Staff visit to Nigeria June 14th-June 21st 2010
During the previous 15 years, St Louis projects in Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia and Brazil were sponsored by pupils fund-raising in the school. Every year 10 projects in these countries were sent money raised by these activities. However, a review of the Louis Sisters involvement in some areas resulted in a reassessment of our commitment. A sharper focus on a much smaller number of projects, with a strategic aspect was viewed as been more beneficial. A substantial contribution to a local community could be made, closer ties could be established and feedback on the on-going development could act as a stimulus for further fund-raising. The relationship could also be used as a means of increasing the pupils’ knowledge and awareness of issues facing people in a developing country.
For this idea to develop it was necessary to set-up a fund-raising committee and 10 members of staff joined. Contacts were established with Sr. Patricia Ojo in Nigeria as the Louis Sisters have a strong tradition in that country. Three possible projects were suggested but the difficulty lay in assessing which would be most needy and suitable for our pupils to be involved with. At the same time it was felt that a name/logo was needed to represent the relationship between St Genevieve’s and the projects. Ajosepo, a Nigerian word meaning “Together in friendship and as equals”, was adopted, along with the logo shown on the cover.
As this new relationship was expected to be developed over a long period of time, a decision to visit Nigeria was made by the committee to assess the respective viability of each project. The visit would also enable visits to other Louis Sister schools in Nigeria, specifically the Louis grammar School in Akure providing an international connection that could also be developed.
With approval from the SMT and the BOG and representing St Genevieves, six staff travelled to Nigeria in June 2010. They were Joan Kelly, Catherine Hollywood, Aoife O Hagan, Ronnie Mc Donald, Marie Doherty and Micky Gribbon.
The first night was spent in Ijebu Itele in the grounds of a St Louis School. Sr Margaret greeted and looked after the group. She thanked us for the financial support the pupils of St Genevieve’s had given to her when she worked with her primary health care project in Northern Nigeria over the previous 10 years.
The Vocational School
Over the next six days, the group stayed in the Mater Dei St Louis Compound in Akure, with Sr. Julieanna as our guide. It was in this compound that the first of the proposed projects was located. The Vocational school was run by Sr. Agnes. She had spent study time in Belfast attending BIFE. The vocational school had three year groups with 10, 12 and 12 students in each year. These were young woman from local villages acquiring skills such as printing, sowing, machine knitting cooking and computer use. There was no access to the internet and the equipment was dated. Once the course was completed the young women could then go back to their villages and establish work for themselves and their families. The centre could cater for larger numbers of students but the expense of travelling from the villages every day was too great a cost for most young women.
The Primary School
The next project visited was the primary school in Ondo. The school was founded in 2009 with 120 pupils. Today it has 139 pupils and Sr. Maureen is its principal. The details below give the breakdown of the classes
Kindergarden 1 35 x 2/3 year olds 20 girls 15 boys
Kindergarden 2 24 x 3/4 year olds 11 girls 13 boys
Nursery 1 25 x 4+ 15 girls 10 boys
Nursery 2 31 x 5+ 18 girls 13 boys
Primary 1 24 x 6+ 18 girls 6 boys
The school is for poorer children and the demand for an education is high. The proposed new school is to meet this demand. The pupils are in dilapidated buildings with no excess capacity to meet new enrolment. The staff are enthusiastic and moral is very high even though resources are scarce. The pupils were a delight, giving a bright welcome in dance and song to us, in English, French and their native Hausa language. In primary 1 the pupils were calculating the area of shapes eg LXB. This seemed to be in advance of what occurs at home. To develop, the school had purchased some land and laid the foundations for a number of classrooms but this had stalled due to lack of funding. Additional land for a playground was also needed. To build the school would cost £100,000. The school could be built in phases to accommodate the year on year enrolment.
The Rehabilitation Centre
The third project visited was the rehabilitation and out-reach centre for disabled children. Disabled children and adults have a low status in Nigeria. Sr. Victoria, a qualified physiotherapist runs a centre that attends to the problems of disabled children and adults. The centre is a basic walled building with no facilities or resources to assist in remedial activities for injured or disabled children. Currently she attends to 75+ children and the centre can only hold places for 10 children. The building acts as a day centre for males and females between the ages of 2-20. The second aspect of Sr. Victoria’s work is to outreach to the community. She visits people at home who are not able to visit the centre/clinic and works with them there. By doing this, the local community is being encouraged to take on a greater responsibility. As her work becomes more known the number of cases will increase thus increasing the need for the centre. The proposal is to rebuild a new equipped centre with a resourced play park and to purchase specialised mobile equipment that can be used in the outreach aspect of the project.
On the same site as the centre was a primary health care centre. Sr. Martina had been running this for the last ten years. This was not part of our list of projects but the work that was being done was very impressive. Over the last ten years guinea worm, diarrhoea and kwashiorkor had been eradicated in the local community but they are under pressure now as they have virtually no medications and their foreign sponsorship had ceased. We left all our medication with her, which in her context was significant and additional money we had with us. This project could be sponsored in the future.
The group decided that the project in greatest need was the rehabilitation centre followed by the primary school and that the vocational school was well enough resourced. It was felt that over time the centre and the school would be a good focus for the fund-raising activities for the pupils and that feedback from these would provide a different perspective for the pupils’ view of the world.
St Louis Grammar School
There was great excitement among the students of the St Louis grammar school at our visit. Six white people would not be any every day occurrence. We were warmly welcomed by pupils and staff alike on our tour of the school with songs and speeches. The classrooms were basic, poorly resourced with class sizes of 50 pupils. The style of teaching seemed to be mostly didactic but the school got the best results in the city. The principals of the upper school and the junior school were welcoming hosts and expressed a desire to visit St Genevieve’s in the future to further develop the link.
Nigeria is a volatile country politically and religiously. The Electricity supply is intermittent, roads are dangerous, drinking local water is to be avoided and malaria and disease have a constant presence. In the light of these hazards, everyone got home safely and no-one suffered any ill-health. This was very unusual. This was due in part to the care and attention that the Louis Sisters gave us while we were there. It would not have been possible to do the visit without their assistance and warm hospitality. We left a donation for the centre in lieu of the food and accommodation provided.
Other significant highlights as celebrities included, an audience with the Bishop who had studied in Ireland during the 60s. A high level meeting with the minister of education and her 15 advisors. Being charged with illegal exporting of artefacts from the country and threatened arrest at the airport.
Incomes in the country are very low even for well educated people such as principals and doctors. The benefits from the fund-raising activities go a long way in a material sense but the feeling that someone is thinking about them also came across as important. This can be illustrated by a visit made to a young boy who had broken his back having fallen out of a palm tree. We felt uncomfortable intruding in upon a mother and her sons’ misfortune. She warmly greeted us and thanked Sr. Julieanna. We asked Sr. Julieanna what the mother had said and why she was so animated. She replied that she was given hope because someone had thought about her son and visited him. We had under estimated this impact.
On return to St Genevieve’s staff were given feedback on the visit. In mid-september all form classes were given an update on the use of their funds raised. Currently, additional activities are being organised, a DVD of the visit is being produced and the Ajosepo project will be incorporated into a year 10 collaborative learning activity as part of the revised curriculum. In addition, a permanent display area is being set up at reception and around the school information will be displayed. The aim is to integrate the project into the life of the school.