From Catch-Up to Comfort Primary, but still the same ethos at the heart

 When I first visited Comfort Primary School, it wasn't a registered school at all, but was a 'Catch Up' school for children who were living on the streets. It was set up by Theoneste and his wife - an incredible couple who I had the privilege to spend time with over the years during their time here on this earth.

The children from the streets who attended had to agree to leave their 'glue bottles' at the gate, but in exchange they got some real food for the stomach, some educational food for the mind, and some spiritual food for the soul. And hope, and love, and dignity. A very special place.

Over the years, the school has developed. More classrooms have been added, local children started attending alongside the children from the streets, the toilet block got completed. Now the school is registered with the local authorities, it has an official name - Comfort Primary School - and is a fully mainstream school with 3 classes for the pre-schoolers, and the full extent of 6 primary classes. 

It's equally good news for the children from the streets who were all found foster homes where it wasn't appropriate for them to return home, so that they all now have a roof to sleep under, a place to go to at the end of the day, and a family who care for them.

However, despite the change of name and the growth in the school, still at its heart is an ethos of providing a loving, caring, holistic education for marginalised children. And therefore, although you can't tell from looking, some of the children at the school don't pay education fees as they come from impoverished backgrounds, and some of the children are living with foster carers as they have just been rescued from the streets. They've got their own school uniform, and they have all the same opportunities as those who do pay the fees, but the extra thing that they've got is a new sense of hope. Having reached the depths of whatever caused them to run to the streets, and then experience the realities of that existence, to now have the hope that comes with being able to attend school, to be offered a foster home, and to have adults who support and care for them - what a great new start for them.

The past few days I've been doing some training with the teachers at the school - looking in more depth at how we learn, the impact of trauma on child development and learning, and how we can help children embark on a journey of healing and identity and wellbeing. Its concepts that they haven't really come across before, and that certainly don't appear in the teacher training curriculum. The training was well received, and as always it was lovely to see them having those 'lightbulb moments'.

But it was also a stark reminder of just how different it is out here and how little resources there are with regard to additional support. One teacher spoke of a lad who attends school who has such poor eyesight he can't read the blackboard. 'What should I do?' he asked me. I suggested moving the lad closer to the board to see if that helped which the teacher agreed to try. But when I asked about access to eye tests, or large print resources etc, the teacher just sighed, shrugged, and said 'we have none of that, not here, not for us'. 

Despite the lack of resources though, the teachers were very excited at putting the training into practice. As one of them said at the end of the workshop: 'with this training we can bring more comfort to the children at our school'. They are certainly putting their name into action!

Encouraging response to training from the prison chaplains

It’s always good to get positive feedback, we all like receiving it. Over the past few days I’ve been delivering some training to a group of chaplains and volunteers who go into nine of the thirteen prisons in Rwanda on a weekly basis. The training is a programme that I’ve pulled together over the past few years. It has slowly developed as a result of reflective conversations with various of the CRED Partners, lots of reading around relevant topics, and advice and input from some key friends and professionals in the UK. It is a work in progress, and it continues to be honed and refined. But it is fit for purpose and it has been a real joy and honour to share it with the folks this week.

The response to the training has been wonderful. Yes, it’s been personally gratifying to know that the materials have gone down well, and that the hard work of developing them has been worth it. It’s been good to know that the original hunches and thoughts that led to the development of the materials were correct, and that there is a place for this.

But most of all it’s been fab to hear how the chaplains perceive that the materials will help to enhance their work, and input into the lives of the prisoners that they are working with.

As with all prisoners, the range of crimes committed by them are wide and varied. Some are serving sentences related to crimes during the genocide, although that is now a small percentage as most of that category of prisoner have done their time and been released. Some are inside serving sentences for crimes that they have been tried for. But others are inside waiting for their trial, with little access to representation, little knowledge of their rights, and all within a justice system that moves slowly.

The chaplains are allowed inside the prisons to carry out chaplaincy-type duties: preaching, teaching, and discipleship sessions at a group level, and a few opportunities for one-on-one interventions. The need is overwhelming, and the list of inmates in need of additional support at a spiritual, emotional and psychological level grows at an alarming rate. The work that they do is incredible, the stories that they share are heart-rending, the passion that they have for the work, and for transforming the lives of others is beyond commendable.

And so, to hear their feedback about how the materials will help has been so encouraging and uplifting. Here are just a few examples of their reflections:

-        - We have been helped ourselves. It’s not just about using the materials to help others, but it will also help us to be stronger in our ministries.

-        - More understanding now on why a person might be behaving as they are – whether it is stress, or trauma etc. So, if we know more about what happened to them, then we can help them become a better human being again.

-        - This is like a key that can help unlock some of the problems that we encounter.

-        - Everyone in prison has a trauma of some sort, but everyone can be helped through these materials, if we can just get the chance to share with them. So, we need to request more opportunities for individual time with inmates. We need to encourage the prison staff to help move the opportunities from mainly group work, to having opportunities for individual counselling time as well.

-        - We also need to share these learnings with the workers in the prisons, and then the prisoners will be given help from the same direction by everyone. The medical staff, the prison guards, the additional staff – it would be good if they can all be trained.

It’s been a very special few days, seeing God take these materials and use them to speak into the lives of the chaplains, His servants here in this ministry. And it’s humbling to know that through the chaplains, these materials will speak into the lives of some of the most broken souls as they serve their sentences. Definitely some resonance with Isaiah 61:1 going on here!

 

 

Made it back to Rwanda – at last!

I guess it’s no more than the same emotion many people are experiencing just now, as country borders start to open up again and reunions that were put on hold for two years are finally able to happen, but boy is it good to be back in Rwanda!

I was last here in the autumn of 2018, and the intention was to then be here in spring of 2019 with a team of young people. That didn’t happen for non-Covid reasons, but the next attempts to get to Rwanda, in spring of 2020 and again in November 2021 were both scuppered due to lockdowns, travel restrictions and in-country quarantine rules.

I’ve managed to get to Kenya once and Uganda twice in that time, but Rwanda was just feeling very elusive, much to the frustration of myself and also the friends in Rwanda who were so keen for me to travel out to them.

But, finally I’m here – yay!!!!

Rwanda welcomed me with smiling faces at immigration, a slightly chaotic PCR testing process and a day of overcast weather with about 5 hours of rain in the middle of it. But the rain waited until I’d got safely to the hotel, the PCR result came through in 7 hours (negative thankfully), and the weather dried up mid afternoon which meant that I could get out for a walk before the end of the day. Even the internet, which was dodgy for the first few hours of my stay, got itself sorted in time for me to join our church service online. And given the weather that I’d left behind in UK, I think I got off very lightly!

Ever since I first visited about 10 years ago, Kigali has always felt organised and safe to me. Obviously, it has had its points in recent history when it was the total opposite to the worst extremes, but Rwanda has really turned itself around since then, and now there is a strong sense of unity and forward-looking amongst the people. It is a country where everyone is Rwandan, and where the focus is on respect, hard work, honesty, and community. Before Covid they had a wonderful system whereby on the last Saturday of the month, everyone would spend the morning doing community projects with their neighbours – cleaning up communal areas, helping a needy person with house renovations, carrying out collaborative public health initiatives etc. It’s sad that this has had to stop due to the pandemic, but still the community spirit lives on, and people really look out for each other.

My schedule here is varied and includes delivering training of the 360Life materials to various audiences, pastoral conversations, strategy meetings, and team development for the GNPDR staff. So far, I’ve had a wonderful two days with prison chaplains who dedicate part of every month to going into the Rwandan prisons to provide support and counselling to inmates on behalf of GNPDR. Tomorrow is the final day with them, so I’ll write more about that experience then, but suffice to say that it has been very humbling to spend time with these huge-hearted people who have learnt the essence of forgiveness in ways that I can’t ever imagine.

For now, though, it’s just good to be back. Eating tree tomatoes as part of a fruit salad, running (or walking when running feels impossible) up and down the hills that make up so much of this landscape, having a secret smile at the way in which masks are worn on the chin (because the law says to wear a mask, but everyone knows it’s too hot for that, and there isn’t really much covid anyway – apparently!).

Yes, it’s very good to be back 😊. Thank you God. 

A tree-tomato, in case you were wondering!

 

Fighting that limbo feeling

The Gulu University ethics approval is waiting for me to send in two translated versions of the Informed Consent Form, a letter from my supervisor, and a letter from my university. All of these are dependent on other people responding to my requests for help.

The University of Glos ethics approval is waiting for the committee to meet and consider my application,

The Project Approval Form submission is waiting for my supervisor to write her bit and forward it to the appropriate people. Her advice is for me to wait until I have UoG ethics approval so that it is a stronger application.

But the UoG ethics approval might be dependent on the Gulu ethics approval, which is dependent on the UoG PAF, which is dependent on the UoG ethics……. Hmmmmmm or Aghhhhhhh!

So, I wait to see the outcome of the UoG ethics committee meeting, send encouraging emails to the translators, point out the potential dilemma to my supervisor, and pray!

But in the meantime, I’m struggling to retain my mojo, as it feels like everything is waiting for everything else, dependent on the speed of others, and out of my control to move it forwards. So, I need to do some writing and pull myself out of that limbo feeling. But what to write?

There are two directions that come to mind here. One is to start jotting down thoughts that relate to the background to my research – the underlying theories, the reason behind the research, the context of the participants, considerations of researcher positionality and power, the research methods being used. Another is to start jotting down thoughts relating to the next steps. What will I do once the ethics approval has been given by both Universities, and the Project Approval Form has been accepted? What are the next steps once I get that final green light and I can get on with entering the process of data gathering?

Knowing me, I’ll probably dabble with both directions for a while. I get bored doing just one thing for too long, so I expect I’ll start down both paths, and jump from one to the other along the way. Yes, I know I’ll have to focus on particular sections at certain times, but at this stage I think a bit of jumping around will be a good antidote to a lack of mojo, and a good way of fighting back against the sense of being in limbo.

So, with a foot on each path, off I go…

Route 1 – background to the research

-        Underlying theories and approaches

o   Postcolonial feminism, including ‘third world woman’, power of geography and history,

o   Worldview of social constructionism, including symbolic interpretivism

o   Methodology of constructive grounded theory

o   Positionality and power of me as researcher

-        Context of participants

o   Potted history of ILA

o   Brief overview of South Sudan recent history leading to refugee situation, generally and within Uganda

§  Include how Lamwo refugee community fits in to the larger picture of South Sudanese refugees in Uganda

o   Brief overview of LRA conflict leading to displaced Acholi, and their current status in Kampala

-        Other research that has been done, and relevant findings and or gaps in research

o   Wellbeing

o   Refugees and wellbeing

o   Displaced people and wellbeing

o   Wellbeing against conflict affected trauma

-        Research method: issues relating to semi-structured interviews in another language and culture

o   Translation

o   What to do when no equivalent direct translation exists

o   Cultural considerations

o   Ethical aspects and considerations

 

Route 2 – got the green light, so what happens next

-        Determining the questions to be asked

-        Determining the words to use when translating the questions, so as not to bias the answers

-        Pre-translation conversations with translators

o   Outlining the planned interview process

§  Does it look OK

§  Any additional cultural considerations not already included

o   What needs to be discussed with them to ensure consistency

o   Pitfalls to avoid

§  Leading the responses, implicit bias, ensuring full translation

o   Understanding cultural nuances that might have a bearing on how they respond to me, how I interpret their body language, how to ensure the most conducive environment for the interview, implications re the wider community.

 

And that’s just an initial ‘brain dump’! All in all quite a lot to keep me going. The moral of this musing – even in limbo-land there are things to do, words to write, places to mentally go!! Off I go to explore them.