Tomorrow today; 2010 - unesdoc - Unesco

Sihuan, China – Bio-digestors address the sanitation and health issues in ZiyangCounty. Within six months, more than 224 families experienced the health, economicand environmental benefits of the projectand providing compensation benefits to encourage teachers to teachin remote areas.Since 2008, Mercy Relief has run a Principals and Teachers QualityImprovement Programme and an Education Quality ImprovementProgramme (EQUIP) in Indonesia’s Riau Islands Province (KEPRI)and South Sumatra Province, in partnership with the SampoernaFoundation, to increase the capacity of teachers and principalsthrough professional development in leadership and pedagogicalskills. A year-long capacity-building programme was put in placeto expose the teachers and principals to better practices and thelatest trends in teaching, classroom management, leadership skills,curriculum development and Information and CommunicationTechnology (ICT).The new, intensive exposure resulted in an enhanced confidencelevel among the teachers, enabling them to provide a creative learningenvironment for the students, who in turn now enjoy school andappreciate education.Viet Nam: language that adds glossPressures of globalization have driven Viet Nam to become oneof the most economically promising ASEAN countries. Despitegrowing demand for mastery of the English language in the region,English is still hardly used in conversation at all levels, partly due tothe lack of qualified English teachers and the fact that those availablehave had no formal training to teach English as a second language.To meet this demand, Mercy Relief launched the English forEveryone (EFE) programme in Ho Chi Minh City. Partnering theWIBI School of Higher Learning, five English language teachersfrom the University of Finance and Marketing (UFM) were selectedand trained in a method of teaching English appropriate to thelevel of the local capacity. The programme encouraged interactivelearning and habitual use of English in everyday communicationImage: Mercy Reliefto enhance students’ confidence in using the language.Participating teachers from the national schools werealso trained and they acquired an improved method ofteaching English.After seven months of lessons, 50 teachers and over4,000 students from 14 elementary schools could speakand write basic English confidently. They have showcasedtheir newly-acquired skills by sharing what theyhave learned at inter-cultural leadership presentations.Health education and renewable energy in ChinaPeople in many rural areas in China struggle to meetbasic needs. Fei’e Village of Jian Yang County inSichuan was chosen for a Mercy Relief eco-sanitationdevelopment project that has led to greatly improvedliving conditions. Previously, the pig-rearing villagerslived with poor sanitation and a high risk of epidemicsdue to the improper disposal of human and pig excrementin open pits. In addition, villagers suffered poorhealth due to the use of coal and wood for cooking inunventilated kitchens.Through the installation of underground anaerobicbiogas digestors serving 224 of the poorest householdsin the village, inhabited largely by the elderly, an efficientwaste management system was developed. Theexcrement, collected via a new piping system fromthe pig pens and rebuilt toilets, is stored in the digestorsand used to harvest enough biogas to fuel biogascookers and lamps provided for the villagers to servetheir household cooking and lighting needs. Theresidue excrement from the digestors is also used tofertilise crops.In addition to enjoying better sanitation, the villagersnow spend less on buying electricity from the nationalgrid, and are encouraged to abstain from the environmentallyunfriendly practices of tree-cutting for firewoodand using chemical fertilisers for farming. This holisticproject has educated the entire community about publichealthcare, renewable energy and waste, environmentalprotection and safer agricultural produce.Creating or enabling access to better educationis often one of the most effective, albeit challenging,ways to combat chronic poverty and stimulatecommunity development. Improving educationalinfrastructures, building better and more effectiveeducational resources, enabling disadvantaged childrento return to school or continue education, andenhancing teachers’ skills and knowledge are possibleareas for intervention identified by Mercy Relief toaddress the education sector’s needs, both in times ofpeace and following disasters.It is, however, important to note that impoverishedor remote communities may lack longer-term planningcapability due to their constant preoccupationwith survival. Hence, the culture of learning cannotbe imposed on them overnight. It is imperative that inengaging these communities, any education programmeshould include other developmental efforts to addresstheir basic survival needs.[ 162 ]