Mission statement
The aim of Cairo to Cape Town is to look at how different African international schools are engaging with their local community, and to develop strategies for successful positive links. We intend to create a network of 10 international schools and 10 community groups using the theme of global citizenship. By developing community connections we aim to promote mutually beneficial and sustainable local partnerships.
(For more information on global citizenship visit
http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/schemes2/ks12citizenship/?view=get)
Liza Uprichard
My Northern Irish parents had already been working in Kabompo, Zambia for two years by the time I came along. With a teaching mum and an agronomist for a dad, I spent all of my childhood in Southern Africa, with Ndola being the first home I knew. Later, dad’s work with farmers and developing farming practices meant that the places we lived were often fairly remote and this, along with years of wonderful family travel made southern Africa a part of the world I came to know well, and couldn’t fail to love.
Choices through higher education in the UK first led me to study Agriculture and Economics… a brief two year affair which ended in another trip to South Africa before returning to the UK to do a degree in Primary Education. I loved teaching in Streatham, south London for a further two years before deciding, inevitably, to move overseas again.
A trip the length of Africa is something I have always wanted to do. The beauty, the people, the changing landscape… the ‘flats’, the ‘stucks’ the negotiating tricky situations! The frustrations, the mind boggling and the bizarre… all of it. And getting to do it not only without taking a break in my career, (which I love), but helping to push it in the direction I’ve always wanted it to go is an unbelievable opportunity.
Nadine Bogan
I experienced a very transient childhood, as a family we always joke that we have had far too many homes to count as we gradually moved into double figures. I was born in Gloucester and then grew up in the south of England.
As a family we became quick at adapting to new places. Being inspired by my mum, I developed a passion for music and enjoyed going to the theatre, therefore found myself joining numerous youth organisations such as orchestras, youth theatres all over the country.
To combine my interest in the arts and working with people I went on to study community music at The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA). During my three years at LIPA I facilitated a variety of community projects, including working as a music teacher within primary schools and developing a carnival project in Nigeria.
My work as a community musician has always led me into education. After my years at university I went on to develop links between schools in Merseyside and Cape Town delivering arts programs alongside a number of NGO’s. Therefore it was natural progression for me to gain my post graduate certificate in education.
… and so here we are. Two teachers, with a shared vision of a huge project that is rooted in the idea of community… but why are we doing it?
Statistics suggest that many of the children who grow up as expatriates will choose careers that will take them overseas, one of them is co-writing this article! For the children involved we hope that experiences like being involved in this project will encourage children to take on views which reflect important human values such as dedication, understanding, respect, appreciation, kindness and empathy and all this with a strong sense of fun.
We want children to question what they see around them and to think about important issues such as equality and race - to take responsibility for their views and think about what experiences made them feel that way.
We know that many of the children we come into contact with on this trip will grow up to hold positions of influence in their places of work and maybe one day look back and remember the experiences they had doing a project with some other children in a place which was temporarily their home. A project that aimed to teach them how to work and play together with other people regardless of the differences they found between themselves. Maybe they will remember how satisfied they all felt when they had achieved what they set out to do together. And maybe they will help to influence views of those around them who were not so fortunate as to be a part of something bigger…
The fun of arranging the new tyres to be sent up to northern Kenya had involved a network of people who helped with deliveries, handovers, price wars, currency exchanges and bank transfers!! A spin off of this was that we found ourselves with an offer of a place to rest our weary heads in Eldoret on our way back across western Kenya to Nairobi. Far from just a place to crash, our night out on the farm with Andrew involved sundowners by the dam and a night in a beautiful old colonial farmhouse in the most stunning setting... Shame we had to move on so quickly!! Thank you for having us!
Anyone seen Final Destination?
When we crossed into Kenya we also crossed over to the left hand side of the road... in a left hand drive... Eastern Africa is serviced and supplied by trucks which clog up the roads on their way in and out of the continent. Landlocked countries like Uganda rely almost entirely on goods brought in by road and getting in and out by car means constantly overtaking - a job that for the most part requires both driver and wing man to be on the ball!
The sights, sounds and smells of a busy African market are a feast for the senses... More than half the fun for me is watching Nadine barter the shirt off some poor marketeer's back! At a village shop in Ethiopia I watched her battle with the shopkeeper over half a penny for the price of the bag to carry her stuff in... she got her way, but we later found out that the bag she was buying was bigger than others and was indeed worth the full penny!
A favourite market find was this miracle cure... a would be helpful addition to any first aid kit!
Home to several different species, Entebbe Wildlife Sanctuary offers a lovely afternoon stroll through habitats designed to accommodate the animals looked after there. Several different programs are running, some looking at breeding and re-introduction to the wild, while others offer sanctuary to lame or ageing animals.
These beautiful Crested Cranes, Ugandas national symbol and found depicted on their flag, roam free around the park.
Click the picture to see others from EWS.
The project in Kampala was collaboration between the International School Uganda (ISU) and Meeting Point (a centre to support children and families infected with and effected by HIV). Over the course of 2 weeks over 200 young adults, teenagers and children had the opportunity to work together and share their experiences and thoughts of Kampala and the wider world. 
ISU had already established links with Meeting Point during the African Service Summit 2009, http://www.isu.ac.ug/Service_Summit/index.html (We will be attending and speaking at the next Service Summit in Zambia at the end of February). Both parties felt that the previous project had been successful although they had not found other opportunities to further develop their connection. 
During our two weeks a team of two, became a team of three as we worked closely alongside Kim Case, ISU’s newly appointed Youth Action Consultant. The three of us set to looking at a range of connections across the primary and secondary departments. As a part of Kim’s role at ISU she had already begun looking at curriculum links for community engagement across the school. A part of our program then became to put these links into practice, making them mutually beneficial for both parties. Our other focus was to look at the impact and opinions of Community Action Service on students and to model workshops that would enable students to work collaboratively on common goals in order to develop relationships. (Community action is a compulsory element of the IB curriculum, see http://www.ibo.org/diploma/curriculum/core/cas/ .) 
All schools we have worked with feel the pressure of their curriculum and as a result community connections / engagement can be seen as an add-on, or something there is just not time for. To address this, during our two weeks we planned for and modelled workshops that aimed to engage pupils with their local community whilst working within the objectives of the international school curriculum. We also discussed with staff at length about ideas of how to change students’ perception of community engagement being charitable and combating what had been accurately described by one member of staff as ‘donors fatigue’.
Over the course of the two weeks pupils and members of staff from both schools worked effectively together. We feel the positive feedback and experiences of the pupils has not only strengthened the relationship for Meeting Point and ISU, but has fuelled plans for the Grade 10’s students to take an active role in planning future projects. By starting to develop learning based local connections through its curriculum, ISU seem to have come up with a way of allowing all pupils to be involved in its local community.
They are keeping us posted on further developments, and are working on identifying a sustainable use for the charity fund we have for them.
Lake Victoria, the source of the White Nile and the beginning of a day on the river in no way comparable to a felucca ride in Cairo!
This photo shows the boat (and none of the bodies that were in it) just coming out the other side of a rapid they accurately named 'The Bad Place'.
Someone had mentioned that body boarding was an option, so for half a day Liza, Russell and Will threw themselves at the mercy of the mighty Nile, armed with a pair of fins and a small piece of foam. While Nades and Phil chose the not much drier option of staying in the boat. Rediculous. Imagine peas in a Tsunami...
There was some respite though... in calmer patches people gather by the river's edge to do washing and watch the daily spectacle of Mzungus bobbing past. Friendly calls of greeting punctuate the wider, slower moving parts of the river between the rapids... a chance to catch your breath, slow your heart rate and forget for a moment what is around the next bend!..
Buying the T.shirt...
The fun of arranging the new tyres to be sent up to northern Kenya had involved a network of people who helped with deliveries, handovers, price wars, currency exchanges and bank transfers!! A spin off of this was that we found ourselves with an offer of a place to rest our weary heads in Eldoret on our way back across western Kenya to Nairobi. Far from just a place to crash, our night out on the farm with Andrew involved sundowners by the dam and a night in a beautiful old colonial farmhouse in the most stunning setting... Shame we had to move on so quickly!! Thank you for having us!
