Non-Formal Education

WE DID IT!

The 2012 edition of Camp G²LOW Burkina Faso has been fully funded! We will be able to hold all four camps this summer thanks to your hard efforts raising the funds and your donations.

I thank you.

Our volunteers thank you.

Our staff thanks you.

But most of all, the 480 Burkinabe girls and boys attending the camps thank you.

For more information on Camp G2LOW, and to keep up with all of our planning, join our Facebook Group! 

Two weeks in four different cities. 60 middle school aged students a week.  Giving students a week to just be kids. Giving students a week to learn more about their bodies and how to make good decisions. Developing tomorrow’s leaders.

As I was searching for Theatre Club web resources, I stumbled upon the ReadWriteThink website. The Peace Journey: Using Process Drama in the Classroom lesson plan can be applicable to theatre clubs, literacy clubs or to any PCV doing club meetings. It is also a good resource for teachers or for the observations of the International Day of Peace (September 21) or World Hello Day (November 21). This website provides rubrics, worksheets, suggested materials to use, and links to other "Peace" related websites, including the Peace Corps!

View The Peace Journey: Using Process Drama in the Classroom lesson plan!

Available for volunteers is the third in a series of health sensibilisation books by Sabrina Barker, RPCV, and Krystle Austin (with a special guest appearance for this book by Kerry Kelly). This book is about oral hygiene. It discusses baby teeth, cavities and the importance of oral hygiene and includes the recipe for Nime powder that can be used as an inexpensive toothpaste substitute. French and English translations available. Enjoy!

Overview: This project involved providing 65 latrines to a community in need of them in just six weeks in order to provide proper sanitary systems, dignity, and proper health to over 600 of the poorest people in the community.

Statement of Problem: Despite the fact that the local community is highly developed, just off the main road the houses have no sewage system or running water, and most have no latrines. Thus, people urinate and defecate in the streets, resulting in a terrible hygiene problem and a major threat to public health.

Mechanism: While the actual construction was carried out by local masons, the PCV served as the administrator of the project.

Overview: This project involved the restoration of basketball hoops in order to expand existing coaching programs and teach leadership, teamwork, and citizenship through basketball.

Statement of Problem: The community has athletic facilities available to the population, but many were rundown.  Young men and women were already organized in soccer leagues as well as handball and volleyball, but did not have a knowledge of basketball.  Restoration of the existing basketball hoops would allow the PCV to address leadership and active citizenship under the guise/medium of teaching basketball.

Overview: With the help of the faculty, PCV established school gardens. The faculty organized the school children into groups to collect fencing supplies, prepare the earth, and maintain the garden.

Statement of Problem: Both schools have a problem when it comes to parents paying school fees, as well as a problem supplying the school canteen.

Mechanism: The students are split It is truly a learning experience for the kids. The garden project helps to:

1. Teach children responsibility
2. Provide money for the school (a percentage of the vegetables are sold at the local market)
3. Provide supplements to the school canteen (the unsold percentage of goods is used in the school canteens to add extra vitamins to the children's diets.)

In August 2011, secondary education IT teachers had the idea to compile and publish a textbook. As IT resources in this country are scarce, especially well-written ones in French, the volunteers decided to create their own textbook to use in their classes—and Informatique pour Débutants was born.

The textbook provides a basic overview for high-school level students, but can be adapted for middle school classes as well. While IT teachers across the country agree that teaching typing is the most important skill to learn when using the computer, this book can be used to supplement typing practice and help teachers with lesson planning where their IT classes are weighted and count toward their report card average.

Our goal is to get enough textbooks printed for two schools, one in Fada and one in Loumbila, to use as resources in class or to check out of the school libraries. We also hope to make hard copies available to volunteers in the IRC. The Peace Corps staff is hoping to also present it to the Ministry of Education as an idea for a national IT curriculum as there currently isn’t one.

I recently came across the book Team Challenges: 170+ Group Activities by Kris Bordessa in the Transit House. I am currently searching for ice breakers and small group games for Camp G²LOW and found a few that are worth sharing that could be done rather easily here.

Are there any buildings in your village that have a bat infestation? Have you ever noticed any weird odors as you walk through your courtyard or past your CSPS, schools, youth house, etc?

There's a common misconception among many villagers that bat-proofing has to be costly or hurt the bats, but in reality it's only 9,000 CFA to smoke them out and patch the walls! It's an easy project to do and hygiene is a high priority for everyone. Click the title and scroll down to access the one-page handout. You'll learn what materials you need, what steps to take, and how to finance it.