PLACEMENT FOR DAY CARE CENTRE
COUNTRY: TANZANIA – Kilimanjaro
NAME OF PARTNER ORGANIZATION KIGANGONI DAY CARE CENTRE,
P.O. BOX 3041,
MOSHI.
Contact:
Rev. Fr. Joseph Babu, Tel: 0754 495623
Akwilina, Tel 0752 886635
Alumni references: Patty Raab: raabpa@msn.com
Allie Bozovsky: ambozovsky@bsu.edu
Jennifer Reif: issaquahflowergirl@comcast.net
Anna Thomson: Got_the_travel_bug@hotmail.com
General Information about the Partner organization
Kigangoni Day Care Centre is owned by the Parish. They take in children of ages between 3 – 7 years old, most of whom are coming from the community working class families and farmers. The school serves as a care center while parents are busy in their daily work. Currently there are 45 children and some of them are orphans. The school is in dire need of volunteers to assist and give advice in day to day running of the center.
The school runs between 8.30 and 11.00 am.
Duties
Apart from day caring, the school offers pre-primary education. The duties therefore include:
•To assist resident teacher in teaching basic literacy (i.e. writing, reading, counting, shapes, colors)
•Providing physical activities to a group of children.
•Playing games with the children and have fun
•Work hand-in-hand with the Teacher Akwilina to develop pre-school activities and materials that can be used.
•Providing personal presentation and experience to the children and teacher for cultural and educational exchange.
Supplies and desirable Attributes
•Readily designed group activities with facilitator instructions, ready for review and implementation.
•Supplies for physical education activities, music for different activities
•Toys/things to be used for teaching different activities
•Materials for painting
Attributes:
•Love of children and a flair for teaching
•Patience with children and ability to provide effective classroom management
•Elementary School Level teaching skills are important and ability to adjust your speech to a very low of annunciation
•Creativity in the design of learning activities with very little supplies or modern equipment
•An interest in sports will be an added advantage, as there is space all around the school to play
Extra Notes:
The school runs in the church which is not yet finished and so it is very dusty, and the floor is not paved or covered. Also, the walls and roof is still being constructed. For your safety and health, it is best for you to wear shoes that are closed-toe, such as sneakers or loafers. As well, there are very few materials. Please bring materials that you can use at your placement
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5 comments:
Kigongoni is a challenging, but ultimately rewarding placement. It is a church run school that is held in large "building"--which is essentially a huge cement building with a corrugated metal roof, and a dirt floor. Be prepared for tremendous amounts of dirt and dust. You always get dirty, but you do get used to it. I suggest wearing dark clothes--forget anything white.
There are no resources other than an old blackboard that the teacher brings in each morning. The teacher speaks essentially no English. After the first few days, CCS arranged for some local teenage boys who were on a break from school to come and help us translate. Ours were Stephen and Farahani, who were absolutely fantastic and made a huge difference for us. I encourage anyone who has this placement to request a local volunteer to help translate. There are about 50 kids in a huge space, so it is a challenge to keep them all engaged and from running around. The teacher is not much help in this regard. She does a few prayers and group things first thing in the morning and then has the kids write letters and numbers in order over and over. She also just lets the kids run around most of the time. Even though this sounds critical, I realize that she has a very difficult job with no resources and so many kids.
After a few days, we realized that the best approach is to break the kids in groups and work with 10 or so at a time. It would even be better to form permanent groups based on the kids' level of knowledge. We are trying to help the next volunteers do this, so hopefully it can be passed along. It is very helpful to bring some simple books about counting,colors and alphabet and some other items that would assist kids in learning numbers and letters. It would also be great to think of very simple games and songs. Songs we did: "hokey pokey," "wheels on the bus," "when you're happy and you know it," "mr.clown". Some games: Red Light/Green Light; a game where the kids hold letters or numbers up and we yell out the number and they have to lift it up. We eliminate kids who get it wrong and the last one left gets a sticker. They love getting stickers and it does seem to motivate them. It is also helpful to bring materials for simple art projects such as construction paper and crayons or markers. It helps them learn colors and they don't seem to have much opportunity to do art.
I would be happy to discuss this with anyone who wants. Feel free to email me at melissabalaban@gmail.com
Good luck and give those adorable kids kisses for me.
-Melissa and Maya Balaban-Wergeles
Alex and I love the children
and are really enjoying our placement. The language barrier is a challenge as the children speak very little english. None of us speak much swahili, but we manage. Aqualina, the teacher speaks a little english and makes an effort to communicate with us. She is very sweet and truely appreciates the volunteers. Depending on the weather, we have between 25 and 50 kids attending.
Their skills are very basic - 1-10 n english and swahili and reciting vowels. We are working on the whole alphabet. SOme of the kids are very smart and it is difficult to challenge them with so many other
children around. There are 5 volunteers at Kigongoni, but it is still very difficult to give any one child too much individual attention.
The children love to color. We brough coloring pages and crayons. We also brought some art projects that we won't be able to use. Because there are no desks and it is hard to keep order, tryng to show the kids an art project would be futile. They love crayons, markers and pencils.
We bring some every day, but don't get too many back for use the following day.
The children are all beautiful and we will miss them when we have to leave.
Patty
Helpful Swahili words:
ACHA - STOP (COMMAND)
KULA - EAT (COMMAND)
CHAKULA - FOOD
HAPA - HERE
HAPANA - NO
MGENI - VISITOR (this is what they call you)
CHOO - TOILET
KAA - SIT (COMMAND)
NZURI - GOOD
NJOO - COME (COMMAND)
SIMAMA - STAND (COMMAND)
UKO - THERE
KUTEMBEA - TO WALK (to go for a walk)
WAPI - WHERE
NAOMBA - CAN I PLEASE HAVE IT
PICHA - CAMERA
PIGA PICHA - TAKE A PICTURE
KIMBIA - RUN
UNA MIAKA MINGAPI - HOW OLD ARE YOU
KUWA MAKINI - BE CAREFUL
KWAHERI KESHO - GOODBYE SEE YOU TOMORROW
PENDANENI - LOVE EACH OTHER
SIELEWI - I DON’T UNDERSTAND
SIJUI - I DON’T KNOW
KAZI NZURI - GOOD JOB
SUBIRI KIDOGO - JUST A MINUTE
SUBIRI - WAIT
I cannot begin to express how special this placement is. The children are absolutely amazing. One thing I didn't expect is that they have no tools whatsoever. Most of the kids do not have pencils or workbooks so after the lesson you lose a lot of kids to running around outside because they do not have what they need. The way the lessons were structured when I started there was that we taught (Aqualina takes a back seat when volunteers are there) and then we would try to get some workbooks and write down the lessons. Not only did we lose the kids that didn't have workbooks, we also lost interest from the kids who were waiting to have the lesson written in their book. By the time I left, we bought workbooks and pencils for everyone and wrote the lessons in their books the night before. We tried very hard to make sure each child got the same book each day so that we could tailor each book to that child's level. It was a lot of extra work but well worth it. Some kids can't write their numbers so we did connect the dots from them. Other kids are doing addition so it's making sure each child is learning and being challenged.
When Patty and I got there, the floor in the school room was dirt and the church was bolders. Ten weeks later they had poured concrete so while it was a better environment, you still need to supply pretty much everything. Jump ropes are a huge hit. Soccer balls are always loved. And art. These kids love to color and love to see their art displayed. You'll need 50 copies of whatever you want to color and crayons. The kids are used to getting only one or two crayons each and do an admirable job sharing. Definitely take strong tape to put their work on the walls of the classroom. It also transforms a dull room into something with lots of color and beauty.
I am also incredibly jealous if you are getting ready to embark on this incredible journey, and especially if Kigangoni will be part of your experience. Please, please email me if you have any questions. wendygbrowning@yahoo.com. Enjoy your time. The kids will touch your heart in ways you never could have possibly imagined.
Kigangoni was an absolutely amazing experience. You must have a translator though, unless you are a fluent Swahili speaker. The thing that struck me most at first was how they literally have no supplies. I'm not quite sure what I was expecting but most kids show up to school without pencils or workbooks. The structure of the class was frustrating at times but you find what works best for you. When volunteers are there, the teacher, Aqualina, really takes a backseat in the lessons. You teach either writing or numbers. At first it seems like the kids really know their stuff but the more time you spend, the more you realize that some of them have memorized the order of the letters and numbers and don't know 2 from 7 or b from t. They just know how to rattle it off in order. After the lesson, we would have the kids do some work in their books. We lost about half the class at that point because they didn't have workbooks. Then we lost a lot of the rest because they were bored waiting for us to write the lesson in their books. We then bought workbooks and pencils for everyone and would write the lessons the night before. We had each child use the same book every day so that we could see their level and tailor the next day's work to their ability. This was a ton of extra work each night but well worth it. Some kids can't write their numbers so we would do connect the dots for them and then some kids are learning addition so we would give them equations. It was important for each child to be learning, challenged and engaged.
We also tried to do some art or coloring every day. Take 50 copies of whatever you want to color. The kids are really used to only getting one or two crayons each and do an admirable job of sharing. Take strong tape to display their work on the walls of the classroom. Not only do they love seeing their colorings but it also makes a pretty drab room beautiful.
Melissa mentioned that the floor is dirt. In the 10 weeks that I was there, I saw them complete the concrete, which was VERY exciting.
For play time, jump ropes are a huge hit. The soccer ball is another winner. And they love to have you blow bubbles.
Learn your Swahili numbers before you go, it will make things much easier on you.
This is such a great placement and you will get a ton out of it. If you are at Kigangoni, you will be working with some kids from Matumaini. Please go there in the afternoon. Those children are also amazing and will make your experience so much more enriching.
If you have any questions or want to discuss anything, feel free to email me at wendygbrowning@yahoo.com.
Wendy
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