Day 13

After a comfortable night's sleep indoors instead of tents, we woke up to go to a mentally handicapped school where we were able to see how the people in Rwanda with special needs were taught. They graded them in their severity from groups A to C. The first thing that we noticed when we arrived was that the environment looked like a “death trap”, unconventional to the schools in England. As we walked through the classes they demonstrated different activities which varied on their abilities. We were told that in Rwanda, mentally handicapped children are sometimes hidden away by their parents because they feel they are not always accepted into society, some parents send them to school as they are too much for the parents to handle. We were told that some parent over medicated the children to make them easier to handle. We were shown some of the children that were unable to walk, talk, know their name and used to excrete on the floors when they first came to the school. However, they are now able to control themselves, can stand, understand their own name which is a massive achievement considering the conditions. Considering their surroundings the children looked really happy where they are. The teachers need praise for the miracles they have preformed with such a limit on resources and in a society that is not accepting. Comparing this to England, this shows exactly how less economically developed this country is. There was very little equipment to stimulate the children. They did not have multi sensory equipment as we do, they had dirt and rocks as flooring, not soft padded floors, the classrooms were boring and not very stimulating, broken desks exposing nails and splinter wood and sharp edges were used, just 4 walls. This illustrates how they struggle with everyday tasks with the children.

This afternoon we did a holiday club for the children of the church. Members of the youth team were split in to different colours so that each child coming to the club could identify what team they were in. There were a range of activities including, friendship bracelets, teams flags, badges, caps and parachute games. As the groups were smaller, we were able to get to know each one of the children better than in the previous club. They seemed to enjoy using the materials to decorate their caps, flags, badges and bracelets in their team colour and use new resources that they do not normally use. We noticed that, as this is more of an urban area, the children were able to speak and understand more English words than at the rural clubs where there children could speak barely any English making the activities easier to explain and work better.