After making an “eye-opening” visit to Rwanda last year, Fiona Lindsay has become determined to offer more help to those who need it.
The Portlethen-based primary school teacher applied for the opportunity to visit the Nyamasheke District as part of the Global Learning Partnership programme.
The 18-month initiative is run in partnership with local authorities to help enhance the delivery of global citizenship education within Scottish schools.
Accompanied by her mentor, Damascene, Ms Lindsay spent three weeks at the GS Shangi school, showing the 80 pupils how to use the resources supplied by UNICEF for the nursery.
Whilst there, she was alarmed to see the condition of the toilets. During the rainy season, toilets were flooded and “not safe for children.”
Having already raised £1,100 of the suggested £1,800, she is now looking to find the remaining £700 to help provide the children, and staff, with safer toilet facilities.
It is hoped that the money will fund individual toilets for the girls, boys and staff.
After speaking to her mother’s local church, donations began to flood in – the church’s Christmas collection also added to the funds.
Now she’s planning a Saturday morning breakfast event, and a variety of coffee afternoons for the coming weeks, in order to reach her final fundraising goal.
Despite settling comfortably back into her teaching post in Portlethen, Ms Lindsay has been getting itchy feet and is hoping to return to Rwanda “a couple of years down the line.”
But the investment that participants make into the programme is substantial. Asking her parents to look after her three sons for one month was not a decision she made lightly.
Georgea Hughes, programme development lead at The Wood Foundation, said: “In total, there are about 36 hard and fast days that they’re really invested in.
“It takes a lot for a practitioner to come forward. It is a huge personal and professional investment for them.”
Involving a number of pre-departure training days, followed by an on-going debrief and embedding work, practitioners are continually engaged in their commitment to global education – and that remains long after they return to their local communities.
Reacting to the success of the programme, Mrs Hughes added: “Every teaching practitioner says how much they learned about themselves and how much they learned about their host country.
“When Fiona went [to Rwanda] in 2016, we had 56 practitioners take part. In 2017, 73 practitioners will be making up the alumni.
“Every applicant that we have had [in 2017] has come through word of mouth, through some other practitioner that has been before.”
This year, Christine McLennan, who has been instrumental in setting up the programme and developing Aberdeen’s relationship with Inspire Empower Educate Rwanda, will take part in the trip for the first time.
At the moment she serves as a support for the teachers when they return back to their teaching communities – but she is going to be highly involved in developing the project model when she’s there this summer.
To donate to Ms Lindsay’s cause, visit:
https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/fiona-lindsay-3
