If you think students spend all their spare time avoiding studying, going out with their mates and having a good time then you'd be right. Well our student bloggers do anyway. While they assure us they don't slack on the study, they've got a lot to answer for when it comes to enjoying themselves while volunteering.

All | Emma | Olivia | Fiona | Sammy | Ashley | Rochelle | Tom | TomG | Harry

« Previous day (Sep 11, 2007) | Main | Next day (Sep 13, 2007) »

Tuesday Sep 11, 2007

Book Distribution

Hello again,

The past week and a half has seen the volunteers from Warwick University distributing books to schools around Mtwara region in southern Tanzania.  This has been an interesting and sometimes rewarding experience.  Last week we visited the various districts in Mtwara, distributing to about three schools a day.  It was hard work, as at each school there is a set procedure we follow, talking to the headmaster, the teachers and the students.  We do this to ensure to books will be properly used, and not hidden away in cupboards or anything. 

When the teachers are interested, the pupils enthusiastic and the headmaster welcoming it is easy to feel satisfied and that you really have achieved something by collecting the textbooks and bringing them out to Tanzanian as a free donation.  However this has not been the reaction in every school.  A lot of teachers ask for more, wanting to know why we aren’t providing science equipment or laboratories, some headmasters ask us for money to buy transport for the school and in one school it was obvious that the children had been primed to tell us that the books weren’t enough and they wanted more.

I’m not criticizing the children or the teachers (I do however think that the headmasters display a slightly bizarre attitude when they say their greatest need is for a car, when their schools don’t have water or electricity), infact I think that have a valid point.  What we are doing as a charity is only scraping the surface.  However when you have worked hard all year to achieve something you really believe in because you want to give children who don’t have as much as we did a little bit more it is an attitude that can be a bit disappointing.   I would like to be able to do more and I’m sure my fellow volunteers would too.

The fact is though that we can’t.  Not yet anyway.  One night after discussing the sentiments I have expressed above I realized this disappointed attitude lacked a little faith.  I am sure that out of the twenty five schools we will give books too, ten might not use then to their full potential, in five schools books might go missing and in another five the pupils might not have as much access to them as we ask too.  However if only in one school the books are used properly I would be happy.  If only one or two children learnt something new I would be happy.  That is a better situation than before.  Some people work their whole entire lives to change or better just a few people’s lives.  I have been lucky enough, through READ, to have the chance to do that already. 

The point I am trying to make, is that often in development and with the issues I have highlighted in my previous blogs, the issues can become so complex that it is easy to become disillusioned.  Imposing on someone else’s culture, aid dependency, tied aid and debt are all serious issues that need discussing and should be the focus of acamdemic debate.  Let us not forget though that a lot of people around the world are doing lots of good things on a very simple level.  To me, READ is successful because it is keeping things simple.  How can you go wrong by giving books?  They might get stolen, but if the person steals them what else are they going to do with them but read them.  They might get sold on but again they are going to be read.  READ cannot at present provide science labs, teacher training, water infrastructure or buildings.  It can give books and any impact these have, however small, however much it disappoints your original expectations should be celebrated.  By giving books, something has changed and more choices open up.  What after all is development about if it is not giving people more choices?

Having said all of this, and being proud of what the Warwick Tanzanian Book project has achieved, what READ has achieved and what me the other volunteers out here have achieved there is always scope for more.  Next year I think we can give more books, I think we can raise more money.  More than this I think READ can do more to ensure these books are used and understood.  This is not disappointment, but ambition.  Right now I am proud, but next year I want to be prouder.  

Posted by Tom G ( 4:00 PM )
Link to this post Comments[0]