Conversations with a Volunteer

(Background…. Michelle worked in a camp in Rwanda with Burundi Refugees for 7 months and was happy to share some of her experiences with me)

Conversation took place: October 2017- Read the full conversation in Future Learning Spaces: https://helenryan61.wixsite.com/creativelearner/conversations-with-a-volunteer

Michelle you’ve worked in Burundi Refugee camps where learning spaces were established would you like to share some of the strengths of your experiences?

I think the learning spaces in the camp I worked in were imperative to the life of the children once things like health and safety had been established. Education was so highly valued by the refugees in the camp, it was multi faceted and offered a whole range of opportunities. Opportunities to continue learning, or begin learning, for kids who had not had the opportunity to attend school before, and those who were desperate to continue learning. There was a very different understanding of education to what our children have here in Australia. Over there it was so valued and it was the only way forward so therefore it was highly prized and valued.

And what were some of the challenges?

There were a lot of challenges in establishing learning spaces, firstly the environment it’s not a comfortable environment. We needed to establish an environment where children could feel safe, could feel like they were someplace away from the trials and hardships of everyday life in a camp. Whether they were abandoned, orphaned or with family, life was very tough, so that space needed to be defined so it was very different to the everyday life. So in establishing those spaces we had a lot of tented areas where learning activities could occur.

Another challenge creating that physical space was not coming in as the expert, we were coming in as the partners to support expertise who were already there.

The teachers were highly educated people, very dedicated, with very definite ideas and wishes as to how learning should occur. The teachers and volunteers used their skills in collaborating and being very transparent in everything they did. We used the expertise of the refugees who were there.

We couldn’t go in as the ‘all knowing’ because we didn’t know. We didn’t know what had gone before. We could only imagine, we could only assist and build up that trust so that people could feel they could go on with it.