October is the time of year that
the children go back to school. This means that the BV education program is at
the forefront of everyone’s mind and the Education team are working harder than
ever.
For BV Education means all sorts
of things. This includes helping out with the education and community liaison
aspects of other projects; making sure that communities are involved in all the
work that BV does. There are also extra-curricular programs for the children of
Andavadoaka such as Saturday School and Girls’ Club. Sometimes the volunteers
go along and help out with English teaching at these sessions and they are
always surprised at the level of enthusiasm of the children! BV also try to
give young people a chance to learn skills that they might not at school such
as leadership and critical thinking as well as offering internships with our
staff.
However, the BV Education project
that I want to focus on today is the school scholarships program. One of the major
things that BV does is to help provide alternative livelihoods for people that
fish and rely on the marine ecosystem for survival. One important way of making
sure this is a success is by ensuring that children get an education to enable
them to do this. Here in Madagascar parents have to pay for their children to
go to school as well as for uniforms, supplies like books, and when they are
older, make up for earnings lost. When it is usual for a family to have 7 or 8
children and the daily wage is less than $2 a day; it is basically impossible
to support every child through a complete education. Also, as with many places,
it is girls that are more likely to drop out of school than boys. At the moment
1 in 3 children start school but many do not finish. However, the enthusiasm of
the children and their parents mean that a lot more could benefit from going to
school.
This is where BV comes in. Money
raised from donations goes to fund scholarships for local children and provides
everything that they would need for the school year. The scholars are chosen on
the basis of academic ability, financial need and family support. They are also
expected to attend the extra-curricular activities that BV provides.
The volunteers and expedition
staff have been getting involved with fundraising for this program. We
organised a sweepstake for the Rugby World Cup and gathered together enough
money to fund a school scholarship next year as well as some generous prizes.
Congrats to Jim who had the good luck of drawing New Zealand out of the hat!
The biggest fundraising mission
of all is that of Paul our Education Coordinator. His plan is to grow out his
already impressive beard until there is enough money to send 250 children to
school next year. For November, or “Movember” as it has been dubbed, the
expeditions boys have joined in on the action and are growing their moustaches
too. Some of them already look pretty silly!
Finally, the staff in London are
taking part in Santa fun run to get sponsorship monies too.
You can find out more by visiting
their fundraising page (links below) and I urge you to donate - £30 can fund a
primary school age child for a whole year!
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