Catherine Drew and tell us about their time volunteering for the Sudanese community development project.
The Sudan community development project (PICS) was established in 01, its main objective is to educate the population of children of refugees in the Sudanese Community of Ain Shams, Cairo .
civil war has ravaged Sudan for over 30 years and many Sudanese travel by land to Egypt to seek help from the United Nations. Although Egypt opens border for Sudanese to enter, they are unable to provide financial assistance to refugees because of their own rapidly growing population. It can take years for the United Nations to investigate and deal with the application of each individual for refugee status and during that time they do not have access to support for housing, education or health.
After hearing about the PICS by the Oasis staff, we were able to set up a volunteer opportunity before our Cairo to Capetown Overland trip. This is our account of the experience.
Surviving several road crossings "slightly difficult" for the subway, we make our way to Ain Shams and are surprised by the effectiveness of the subway and even the cleanliness, not to mention the ridiculously cheap price of 1 Egyptian pound (about 10 British Pence and about 20 e price of a subway trip to London equivalent). Railways garbage scattered Ain Shams quickly bring us back to reality and we are satisfied with a smile Sudanese who, by way of gesture, walking and bike guide us towards the building where the school is located PICS currently. The school previously ran in a much larger space with an outdoor area, but due to decreased funding and cost more, they were forced to move to cramped two residential buildings with a total of about 8 rooms rooms size and no outdoor space. They do their best to cram in 300 students and, therefore, they sit side by side and sometimes knees to chest. In other words it is certainly not enough room to swing one of the many cats of Cairo in these classrooms.
It quickly becomes apparent that a more appropriate space is high on the organization of this wish list. This is confirmed by their manager Samuel, but he reveals that there are more pressing concerns at hand. While a modest amount of funding is received from the UNHCR every year, more substantial funding from a Canadian donor had recently dried and keep the school open to all has been increasingly difficult. Apart from the relocation, the school also had to stop providing breakfast, which for some students as their main source of livelihood. Indeed, as we saw later, most students had so little energy for lack of food to stay awake in class was often a losing battle for them.
In the classroom, we are greeted by a "good morning perfectly uniform tea cha 'and 30 radiant smiles. During the week, we are able to visit all the classes (and we're happy to oblige high fiving each student!), Help students with their English, to share some information about ourselves and our country and learn about the students. We learn to expect the unexpected to their questions; an 8 year old boy puts his hand and asks, "how do airplanes operated" We respond as best we can quickly deplete our aviation knowledge muttering some words such as "wings", "propeller", " engine ", hoping to move to the next question." But how does the engine to actually make the plane fly? "He continued seriously. "Are the wooden bus in Australia?" Another girl wants to know. We give to their masters capable of these issues.
As much fun as us and the students, we are well aware that our presence will not be any lasting benefit in the long run for them. They have excellent teachers and student loans, but what they really need is money. We were able to do a small amount of fundraising for this purpose and turned our "leaving London 'pub crawl in a bit of a fundraiser, using a combination of a small cover charge and questions optional quiz each pub to collect donations. With this we are able to provide the school with a small amount of money that will fund two teachers for a month and also buy various teaching materials, which are immediately utilized. We also did a little research on the most important funding options and came through a grant from the Australian Embassy in Cairo, which seemed fine. Most of our time is spent PICS work with Samuel to produce an application that will give them the best chance possible to get this grant.
The PICS love having volunteers for any amount of time. Not only is it exciting for children and useful for their English skills, so volunteers can contribute anything in the form of donations, however small, the school will benefit greatly. In addition, if volunteers can then tell others what they have seen and to encourage more people to volunteer or donate (or both!), Then the children will benefit even more. And volunteering with them is a rewarding experience in return. You will spend time with some inspiring teachers, some children irresistibly cheeky and see a side of Cairo but interesting sobering worlds away from touts and other Westerners.
Drew and Catherine Thank you!
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