Football Shirts Project

Since I returned from Rwanda, the soccer shirts have continued to roll in. Today I visited St James School in Bulkington to pick up several bags full. These have been brought in by the children and Headteacher, Paul Ison introduced me to soccer enthusiast Todd Loveitt who had contributed several of them. I shall send off a consignment to Rwanda for distribution to children there pretty soon & will be pleased

to accept any other that are no longer wanted and which people are willing to donate. I have been speaking to Paul about his wish for children at his school to make contact with a school in Rwanda and I'm very much hoping that this will happen. I know youngsters in Rwanda will be interested to hear from their counterparts here and there is much that can be learnt from one another.

Reflections on Teaching

I am now back in Kigali, where there is a better internet connection, waiting for our flight back to the UK. I thouroughly enjoyed my time with my class and hope that the language exercises we worked on will have improved their English. The teachers take a number of subjects which have been taught in French up to now. A change of policy by the Rwandan Government, wishing to align itself with English speaking East Africa and the Commonwealth is the reason for the programme we have been involved in. Yesterday we held a closing ceremony with each class presenting a song. My class chose "Old MacDonald had a farm", and had great fun with the farmyard noises. I was later presented with some superb gifts which will remind me of my time with them. While we worked to a lesson plan, there was room to work on issues that interested the students, and I had a fair amount of preparation to do each evening. I now have a healthy respect for the job all teachers do and an understanding of how difficult the role can sometimes be!

Teaching the Teachers

I arrived late in the town of Huye, previously known as Butare, late on Sunday and was thrust into my first lesson as an English Teacher at 8.00am next day. I have a class of around (it has varied by session) 40 teachers, of a broad range of ages, experience and knowledge of English. It's occasionally a challenge! We are working from a 2 week prepared course with plenty of scope for improvisation. We have played word games and sang, and today the class made presentations on the theme, "What I would do if I were the President of Rwanda." I heard much about the Teacher's priorities for improving the education system, the care for children and the work needed on economic development. We teach until 2pm with two half hour breaks and so there is time to visit the local area after we have finished working.
Yesterday I went to the Rwandan equivalent of the FA Cup semi final with the local team making its way to Saturday's final in Kigali on the away goals counting double rule, since both legs resulted in a draw. The local crowd went wild and it didn't seem possible that a fairly small by UK standards, crowd could make so much noise. Today I visted the Rwandan National Museum which is based here and provides a backgroung to the country's more distant history and culture.
We will be here until Friday when the course finishes and we make our way back to Kigali for a final night with the entire team on Project Umubano and our flight home on Saturday.

Soccer match

Last year I thouroghly enjoyed the match we played at the textile factory. Yesterday we went back to the community centre the contruction team completed last year. We played a rolling five aside game against a team of youngsters aged between probably 8 and 15 and I think we lost about 10-9. At one stage they were running rings around us which was pretty embarrasing considering we had three FA coaches amongst us, taking part in their own project working with the Rwandan football authorities and including Alastair Burt MP. It was great for those who had helped construct the pitch see that it is put to such regular use and we had a fun, if tiring, afternoon after the physical work earlier in the day.
Today I will be switching projects to join the teachers in Butare where I will be taking over from Nick Hurd MP who took the class last week. Never, having taught before, I am approaching this role with a degree of trepidation, although Nick tells me the students are great. I'd better get my lesson planning done!

Umuganda

Normal life comes to a halt on the last Saturday of the month in Rwanda when everyone is expected to take part in a community activity called Umuganda. Yesterday we joined a huge group of people laying a drain on a hillside, digging the trench and filliing it with rocks and stone. I joined the team mixing cement, a task which was attacked with great gusto. By the end of an hour or so I was exhausted and with hands covered in blisters. In a slightly surreal moment, just now on Sunday morning, I have been listening to Andrew Mitchell MP, the leader of our project explaining how pleased we were to be taking part. Outside where I am staying are are number of houses where the kids play outside and the radio is often on. I awoke to hear an English language station with the morning news and Andrew's dulcet tones!

Meeting the President and Ministers

On Friday I was invited to join MPs and Candidates who are in Kigali to a meeting with President Paul Kagame. This took place in the eqivalent of the cabinet office and we spent two hours talking about the five area that make up Project Umubano. A discussion took place on matters affecting Rwanda generally and in greater detail about the relationship with neighbouring Congo; the state of the official opposition and the recent banning by the Rwandan Government of the Kinywandran local language service of the BBC. In each case the President put forward a strong case for his Government's interests, putting them in the context of Rwanda's recent history and current situation. After the meeting I was able to speak to Minister of Education, Daphrosa Gahakwa in more detail about our project to help survivor students compete in the jobs market.

The Project Progresses

I have struggled to blog as we have been busy putting the documentation together on the advice to college leavers. There is some urgency since the document needs to be ready for printing on Sunday and on that day I leave for my teaching role in Butare in the south of the country. We have met with fomer students to learn their perspective on the recruitment process at the Groupe des Anciens Etudiants Rescapes du Genocide (Group of Former Student Survivors of Genocide). This is a well oganised group of young people who are helping one another to overcome the major difficulties they face. Our discussion moved on to politics more generally and those we met were keen to learn more about our system. I also found time to meet with one more employer, Raj Rajendran, MD of the textile manufacturer, Utexrwa, with whom I spent several days last year. It was great to see the progress the business has made in its new fields of silk production and mosquito nets as well as to find about the internships Raj is setting up in his business,

Meetings, meetings

Our project is now gathering momentum. In order to advise candidates how to best prepare for applying for jobs we have started off by meeting employers. This is to understand the recruitment process here in Rwanda and find out what is expected of applicants. So far we have met The Public Service Commission, The Rwanda Development Bank and The Rwanda Development Board from the public sector and RwandAir and MTN, an extremely progressive mobile phone company from the private sector. The next stage is to meet up with students to get their perspective on the process before pulling our ideas together and prepare a prersentation and handout. Key to our thinking is to leave behind a process by which candidates from the survivor community have an improved chance when they apply for their first position in work.

Mentoring Project

Our team met today to start work on our project. We will be providing advice on applying for jobs to young people who are survivors of the 1994 genocide and who are being supported by our friends from SURF. We met at SURF's headquarters just outside Kigali located on the site of a memorial to victims where 40,000 bodies are interred. We have a plan in place to firstly find more about the needs of local employers and the current level of knowledge of the people we are helping. We will then draw up a presentation and a toolkit to leave behind for those who follow using the broad range of skills within our group. It's good to be making a start!

Why we're here

Our projects start on Monday so there has been time to make a few visits.
Yesterday, along with PPCs, Rob Halfon (Harlow), Wendy Morton (Tynemouth) and aspiring PPC Karen Robson I visited the orphan's school where the first building project took place two years ago. We were shown around by Director, Eugene, and Wendy who proudly pointed out the wall she had painted. The school accommodates 200+ children and is working hard to generate funds for more badly needed facilities. It was a timely reminder of why we are here.

Project Umubano 2009

The first part of the group from the Conservatives working in Rwanda this year arrived in the capital city Kigali yesterday evening and we will be joined by others on Saturday. I will be in Rwanda for the first week working on the mentoring project and next weekend I will transfer to Butare in the south of the country where I will be teaching English. It's a year since I was last here & have already noticed a number of new buildings where construction has finished but in many ways it seems I was only here a few weeks ago. The sounds and smells, and the air of relaxed commotion (if that's not a contradiction) hit me immediately as we came though the airport and on the bus journey to our accomodation. We have a couple of day to acclimatise and then the briefings and meetings begin.

Teaching English as a Foreign Language

In Rwanda I will be joining the team teaching Rwandan teachers English for them to teach both language and their own subject in English. Yesterday I went on a full day's crash couse to learn the principles with a variety of exercise and finishing up with teaching practice. There's a lot more to it than I expected and I an sure we will be doing a great deal of improvising & learning on the job when we get there. I shall start collecting props and ideas straight away & I'm sure that my daughter, Sara who is 11 will give me some starters. The course tutor handed us a copy of the English Language Gazette at the end which includes an article about Rwanda's rejection of French in favour of English as it's second language with a quote from Trade and Industry Minister, Vincent Karega, about the development of English as the backbone for growth and development in the region.

Rwanda 2009

They say few people visit Africa only once and that's true for me as I will be again joining the Conservative Partys team in Rwanda this summer. Last year I worked on a project supporting small businesses and this year I will be joning two. The first will be teaching English to primary school teachers and the second is a new project for 2009 providing mentoring support for young genocide survivors who are reaching the age where they are applying for University places and for jobs. I hope to bring to use my experience as a buisiness owner having assessed many cvs and applications and as a dad with my own children having gone through this process. Last week we met with David Russell of SURF, the UK based Fund supporting survivors, to get our early ideas together.

Rugby's Football Shirts in Rwanda

I have received these photos of the shirts we sent over a few weeks ago. Great to see they are being put to good use!

Football shirts to Rwanda

Last week we sent the first consignment of 350+ shirts to Kigali for the young footballers of the club we played against when I was there last summer. The shirts have come from individuals and groups, and have also been collected by local school children. There are several England shirts as well as Man Utd, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal, all of whom are well known throughout Africa. Quite what the kis there will make of the many Coventry City shirts in the bundle I dont know, but will maybe the Sky Blue will help put The City on the map! I an very grateful to local firm TNT for arranging the freight to Rwanda and their driver, Dave, was a real star when he came to our offices to collect them.

Football Shirts update

More and more unwanted, grown out of & "old sponsor" football shirts are coming in to our office to be sent over to Rwanda. I now have a very generous offer to despatch the shirts over to people who will really appreciate them & expect to send the first consignment in the next couple of weeks. The project has caught the attention of the team running the blog page on the Conservative Party website and a report can be found here.

Back to school

As part of my appeal for soccer shirts for Rwanda, I have now visited several schools. On Friday, I went to my old school, Lawrence Sheriff, and spoke to full school assembly, around 600 students, in what is for me the new sports hall. This was probably my biggest local audience who listened attentively, no doubt due to the presence of school masters in the aisles. However, it was nice to discover that the place hasn't lost it's sense of irreverence. As I left, unaware that I was behind him, one of the older lads called across to his mate, "Hey, Noel, didn't you think that was a waste of time!" I thanked him for his support to which he replied, "Well you did take a while to get to your point!" Perhaps a fair observation & a general one that I should remember in preparing speeches. Anyway, I look forward to receiving his shirt to send over to Africa.

Questions & answers

pTotal Politics is a fairly new publication with a strong on-line presence which describes itself as "a lifestyle magazine for the political class" publishing items of cross party interest. I bought a copy before attending conference and found several articles worth reading, both light hearted and more serious. A week or so ago I was invited to respond to a Q&A they have given to various candidates, MP's, comentators and other politicos. The article is at: http://www.totalpolitics.com/politico.php They've secured at least one new regular reader!

School visit

I spent this morning at Oakfield Primary School where I had been invited to address the entire School about what has become known as my "Football Shirts for Rwanda" appeal. The school already has an understanding of issues relating to overseas development, having a link with and having sent books to Ghana. I found the children receptive about what I am trying to achieve with an interest in how the facilities for youngsters to play football in Rwanda. I was asked whether they had nets on their goal posts and when I explained about a dirt pitch with wooden sticks for posts and a ball made from plastic bags tied up with string there was real concern & understanding. Less understanding, however, about my support for the local league side Coventry City! I enjoyed speaking with the Headteacher about the challenges facing the school and the excellent progress they have made in recent years.

Conference Tuesday

Conference isn't all listening to speeches, joining in with fringe debates &meeting up with old friends. For the past few years a social action project has taken place and this morning I joined a number of volunteers who are refurbishing and re-equiping a fomer Council property as a drop in centre on a nearby housing estate. With my DIY skills it's just as well they didn't give me anything too important to do.