Röster från en samarbetspartner

"First challenge was for the students to encounter a culture, which was alien to them. They only had some preconceptions about the western culture and not specifically the Swedish one in the case of this project", skriver samarbetspartnern från Kamwala Highschool i Zambia som under 2005 var involverade i SMUL-projektet.

Tidigare i denna reportageserie har vi berättat om De La Gardiegymnasiet i Lidköping som genomförde ett SMUL-utbyte med Zambia. Nu kommer en uppföljning av detta utbyte genom samarbetspartnern Kamwala Highschool i Zambia, som här ger sin syn på vad utbyten innebär för skolans och ungdomarnas utveckling.

Kamwala high school report on SMUL cooperation between upper secondary schools in Sweden and corresponding secondary schools in developing countries


The SMUL cooperation with developing countries within the upper secondary education in Sweden and corresponding programs in schools in developing countries was brought to the attention of Kamwala High school in 2004 when a delegation of four teachers and a representative of the co-sponsors of the project and two students visited Zambia. The main objectives by the sponsors and the Swedish government were:

1. Contribute to new knowledge and exchange of experiences
2. Increase the understanding for other cultures, alternative thinking and alternative work methods.
3. Contribute to increased knowledge and understanding of aid programs
4. Lead to an increased interest for languages.

() svartvit barn

Challenges
First challenge was for the students to encounter a culture, which was alien to them. They only had some preconceptions about the western culture and not specifically the Swedish one in the case of this project.

Another challenge was the acceptance of new knowledge and exchange of experiences as most of the Zambian students had little contact with other cultures both at home and abroad. Zambia being a country of seventy-three tribes has diverse values and norms. A challenge comes in because most of them have had no contact and to add on a foreign one was a bigger thing to do.

Other challenging areas were to learn new work methods and adapt to them to suit the Zambian setting. Vital for the project is to maintain the permanent activities that are likely to be there for the future.

Achievements
- Allowed students not to have any distractions from their normal work and facilitated networking and relationship building skills.

- Enhanced knowledge of students and developed both the practical and theoretical skills required to best contribute to this diverse world or globalized market.

- Most of the students have acquired knowledge that they have used in the subjects that they do e.g. Geography, History, Civic Education and language diversity.

() svartvit hund

Way forward
- Involve all the fifteen schools in the programme with each other so as to have a variety and diverse experiences meaning the schools to collaborate with those that they have not exchanged visits.

- After the collaboration of the fifteen schools a curriculum could be developed to suit the different experiences and setting. A ‘Global’ understanding based curriculum could come out of this.

- Continue working with youth exchange and voluntary basis as this involves the students in a total immersion of the different cultures. This raises the awareness of the student’s own living conditions.

- To solicit for funds to start a student retention programme with Youth Association of Zambia (YAZ). This type of programme will enable students who have participated in the exchange programme and are in their final grade to have something to do while waiting to go into college and universities the following year. Zambian students who complete school will be absorbed as volunteers with YAZ and engage them in activities that will make them useful and on the other hand develop them individually. Swedish students completing high school will also have an opportunity to participate in YAZ activities as long/short or medium term interns.

- Empower schools in developing countries with equipment and skills to communicate effectively and fast, provision of access to information technology.

- Establish permanent links by twinning Kamwala and De la Gardiegymnasiet. Board at Kamwala is keen on having this established as they are ready to collaborate with the Lidköping kommun.

() zambiagrupp

What This Means
Kamwala High school has chosen to be part and parcel of this project because of:
- Its reputation
- Its globally recognized status
- The flexibility is one of that could be appreciated across the broadest range of the human race.
- Students research skills have been enhanced through the projects that they did with their counterparts from Sweden.

Comments about the program:
’’A success, should continue because it empowers people like me. As they say we are the future leaders and so a brighter future all depends on us the young people.’’
- Winstonia

’’Empowering us as youths to be active, experienced and develop tolerance between races of the world.’’
- Sarah

Har du någon kommentar på reportaget eller lust att själv bidraga med en text, kontakta Erika: erika.eckeskog@ciu.se, 08-440 87 92