The Record 2006 - Keble College - University of Oxford

Old Members at Work
The College at Large
Andrew Bunbury (1962)
Soon after graduating in 1965,
Andrew Bunbury (1962), left
England for Uganda, where he
obtained a Diploma in Education
at Makerere University. He
has spent most of his working
life working in or on behalf
of developing countries. He is
currently employed as Programme
Manager for Save the Children’s
Programme in Tibet.
For all children; All for children; For children’s all
This slogan, displayed in Chinese in many staff rooms in Tibetan
schools, accords precisely with the approach of Save the Children
(SC), as promoted in Tibet and other parts of China. Benefits that the
programme brings should be available to all children, regardless of
gender, race, location, religion, or mental or physical ability. The focus
of the programme, while bringing benefits to communities at large,
will always be on children; and programme activities take an holistic
approach to meeting the needs of children.
Despite the fact that the Chinese Government has targeted the Tibet
Autonomous Region (TAR) for assistance, the TAR remains one of the
poorest regions of China. Around one million people are considered
to be ‘absolutely poor’, with per capita annual income below US$130.
Deprivation is particularly apparent in the rural areas and small towns.
The Regional Government’s development strategy assumes that ‘basic
modernization’ will not be achieved until the middle of the century.
There has been massive investment in infrastructural projects, which
has provided some local short term employment, but a huge proportion
of such investment finds its way back to Inner China or overseas.
China is a signatory to the Convention of the Rights of the Child (only
Somalia and USA are not) and governmental institutions in TAR are
fully committed to the principles of the convention. The realization
of children’s rights underpins the whole approach of SC, which has
been working in Tibet since 1990, implementing programmes intended
to ensure the basic rights of children in rural areas to high quality
education and health care. Activities in SC’s Education Programme
primarily consist of training primary school teachers and government
partners. The aim is to encourage greater community involvement
in supporting local schools, to make schools more child-friendly and
to encourage child-centred, participative learning rather than the
traditional ‘chalk and talk’ approach. An essential component of the
programme consists of promoting the protection of children from
abuse, whether physical, sexual or emotional, and from ill health.
SC’s Health Programme comprises a Water & Sanitation component
(installing community managed clean water systems accompanied by
health/hygiene promotion activities in the communities concerned),
Mother and Child Health promotion, and raising awareness of HIV/
AIDS in communities and schools.
We are increasingly seeking ways linking different parts of our
programme. There are various reasons for adopting a more integrated
approach, perhaps the most important of these being that it will enable
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