenya. Three of the girls, from the remote north-eastern part of Kenya, near Ethiopia, traveled to Nairobi by truck over a two-day period. They got dropped at the goat market in town, and then took a taxi to get to KGGA headquarters, where they are staying. On Sunday they were interviewed by the press and were so excited to see their picture in the paper yesterday. This is a big experience for all the girls, but especially for these three.

Anyway, we are now on Day-four of the residency and it’s going really well. Jody has added a much needed female touch to a largely male team. Ben has done a wonderful job instructing, Jaime has given invaluable assistance in all aspects and Beruk has proven to be an expert videographer.

We have shared in the girls’ very emotional stories and seen how they are supporting each other to speak out about various challenges they have faced in their lives. We also have counselors working with the girls and amazing Magdelaine from KGGA who is back again cheering on the girls with her hilarious antics. Our favorite song this week has been the classic, “These are my private parts, my private parts, my private parts. These are my private parts so keep your hands off them!” Jaime, Ben and Beruk stepped away, red-faced, during the actions. This afternoon in the taxi on our way home, they proudly sang their own version, “These are my family jewels, my family jewels...”. Jody isn’t red faced at all – she always enjoys a good sing-along!

The girls are now working on editing their movies after a long, long day of filming yesterday. Beruk worked really well with the girls and produced some great videos for the girls’ films. KGGA and Longman are preparing for Friday afternoon when we will have the world premiere screenings for the girls’ families and honorary guests.

Stay tuned for more of Magdelaine’s classic song-and-dance numbers….

Cape Town and Nairobi

Fathima Dada and Charles Nyembe filming at Maskew Miller Longman



Well, Charles and I are wandering around this big house in Cape Town on our own. Ronel has gone to Joburg to skope out our venues for the big programs beginning next week. Jody, Ben, James, and Beruk are doing very well in Kenya with the second round of our Sara program with Longman Kenya. They will blog tomorrow....they promise! And, they'll have some great photos to share.

Charles, Ronel, and I filmed kids, teachers and content experts all week. Charles and I are now editing hundreds of hours of foootage down to five-minute clips. Tons of work, but it will be great when we have it all completed. Andy is working on the actual professional development programs from New York between memorizing lines and looking for auditions. Below is an overview of what we're doing this year...thought you might like to know. So, see below, then get ready for updated from the Kenya team tomorrow. Best, Erik (More filming photos to right...)

OVERVIEW OF PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM

This year, Maskew Miller Longman and our sister companies are embarking on a Professional Development Programme in Africa with the charitable arm of one of our parent companies, PEARSON EDUCATION - a global education company. With the Pearson Foundation, we shall be traveling to and running workshops in South Africa , Tanzania , Kenya , Zambia and Nigeria , where our Pearson Foundation colleagues will be working with our local companies and colleagues. In addition, we will offer a student Digital Arts workshop to support the Professional Development Programmes.

The professional development is comprised of three distinct tracks; in line with the Africa Millennium Education Goals, the programmes will be concentrating on Literacy and Numeracy at the Foundation Phase level, Early Childhood Development in the reception year, and 21^st Century Skills for teachers and learners across the spectrum.

In each location, educator and administrator participants will follow one of these three tracks. These five-day training events will be focused, engaging, and interactive. Participants will learn exciting new approaches to presenting information in the classroom through hands-on, effective, and practical applications. They will not only learn about proven collaborative models, they will also share their own successful approaches to building teamwork among student groups.

Literacy & Numeracy track and Early Childhood Development track

In addition to learning cutting-edge approaches to teaching, participants in the Literacy & Numeracy and Early Childhood Development tracks will also be presented with ways to teach parents and caregivers how to use effective techniques with their young learners. The participants in these two tracks will be discussing best practices for engaging parents and guardians in interactive reading and learning with their children. The culminating activity, Family Book Night, is a personal, hands-on event for 50 local families. Early readers and their families will be invited to attend an evening of reading, centered around personalized books that the children and their caregivers will make together. These “1, 2, 3” counting and reading books will include photos of the child on each page, and will be the springboards for Family Book Night reading activities. During the event, professional development participants from both the Literacy & Numeracy and Early Childhood Development tracks will work with parents as they learn to actively engage their children during the reading process. The families will take these books home with them to further their interaction and effectiveness. Participants in the Literacy & Numeracy and Early Childhood Development tracks will be provided with the templates for these personalized books, in order to use them at their own local Family Book Nights, and further extend family reading and learning opportunities.

21^st Century Skills track

The 21^st Century Skills programme will integrate areas that are crucial to modern education. These themes include: Core Subjects; 21^st Century Themes; Learning and Innovation Skills; Information, Media, and Technology Skills; and Life and Career Skills. Participants will investigate effective uses of collaboration, innovation, media literacy, critical thinking, and social interaction in the classroom. The involved, hands-on approach will give participants the opportunity to practice technology skills by using moviemaking software as a curriculum tool. Participants will learn how to integrate academic objectives, technological skills, and essential life skills to produce digital movies based on curriculum standards. The programme encourages student teamwork within a project-based learning model. Participants will discuss ways to give students the skills to effectively cooperate and communicate with each other in order to achieve a common goal. Participants will learn how to facilitate digital moviemaking in the classroom, resulting in student-produced films that show understanding of curriculum objectives.

The 21^st Century Skills professional development will run simultaneously with the Student Digital Arts programme, where 30 students will learn how to write, videotape, and edit their own short films based on topics important to their individual communities. Working with local NGOs, Pearson Foundation facilitators, and local Maskew Miller Longman employees, these students will be creating films based on HIV/AIDS, and issues related to refugees across African nations.

Near the end of the week, participants in the 21^st Century Skills programme will join the Student Digital Arts programme, and use their newly acquired skills to assist the students in completing their films. The five days will then culminate in a Movie Day, where all participants will watch the student-produced movies, while practicing important feedback, questioning, and critiquing skills.

Participants in all three tracks will be learning contemporary and innovative skills to enhance their effectiveness as educators. They will also have valuable opportunities to share their own ideas about successful techniques and glean from others’ experiences. They will then synthesize all this learning, and take these exciting practices back to their own schools and communities, and continue to be leaders in the field of education.

Welcome Back!

We're back in South Africa! We've left Andy behind to continue his studies at the Lee Strasburg Studio. He's busy rehearsing scenes from The Only Game In Town and learning monologues for auditions. He also has a beautiful girl in his life, Michelle, who works in both London and New York (yes, you guessed it, she's a model, quite spectacular, extremely bright, and a force of nature...HELLO MICHELLE! We miss you! Oh, and we miss you, too, Andy!) Andy will be back with us in Africa in September.

This round, we have Jody (you remember her from last time), her partner Beruk (who has become a great videographer under the tutelage of Charles), Charles (our co-worker from Zimbabwe), my great friend James (aka Jaime...he came last year to Joburg), and Andy's amazing brother Ben. Ben is getting married in September to one of my new best friends, Staci (HELLO STACI!). They will both be moving to Cape Town after the wedding to help manage our programs here.

So, Ben and Jaime came to the new fantastic apartment in New York for two days of training with Andy then Ben, Jaime, and I flew to London for a 13 hour layover. We put our stuff away in the pod hotel (called Yotel...very cool) and headed into Notting Hill for lunch with Andy's Michelle. We had a grand time then went back for a short nap before the 11 hour flight to Cape Town.

We're in a huge five-bedroom house here getting ready for our professional development programmes for educators and digital arts programs for students. More on that on the next blog. Ben, Jody, Jaime, and Beruk are in Kenya doing a follow-up to our recent Sara program while Charles, Ronel, and I are here filming in schools for our new programmes (again, as to keep this blog entry short, I'll describe what we're doing during this trip on the next blog entry). Our days are busy and filled with filming, cooking, editing, and creating documents for the workshops. Take a look at the attached photos to see Charles training Beruk, all of us celebrating Charles' 40th birthday, and some shots of us filming early learners at a local school.

More later! Erik

After the Lugufu Refugee Camp Digital Arts Program

Erik here. I am so happy to post Isack's latest blog. Get ready to be wowed. Here is what has happened. We went to Kigoma last year and taught students to make films. Isack took it upon himself to keep his education going. He then came to Dar es Salaam and assisted us in the workshop. He and Salley ran the second program in Kigoma a month ago. Finally, they took the computers and equipment to a Congolese refugee camp (Lugufu, near Kigoma) and taught students all on their own. Quite something. Here is Isack:

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Dear friends,

We are very sorry because we didn’t put information about our workshop because of the internet. We have finished the training and every thing going well according to our action plan. We taught them how to use computers, typing, and how to make movies. All participants made their own movies about different issues that face them and other people in their community.

I’m very happy to finish this workshop. Now my dream is coming true. I remember it was in 2007 when Erik, Andy, James and Gabriel come to teach us how to make movies. I was very happy to be one of the participants of the workshop because through the workshop now I can make movies about any issues and show it to the community. Since when I get the knowledge I have been teaching friends how to use digital cameras, to record video through flip cameras and to make movies. I was dreaming that one day I will be teaching young people how to make movies. I’m very happy because now I’m doing that to my community and other friends like Refugees.

Some children come and ask me many questions. These children ask me how to make movies, how to download pictures from digital cameras to the computer, and more. Some said “sorry brother, is this a video player?” I told them no this is a computer but it is looks like a video player. I like the question because if someone asks you a question it means that she/he wants to know about what she/he is asking for. What you’re supposed to do is educate and help them. As I was sitting with the kids after the training, some of them called me brother.

The Lugufu Refugees camp workshop was the best work I’ve done. During the training some parents came and asked me some questions. I liked all their questions. After the training we came together to make an action plan with them, but I faced a challenge. They told me that in September this year (2008) all refugees will go back to Congo. But when they will be in Congo they will start Roots & Shoots. Also they will produce movies about different issues so as to educate people. So how I can help them? I think I can talk with Erik, Andy Charles and Jody to see how we can help them when they will be back to their motherland.

The last day at Lugufu Refugees Camp was a good day because some students wanted to show the movies to their parents and other members of groups and to find which movie is the best among of other movie. On my side it was bad because I was thinking how I’m going to miss my friends in Lugufu Refugees Camp. It was a difficult time for me and my fellow teachers. I believe that one day I will see them if not at the camp it will be in Congo. After the lunch we met together to make an action plan. Every member contributed his/her views on how we can reach many people in short time and how we can teach other people in order to expand Digital Arts Alliance in the community.

After the meeting we went to the classroom to meet with parents and UNHCR and FPCT Fida members. We gave them an introduction about Digital Arts Alliance and we got question from them. Some asked me “why we are teaching young people to make movies?” I told them we believe that the future of coming generation is in the hand of young people so if we will use them we will make changes to the parents and other members of the community. Children are source of changes if their parents and other member of community will accept the advice given by young people through their movies. Soon we can make changes so everyone should play the role.

After many questions, students started to give introductions about the movies that they made. Then the parents started to watch. After that I asked the parents about the movies made by the students. “Dear parents and leaders from different institutes, thanks for joining with us today this is a last day for us to be here. You just watched the movies that the students made. Is it true that all this issues from our movie is found in our community?’ They said, “Yes all is true. All has happened.” I asked,

“Sorry, do you think that it is better to make changes?” They said, “Yes it is.”

That was the end of our workshop at Lugufu Refugees camp. Thanks to all people who send emails to give us congratulation. Thanks very much I’m proud for your effort, and on my side I want to say thanks to all the Pearson Foundation team, Mr. President Mark Nieker and all staffs. Also I want to say thanks for all people who support Pearson Foundation by any means, Giving funds, advice and all people who planned Digital Arts Alliance program for youth. We like it, and we are proud for you support. Thanks. Together we are going to make a world better place for people to live.

Lugufu Refugee Camp Digital Arts Project

FIRST DAY IN LUGUFU REFUGEES CAMP

Dear friends around the world.

Isack again. I know that you missed much news from our team in Lugufu as it is difficult to access the Internet. Erik and Andy now are in the USA. Salley and I have been busy with YAAPA group, too. YAAPA is a group of youth working for HIV/AIDS and Poverty eradication in local communities. Together we made a movie on War and HIV/AIDS problems in Africa that will be shown to local communities in Kigoma.

Salley and I are in Lugufu Refugees Camp. I’m very happy to have a special class session again with Refugees. I know that they have many worthy ideas to make movies that can educate others about peace and other life challenges facing them. The training is equipping members with skills so that they can make movies about different issues that affect positive changes to their lives.

When we arrived at Lugufu, we met Shadrach Meshach, a Roots & Shoots Lugufu coordinator. He welcomed us and introduced us to Roots & Shoots members and different officials from other partners. It was a pleasure to meet with them. At the training I asked if there is any one who knows how to use a computer and they said “we don’t know”. I asked them if they had dreams to make movies before our training plan, they said “yes but we didn’t have equipment and since that equipment is so expensive, it wasn’t easy for us to reach our dreams” I said to them, “Pearson Foundation in collaboration with Jane Goodall Institute-Roots & Shoots Program is now here to teach and make your dreams happen.” It is fantastic to see us helping youths on our own since when our Pearson Foundation team has empowered us to take action.

I was the first facilitator who taught computer introduction to participants. It was so tough because many members have no exposure to apply tools like computers!!

Up to the end of my first day all participant knew how to switch on and off the computer, to open some programs and to type. Tomorrow the will came at 10:00 for revision before starting a new topic.

SECOND DAY IN LUGUFU REFUGEES CAMP

In a second day now in Lugufu Refugees camp. Today Shadrach has taught them how to feature environmental and community problems on movies. Shadrach gave an introduction about the Digital Arts project and how to interview other participants to make them realize how movies have an influence to change the lives of people. Shadrach divided the participants into groups to open a discussion about the movies they were intending to make. Finally students came with common ideas. From my first hand experiences children here in Lugufu are so clever.

Salley has taught them how to use digital cameras and Flip videos. Every participant was exited with Salley’s lesson. They have taken those cameras and Flips with them home to take photos they would want to display in their movies. All days are seen very successfully to both members and teachers teams. Tomorrow will be my day. I shall teach them how to download photos from the camera to computers, and making movies as well. I am already prepared for the lesson hoping that things will be fine. So if you want to know more about Isack, Salley and Shadrach in Lugufu Refugees camp please stay with us, we hope that you will enjoy our programs that promoting to help people who are voiceless. See you next…….