Inspiring Young Minds

Cohort 4 are continuing to work with two secondary schools, namely Mubumbano and Regina Pacis, following on from the previous cohort. The pupils at the schools join our sessions during their free time. Regina Pacis is the school closest to our office, only a short walk away, whereas Mubumbano is in a more rural location – around a 20 minute drive on unpaved roads. Some of the pupils at this school have to walk several hours every morning to get to school which affects their concentration and motivation. The students at Regina Pacis (aged 15-18) have a good level of English, meaning the language barrier is less of an issue. However, the pupils at Mubumbano (aged 11-15) have less English skills so a lot more of our work has to be delivered in Kinyarwanda.

Volunteers Naomi and Diane helping their group of students present their ideas to the class

The first session we delivered was at Mubumbano with the aim to raise their awareness of human rights; two of our volunteers, Becky and Glody, took the lead. We started by introducing ourselves to the pupils, then we split them into groups to discuss questions about the topic. These included ‘What are human rights?’, ‘What groups/people in your community work for human rights?’ and ‘How do human rights affect your daily life?’ They then presented their answers to the class. The pupils participated well, demonstrating knowledge on the subject as well as a willingness to learn more. At the end of the session we took them outside to play a game called ‘The Rhythm Master’; we stand in a circle with one person starting a rhythm for the rest to copy while three others would try to detect which person is controlling the change in the rhythm. The children enjoyed this game; they look forward to our next session together.

Team Leader Fred playing Rhythm Master alongside pupils from Mubumbano school.

Our most recent session was at Regina Pacis, where we delivered a similar lesson with a few changes to cater to their age; the questions were adapted to further stretch the students’ learning. We started with an activity called ‘Spectrum Line’. Becky and Christine read out a series of statements, the students would then go to one end of the room, the middle or the other end to state whether they agreed, were unsure or disagreed with said statement. When asked about their choices, they showed a great ability to share their views which also demonstrated their understanding for human rights. This continued to be portrayed through the group work activity and presentations. The volunteers would go round the groups to answer any questions they had while thinking about their answers to the questions. The final activity we did was the ‘Ha-Ha Game’ where we all stood in a circle, the first person would say ‘ha’ then the next person would add on a ‘ha’ from the person before them. The aim of the game is to not laugh, if you laugh or crack a smile you’re out of the game. This created a lot of laughter in the group, giving a nice end to the session

Volunteer Becky leading a session on Human Rights at Mubumbano School

During the sessions we did face a few challenges, the language barrier being the hardest, particularly at Mubumbano, which sometimes made answering the students’ questions difficult for UK volunteers as In Country Volunteers would not always be available to translate since they were already busy helping out other groups. Also, in the Mubumbano class there were a large number of students (around 40), making organisation a bit more difficult thus affecting the flow of the session. The students at Regina Pacis already knew quite a lot about human rights so adding things to the session to challenge them was a little difficult for us. However, despite these factors we were able to successfully deliver the sessions, adding to a positive outcome of better understanding for this important topic.

In the weeks to come, we plan to deliver more sessions based around different elements of human rights. For example, the next session we will do at Mubumbano will be on how human rights affect their daily life. We also intend to implement an English Club to give the students at both schools the unique opportunity to improve their language skills with people who speak English as their first language. Mentorships sessions are also a plan for the future.

Volunteer Liliane watching students present their work to the class

Overall, the two sessions we have done have been a great success not only with raising awareness but also creating a good working relationship between the volunteers and the two schools. The work that we do in these schools has a real positive impact on their learning. We and the students look forward to working more together through future session.


Keziah Lewin and Felicity Martin-Daly
Photos by Gianne Pineda and Shema Isaac