Let the workshops begin!

What an electric day 4 has been. 3 English workshops were delivered to separate classes of 184 kids!!!!. Patrycja, Basia, and Carlos lead class 1 with Children tasked with clapping to the correct number as they counted up from 1-9. As well as numeracy, basic English was taught in the second classroom by Abi, Andy, and Bhads. Doug and other volunteers walked into the tune of “Hello, how are you?” by the buzzing class of young students. The third set of children were taught by Kingsley and Martina. Both basic phrases and numeracy were recited to give the class a basic grasp of English.

Most importantly, the menstruation workshop took place in the bibliotheque with over 100 young girls attending in the first day. This year’s main focus was on improving the knowledge and practices around menstruation for the young girls. URBOND identified a lack of sanitary products, appropriate toilet facilities, and lack of knowledge to be the key factors to be addressed for increasing school attendance and reducing childhood pregnancy.

The task of delivering the workshop fell to Catarina and Mariam. Catarina, who is a Portuguese native, did a fantastic job of introducing herself to the group in perfect French. The workshop was assisted with the projector which displayed key information on menstrual cycles and pregnancy information in which the young girls could learn from. Mariam, also a fluent French speaker, delivered the workshop after Catarina’s introduction to engage the young girls with all the information provided.

In the early afternoon, the remaining volunteers proceeded to sand the exterior and interior spaces of the newly built toilet facilities. The other main project this year was providing the young girls a proper toilet facility, which needed to be finished by the end of the trip. Drame then gathered parents and young people together to discuss the rising issue of irregular migration from Guinea, and other parts of North West Africa, to mainland Europe. Between January to October 2019, 28% of irregular migration from West Africa was made up of Guinean nationals (IOM, 2019). The lack of job opportunities were discussed with inadequate English language skills and computer literacy. identified as key barriers.

With this information, URBOND can implement programmes to improve these areas and tackle yet another major problem in the country of Guinea. This will be realised by providing URBOND training centre that is looking to be launched in January 2023. More information can be found on the URBOND blog here: https://childeducation.urbond.org/urbonds-support-in-preventing-illegal-immigration-in-guinea/

Overall, it has been the best day we have had so far, with great momentum continuing in the English classes, as the URBOND team look to change people lives forever.

For more information on irregular migration from North West Africa to Europe: https://migration.iom.int/europe/arrivals?type=arrivals