Children’s party and Sexual health

(By Ethan “Stitch” Baron)
Thursday 3rd September.

Our newest idea for our community action day was to hold a party at the town hall for the children of our spaces and the community where they could relax and celebrate with us, but as we were here working on basic numeracy and literacy we had a theme of learning and a sexual health talk half way through.

So the day began with the children arriving and taking attendance before being allowed into the hall, they were all given a paper crown and had the opportunity to have their face painted. Inside the hall there was music that children went crazy dancing too, smiling like crazy they began to take their seats and let the day commence, we had a spelling bee, and a maths race, and some children presented to everyone by dancing or singing. As we drew towards midday we split them up into boys and girls to have their respective talks about sexual health, both started off with songs which were met with giggles especially when they sung it in Yoruba. This was followed by a diagram of their genitals and what the different parts did.

Upon welcoming them back into the hall we offered them a little bag of various sweets and a capri-sun style drink. They children were visibly excited as they formed a line that can only be described a tug of war between animals.

Inside the hall began the “fun fair” which consists of different games such as silent cow, egg and spoon, pong, pin the tail on the donkey and twister. The day to me was a success story after one young boy came over to me and said “thank you, I’ve never been to a party” and hugged me. We finished the day with a group picture, today’s CAD was a success to all of us.

(Pictures to be added when 3G is better)

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5 Things I’ve Learned Volunteering

(by Joanna Taylor)

It’s hard to believe our time in Oke-Ero is almost over–call me cliché, but I genuinely do keep thinking we just got off the bus a week or two ago, not two months ago. But just because it’s gone quickly doesn’t mean I haven’t learned, changed, and grown more than I thought I ever could in two months. So to appease all the higher-ups who are probably rolling their eyes at our lack of blog activity, I thought I’d make a list of all the stuff I’ve had the privilege to learn–after all, what’s a blog without a bit of clickbait?

1. Needing help is not the same as being helpless. There’s a tendency for wealthy young volunteers to paint an image of those in developing areas as poor, uncivilised people with no agency or initiative. I’m not romanticising poverty, but these people are some of the strongest, most independent people I’ve ever met–they know more that you ever will about their community and how to improve it. They’re happy to have you, but don’t mistake that for reliance on your presence.
2. Volunteering doesn’t make you a saviour. Like I already mentioned, people in developing communities aren’t  desperate for your help. Don’t get me wrong, they’re incredibly welcoming and love that you’re volunteering with them, but that’s the key: you’re volunteering with them, not for them. You’re not there to bestow some superior Eurocentric knowledge or culture on them–you’re there to exchange knowledge in a mutually beneficial experience.
3. Change is gradual. It can be really frustrating to pour yourself into work, only to feel like nothing’s getting done. I knew beforehand that development doesn’t happen overnight, but these three months really drove home how important it is to be patient.
4. Just because you don’t see a difference doesn’t mean you haven’t made one. I was working with children in a nomadic community, and their English skills are limited. Children everywhere are full of energy and short attention spans, and it can be really frustrating if you feel like they’re not listening to anything you say. The other day, though, we found out that our children went to the leaders in the community every day after lessons to present what they’d learned as a group. Hearing that really renewed my commitment to the project–after weeks of questioning the effectiveness of my work, I learned that we really had achieved a lot without noticing
5. You end up getting more from those you’re working with than they get from you. We often see volunteering as a charitable act, where we sacrifice our time and efforts for others’ benefit. There’s a lot of truth to this–volunteering isn’t easy, and we’re exhausted every night from the stress and work. However, as much as I’ve worked for this community, it doesn’t compare to what they’ve done for me. I can’t begin to express the invaluable things I’ve learned–about development, about the community, and about myself.

This experience wasn’t what a lot of people expect volunteering in Africa to be. It wasn’t a few weeks doing some work to feel good about yourself and get some selfies with cute children to get Instagram likes. It’s a million times more difficult, stressful, and rewarding than that, and if you get the chance, do it. You won’t regret it.

Hi from Egosi Mountain!

The view is amazing, the Internet connection is slightly less terrible, and the blog posts are coming. We promise. It might be our second post in ten weeks, but Team Kwara has done some amazing things. In the meantime, here’s some pictures to celebrate the mountaintop 3G.

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Self-esteem CAD self portraits!

Peer-to-peer education in action

Friendly reminder from the office door

Spaces: Week One

(by Joanna Taylor and Kabel Kiameso, 4 August 2015)

SIDE NOTE: We know, we know, it’s not the fourth of August anymore. But let’s see YOU regularly update a blog with this network connection. We promise there’s more coming though, keep an eye out for us 🙂 #MoDonglesMoProblems

In case you’re wondering, the reason we haven’t posting anything in our first month here is because we’ve all been in debilitating food comas thanks to the incredible food our host families have been giving us.

Just kidding, we had internet problems. (But seriously, I think I may have discovered the key to eternal happiness in the form of fried plantain. Will confirm and get back to you.)

But on to the good news: last week we successfully facilitated our first neighbourhood spaces! (Collective wooooo!)

We’re not going to lie, it was challenging at first. After a week of intense In Community Orientation (INCO), we finally created our first space at Jamaat School field on the 27th of July. Prior to the big launch, we spent the last Friday rallying to inform the community of our space opening. Although we made lots of noise and attracted plenty of attention–well, mostly the Oyinbos (Yoruba for ‘white person’)–very few of us predicted that we would be met with what seemed like every single child in Oke-Ero within the age gap of 6-12 years old. More than 250 of them.

To get straight to the point, this article is not about the amount of children we had or how we couldn’t manage them. Sure enough, 250 hyperactive children on an open field spells disaster for anybody, in any country. The fact that we were the unknown to them and vice versa made the whole situation seem like how I jenvision the first encounter between an alien life form and humans would pan out. Utter confusion. At the start, the word anarchy wouldn’t be an over exaggeration to describe the first encounter between volunteers and pupils. However, as I said earlier, I do not wish to focus on the children but rather to applaud how my fellow volunteers quickly turned the situation around. Within minutes, children were chanting ‘form a big circle…like your mother’s cooking pot!’ Soon after, circles were being formed and children were laughing, playing games led by volunteers and most importantly learning. Whenever things become difficult I will always look back on that day and remember that I have amazing partners in crime who will always find a way to turn things around.

Despite our collective stress and exhaustion, every day built on the progress of the previous one, and by the end of the week, we’d expanded to have at least one space in each of the three communities in Oke-Ero. In the space of a week, we’d gone from futile attempts at mob control to watching children teach their peers in study groups. It’s not perfect, but if last week is anything to go by, #TeamKwara got game.

Compost Pits!

There are different communities in the Oke-Ero local government area of State, but the VSO ICS programme focused basically on three of these communities, namely; Illofa, Egosi and Odo-Owa. The uniqueness of these communities is that they have a part called nomadic communities, in which the dwellers are chiefly herdsmen and farmers. These communities are located in the interior and remote part of the community when compared to the more accessible and opened settlements in the local government area.

The 5th of December, is INTERNATIONAL VOLUNTEER DAY, a day celebrated to appreciate volunteerism across the world, it was marked by volunteers in kwara through the creation of compost pits in these nomadic communities as World soil day was in the same week. The idea was first discussed in our team meeting (of course, we discuss everything in our team meetings), and upon agreement we divided into three groups (lest I forget to say we often group ourselves for different activities by taking numbers especially in ACDs) where each group would visit one of the nomadic communities. These groups were to be led by the work counterpart in these communities, but firstly they were to go into the communities and inform the villagers about the pending visit of the VSO ICS team, and also give a brief orientation about what a compost pit was (they did this quite a number of times).

So on the day for execution of the project, each group as earlier explained went into the different communities headed by volunteers working in those communities as they were familiar with the route as well as the people. There were some surprises, as no pit was dug in the nomadic communities of Illofa and Odo-owa, and this was because the people were not responsive. But on the other hand, it was successfully carried out in Egosi Ile and nomadic Egosi. In these communities the people did not just turn up to learn but to also lend their support, especially in nomadic Egosi, the men asked lots of questions which clearly showed their interest, and ensured that everything discussed was well understood. The pit dug in Egosi ile was actually dug behind one of the host homes, and the home counterparts had already drawn up a plan on how to monitor and ensure that the guidelines for the pit was followed (it’s ok to call them the proactive pair). There you have it, our compost pit creation was fun and work…Did I mention it was our last CAD activity for our cycle?

Just in case you need an idea for an ACTION AT HOME I guess a compost pit is not a bad idea (it’s a great source of natural fertilizer). Some of us didn’t know how to make a compost pit before now, but through this we became enlightened. So I would quickly share easy tips on how to make a compost pit. First, you dig up a square-like hole, not too deep but shallow enough for a fork to get to its depth to allow for easy mixing and turning. Then next thing is to strictly adhere to things that should go into the pit and things that don’t. Things that can go in include; animals dung, leaves, grasses, egg shell, food and vegetable waste. Things that don’t go in include any man made product or waste such as Metallica materials, plastics and rubber, polythene bags and chemicals etc. Water should be sprinkled in the pit from time to time to allow for quick and easy decomposition. The pit should be located where sunlight can reach it for heat, and ensure you cover the pit to keep straying animals away.

The CAD was a good one and fun too. It afforded volunteers the opportunity to visit nomadic communities for the first time (and maybe the only time). So go dig compost pits and enjoy lots of green veggies. Think environmental sustainability…dig compost pits!

AUTHOR: SANDRA IKERI

Teenage Pregnancy Awareness

On the 26th and 27^th of November 2014, one of our team leaders; John Bull organized a program to create awareness on teenage pregnancy. The program was a two-day program held at Odo-Owa town hall on the 26^h and Ogunbiyi memorial hall on the 27^th of November 2014.The program was mainly for secondary school students. This was an avenue to educate the students on the effect of teenage pregnancy and drugs abuse.

We had two speakers on the 26^th of November; the first speaker educated the students on drug abuse while the second speaker focused on teenage pregnancy. This session was a very interesting one. The students were asked to abstain from sex so as to avoid pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections or diseases; this section also gave room for sex education. At the end of the day, the Arota grammar school acted a play on a girl who could not make it to her dreams because of early pregnancy as a result of bad friends. On this note, students were advised to stay away from bad friends and be careful of the type of friends they keep.However, after the play, students were asked to ask questions on area they didn’t understand on the topic. Many questions were asked by the students and answers were given to them to their satisfaction.

On the second day, the event took place at the Ogunbiyi memorial hall. The program also took the same step as the day before. The same topic was treated and advice given to the students.

In life it is not just okay to have a dream, but it is best if we work toward bringing the dream to reality. Dreams are tiny seeds which beautify tomorrow; this is true in the sense that, if you have a desire to plant a particular fruit, you must first of all find the seeds, after that you prepare a good place to plant that seeds, then you water it every morning so that it can grow well, if the seed or plant is not taken care of; it will surely die.

These steps are applicable to our dreams; when we have a dream, and refuse to work towards that dream or give the dream what it needs to become a reality, it will surely wither and die eventually. But if we focus on that dream and work towards it without any distraction, then the dream will surely come to reality. On this note I will like to advise my fellow youths to make a wise decision that will make their dreams come true.

Generally I will like to end this blog with my favourite quote; ‘if you fail to plan, you are definitely planning to fail.’

Written by – Marvellous Anthony

DECISIONS

Everything in life is based on decision making. Coming to V.S.O was a decision I had to make, not easy but I had to because of the love I have for my country, Nigeria. In terms of helping my country to be a moredeveloped country and not an under developed country. Working in Kwara state as a volunteer has in some ways made me feel like I have been able to reach out to the needs of my country. In one way or the other I have helped in the improvement of literacy in Nigeria. I am happy doing this for my country.

                When I first receive a text message to come to Abuja, I thought I would be the only person, I never knew that therewould be great Nigerianyouths ready to serve their father land like me. Whenever I see these people, I say to myself ‘’Nigeria has a great future’’ – when I look at their faces and there is the word ‘’determination’’ written boldly in their foreheads, I am determined more than ever to work hard for the development of this country.

Aside from the national volunteers, we also have volunteers from UK who travelled all the way from their country to Nigeria to help this great country stand on its feet, I must say that this is the greatest sacrifice of all and I congratulate them for their love and care and to that I say a very big thank you to them all. We all work hand in hand, the UK volunteers and the national volunteers. We have counterpart at home which is made up of one U.K and one national, the same goes to our work place.

Back to the time I was leaving home for LagosState; my family askedme what the hell I was going to do in Kwara and Lagos? I told them that I was going to look for the ‘great Nigeria’ although my parent disagree but I was very determined to help in the development ofmy country, because determination they say breathessuccess.

Having been here in Kwara everybody has one or two testimonies of what this program has done for them. Starting from our weekly report, the new things we have all learnt from our communities, whenever we have our ACDs on Fridays, at the end of the day we are all ask to give feedback on our placement (school), we all give our successful part that we have witness so far as well as the failed parts that we have also experienced. Whenever this is carried out, we find out that at the end of the day we all have things to learn from each other.

We have also been able to work as a team, with both the national volunteers and the UK volunteers. So far we have not witnessed any serious problems with each other and for that I am grateful,we have been able to reach half of our set goals and I hope that before we leave the community, wewill be able to have achieved all of those goals.

When we had our Mid-Phase Review in Osun state, we had a cross cultural session, which I happened to be the facilitatorof, we talking about what we have learnt so far in the communities and the different cultures that are similar and different to our own culture and the things that are normal but may cause offense to others that we may not know. In this session meand mycolleagues in charge grouped everybody into fours and asked each group to think of things that are normal but may cause offense to other people and act it out as a short play.The different groups were able to bring out different play out and they all acted it, and at the end of the day, we were able to learn one or two things that we may do that cause offense to others and abstainfrom doing those things.

Before this program began we were told that it is a journey of guided learning, indeed it is a journey of guided learning because we all learn new things every day without the knowledge that we are doing so, we have come to learn more about people, their culture and their beliefs and on that note we have been able to diversifyfromour own culture to this new culture. We find out that even We Nigerians, have entirely different cultures, beliefs, lifestyles and different foods and we too have to adapt to this new culture that is different and eat the food that we have never tasted before. So this is a journey of guided learning.

Written by – MARVELOUS ANTHONY