I visited Sombetini and Oloirian Secondary
Schools today to talk to the students and teachers involved with CASEC’s Health
Clubs – part of the HIV/AIDS Youth programme.
On the way to Sombetini we drove through
the industrial part of Arusha; past factories producing lorries, textiles and beer amongst
others. The school itself is within what was described to me as “the squatter
area” with a line of small shops and businesses barricading the houses behind
from the busy road. These shops sell anything. 12 exquisitely carved wooden
bedsteads and frames reposed next to Massai Solicitors and Legal Aid; food
sellers jostled for pride of place in front of clothes, handbags, mangoes and
melons; whilst young Tanzanian men sat on motorbikes, talking and smoking.
Sombetini School was founded 5 years ago
and since then has grown in numbers from 250 students and 7 staff to 1159
students and 29 staff. Their school buildings have multiplied and they have a
computer room and a temporary laboratory as well as a kitchen with huge metal
stills to provide lunch daily. The Head Mistress, Bertha Lyimo, has a lot to be
proud of and she is convinced that the Health Club has had a big part to play,
“The kids are always smartly dressed compared to the rest of the school,” she
says, “they are knowledgeable and able to impart that knowledge to the other
students. It has had an impact across the school.” It has also had an impact on
Health Club ‘Guardian’, John Chamanga, “I have developed stronger and closer
relationships with my students, as a teacher and as a friend. It is a better
environment for learning.”
The drive to Oloirian School couldn’t have
been more different. The school is out of Arusha along the main road which goes
in and out of the Serengeti, where you sit in traffic watching the inevitable
train of land rovers. You pass buildings of a completely different sort to the
small, old shacks by the road near Sombetini. The Anglican Cathedral; the
famous Arusha Hotel; important compounds surrounded by high, immaculately
painted walls Bertha Lyimo would love to have for her school; and in between-
the tall, waiving maize, promising a harvest of plenty.
I spoke to about 15 students, shy at first,
but once we’d ascertained that they supported Manchester United -and commiserated
with them- they became quite chatty. 250-300 of them meet every Monday during
the school day and they do many things – debates, songs, dances, listen to
talks. They also go on school trips to National Parks (not quite the same as
the beaches at Weston Super Mare) and have a focus of learning while they are
there. Every year each member pays a sum of money which they use to improve
their school – I sat in front of a bookcase of gleaming new books. What they
enjoy most they say is imparting their learning to others, especially adults.
They often train the teachers.
At the end they asked me questions and I
realised how far away the UK must seem to these young people; in the same way
that Tanzania is world away from Bristol schools. Most of the questions were
attempts at relating their own lives to the unknown. “Do you have clubs like
ours in the UK?” “Do girls at school get pregnant in the UK and what happens
when they do?” “Do young people do drugs?” And then the slightly perplexed
“Why, when the UK education system is so good do young people get pregnant or
do drugs?” (Answers on a postcard to Mr Cameron please)
Then they asked about the differences
between them and young people in the UK. It was hard to explain to them but for
me these kids are switched on to their world in a way that 13-15 year olds in
the UK often aren’t. There are very few children of that age in the UK who
would cite influences such as globalisation as a factor in social behaviour
change. Tanzanian youths see a world around them that needs to be changed, but
most importantly, because of programmes like CASEC's they know that they have the power to change it.
The last question? “Do you have a
boyfriend?”
Nice to see that teenagers are the same the
world over.
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