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)

Nadine Bogan and Liza Uprichard

Nadine Bogan and Liza Uprichard
A little bit about who we are...

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…

Monday, October 26, 2009

Opening the doors of The International School - Sudan

We have just finished our two week project in Khartoum and wanted to give you an update on what we have done… The above photograph shows the new basketball backboard painted by all the children involved, click on it to see other photographs from the Sudan project gallery.

Background
Here in Sudan we have focused on building a working relationship between children and adults from Unity High School and the Mohaba Centre for displaced boys. All of the boys that stay there have been found on the streets and the centre offers somewhere to sleep and schooling as well as working to relocate family members for the children. Visits to their relatives are encouraged and the centre staff work hard to make sure that reasons that led to them being on the streets in the first place are identified. This is often difficult, as many of the boys are unsure about what happened to them.


Some are victims of the war in the south while others have run away from abusive home lives. Many were sent out to work from poverty stricken homes while others are simply lost. Regardless of their reasons for finding themselves at the Mohaba Centre, the boys are well looked after in a safe and caring environment where they can work as part of an extended family unit.


The children from Unity High School are largely the children of local diplomats and wealthy business men, and rarely have the opportunity to mix with children from the local community.
All of the boys we worked with were excited to be involved and the connection between the two groups showed alot of potential for further development in the future. During our short time in Sudan we have been able to work with the boys in a number of different ways. We have run workshops based on sport, art, DT and music and their enthusiasm for all of these has been infectious!

When we first met them, we talked with the Mohaba boys and adults about improvements they would like to see to their home. These were identified as: fixing the basketball ring and back board; re-stringing the beds for their dormitory (many of these were broken) and painting the walls in their classroom white so they can use them to display pictures and alphabets. We were able to incorporate all of these ideas into activities taking place at both locations and involving both sets of children so that they all felt a sense of ownership.

The charity element of this project paid for all of this to happen.
We feel that this first project has been very successful and has opened positive lines of communication between both groups, who are keen to continue the relationship in a number of ways. There is already discussion about an after school club, sports fixtures and an exchange of ideas for upcoming Christmas celebrations... We have also managed to make possible links with a local family business here in Khartoum who would like to offer further financial support for the Centre.

Fingers crossed for future developments!
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Sufi Dancers

We have seen Sufi dancers in Cairo many times so thought we were about to experience the ceremonial dance, full of white with flashes of colour to the beat of the drum. As like all of Sudan, never expect the expected. We arrived in Omdurman just before sunset to a small circle of men and women watching three men parade around the interior of the circle singing, with the occasional drop of money into the donation bag and the occasional excited observer joining in. As the sun set, the proceedings seemed to climax into a larger circle with hundreds of men chanting and swaying in unison. The Sufi’s for what we could tell, where dressed in green or multi colour robes. The Sufis in the centre would dance, chant, talk, walk and some would spin. An extraordinary experience!
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Al Morgan Family Park


Our quest to find the confluence of the Blue and White Niles took us to Al-Morgan Family Park. We found it buzzing with hundreds of families all enjoying their Friday weekend and eager to say hello. We stopped to take pictures of the towers of ice-cream cones, classic fairground rides and tat stalls. I couldn't resist the fanta ball. We need it... and there's nowhere near enough stuff in the car anyway...
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Ahmed A. Jabir BA, MA/PGCE Art, Design & Visual Culture

One of the teaching artists at Unity school in Khartoum is the published childrens author and illustrator, Ahmed A Jabir. He has been working as a visual artist, arts researcher, educator in art and design and a worshop facilitator in schools and art colleges both in Sudan and in the UK.




Some of the books he has worked on are available at Amazon.
Click on his picture, 'Queen of Fun', 2004 to see availability...




To see a clip of Ahmed on YouTube, click on his painting,

'Girls with Black Horse' 2008.

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Khartoum

Our time in Khartoum has been varied to say the least! We hoped that by working here, we would get a bit of an insight into life in Sudan and we both really feel like we have. As well as being comatosed by the heat, we have seen and experienced many sides of this African city. From the historical and cultural hub that is Omdurman, to local artists and the many soukhs… from seeing the joining of the Blue and White Niles and searching for hidden golf courses… Thanks to lots of lovely people we have met, we've had the opportunity to experience a really diverse range of things here.

Our first week in Khartoum was punctuated with invitations to various local events including a British Council local talents night, the Khartoum Hash (dubbed as the hottest, dustiest AND coolest Hash in the world), the German Embassy happy hour and the Greek Club pool. Joy, Audrey and Michelle, all teachers from Unity school, made sure we had things to do and helped us find our feet… thank you!

Nadine and Audrey... keen hashers. On-on!
The hash also provided a great opportunity for us to meet lots of other people living in Khartoum.
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Saturday, October 17, 2009

The road to Khartoum



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Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Dongola

Nadine wasn't feeling well, but we were both a little excited about what we would find in our medicine chest!... (click to play video)

We stayed in the Lords hotel in Dongola for a couple of nights... Jacob had made it from Wadi Halfa on his KTM too, and told us that the Czech's had taken the other road... so we stopped feeling bad about leaving them to die in the desert!

Dongola turned out to be a great little market town, and if we didn't have to be in Khartoum by the weekend, we probably would have stayed a bit longer... But, our first school link in Khartoum was expecting us so we set off again on the Saturday morning.


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