Local news stories add to English lessons in Africa (From Western Telegraph)

Local news stories add to English lessons in Africa

5:30pm Sunday 5th September 2010 in

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Your weekly newspaper has played its part in an unique project led by county MP Stephen Crabb to teach English in Rwanda.

A copy of the Western Telegraph was among the gifts given to English learners in the country as part of Project Umubano, the Conservatives’ social action project in Rwanda and Sierra Leone.

Mr Crabb led a team of 50 volunteers, including Pembrokeshire residents, working in different areas of economic and social life in Rwanda.

As in previous years, the project took volunteers to Rwanda and Sierra Leone to work in health, education, justice, community development and the private sector.

Mr Crabb was joined by Rachel and Abigail Green, from Haverfordwest, former pupils of St Davids School.

Rachel and Mr Crabb spent time in Africa teaching English to Rwandan national school examiners.

Rwanda recently joined the Commonwealth and made English the national language of tuition after decades of using French.

Rachel was based in Ruhengeri, a town located two hours outside the capital, Kigali.

She was joined by a small group of volunteers of all ages who taught at the local secondary school. Project Umubano volunteers were also based in Kigali and the east and south-west provinces of Rwanda.

Abigail helped Mr Crabb organise the project which brought together lawyers, doctors, politicians and business people from around the UK to work on specific work requested by Rwandan partner organisations. As well as the national English language project, this included workshops for Rwandan businesses of all sizes, training provided at a remote rural hospital, a training programme for Rwandan charities and community groups, and several football coaching clinics provided by Conservative volunteers who hold FA coaching qualifications. The volunteers also took resources that had been donated by companies and individuals who were keen to support the project.

This included 1,300 English language dictionaries donated by Pearson Education, 100 football shirts and teaching materials such as pens, pencils, rubbers, rulers and the Western Telegraph newspaper. Mr Crabb and the team also visited the National Genocide Memorial in Kigali where they laid a wreath and made a presentation to support the work of the centre in educating Rwandans about the events leading up to the genocide of 1994.

Some of the team also visited Murambe, the site of the worst massacre where more than 50,000 men, women and children were murdered over a weekend.

After returning to the UK, Mr Crabb said: “I am delighted to have been asked to lead Project Umubano. Umubano means ‘friendship’ in Kinyarwandan, the traditional language of Rwanda, and part of our work is building lasting relationships with the people of Rwanda. “The country is still recovering from the horrific genocide of 1994 and the people of Rwanda are hungry to build new friendships across the world.

“It was brilliant that Rachel and Abigail were able to join me and the adults that we taught were very interested to learn about Pembrokeshire. They enjoyed their first taste of playing rugby and we were able to leave some balls behind for local schools.

“The project is a great example of individuals getting involved in international development. I will be leading the project again next year and I am keen to encourage more Pembrokeshire constituents to get involved in a worthwhile trip.”