World Refugee Day

World Refugee Day

Tomorrow is World Refugee Day and a good opportunity for me to provide a brief summary of the activities here in Mole Camp these past five weeks. To date, we have instituted three very successful projects: The expansion of the English Club; the creation of a primary school English program, and a Girl's Empowerment Club. In addition, we are planning to create a secondary English program based on the Conflict Resolution curriculum utilized in Rwanda. The surprising success of these programs is due to the English leaders, the camp committee, and the hundreds of students who have wholeheartedly joined in. A little information about each program:

The English Club - The English Club is the heart of all of our endeavors here! The three leaders are Teddy, Juliette, and Saint Fort. They had created the club long before I got here and kept it alive with precious few resources. To their credit, they had plans and have integrated those ideas into the resources I have provided. They pump their energy into everything English related here and it shows. When you walk through the camp, you hear hundreds of little voices saying "Hello" "How are you?" What is your name?" "Where are your from?" "I am from Bangui, Central African Republic."  Each of the three leaders is taking responsibility for a different project and they support each other. They host a meeting three times a week where the members have fun and practice various English skills. There are a lot of games, conversation, questions, and personal development activities. Currently, each member is writing their Life Story in three parts: My life in Bangui, My life in Mole, and My future life. We are also completing a Handbook for English Clubs that we will share with other camps around the world.

The Primary School English Program - Each day, three days a week, we invite the children to an open English lesson with older students and adults. The beginning of the lesson is a basic introduction to a topic or skill. After thirty minutes, the children leave the group and go out and reassemble with older student leaders. These student leaders (ten of them now) then provide more practice and feedback to the children. Saint Fort recruits, trains, and supports the student leaders.  Each day our numbers increase and we are approaching 150 students in the program. Teddy and Juliette then stay behind and extend the lesson for the older and adult students.

The Girls Empowerment Club - Juliette coordinates this new program and the girls are flocking to the sessions. After two meetings, there are more than 60 young girls participating. They work on self-confidence, positive self-image, and supporting one another. Juliette recruits positive role models from the camp to speak to the girls. They play games, explore crafts, and laugh a lot.

Secondary English Program - We have a basic conflict resolution curriculum provided by the embassy that we will utilize as the foundation for an English program for the secondary school children in the camp. The topics provide will provide an interesting context for further English exploration.

Some pictures from the camp

Our Three Leaders (from left to right) - Saint Fort, Juliette, and Teddy making a presentation to the camp committee to adopt the English programs. The committee was very enthusiastic and supportive, and the work is progressing rapidly

Juliette leading the first meeting of the Girls Empowerment Club. There were more than 45 young ladies in attendance and Juliette expects that number to double by next week

The children listening to the introduction before they go out and work with their student leaders

Saint Fort assigning students to their groups

One of the student leaders finding a shady nook to extend the lesson

Teddy "extending time" for the advanced group

The English Club often utilizes "contextualized learning." Here we are out in a member's garden learning the English words for all things agricultural

The English Club out in the field

Learning to play Red Rover, Red Rover

Writing about her life in Bangui before the war

The entire camp has embraced the English initiatives the English Club has created. The classes are full of children, young adults, and grown ups. It truly has become an English Epidemic!