Our aim is to be recognised as a credible institution for development education, to produce insightful research and to encourage learning in all areas of our work.
Our Work
We have already integrated learning and research into our activities in the UK and Tanzania. Bradford Centre for International Development has provided funding for research projects based in the communities in which we work. We will strengthen our partnership and seek funding for future research activities.UK volunteers have also been involved in conducting interview based research with potential small enterprise groups, and with HIV and AIDS sufferers in the community. Several volunteers in 2007 conducted their own research for their university dissertations.
We are strengthening our partnerships with educational institutions and plans are under way to train volunteers at Universities in the UK to become global activists through sharing of informational on development and global issues in schools. We are developing resource packs volunteers can use on areas as diverse as HIV/AIDS, poverty, sustainable agriculture, global education, social enterprise and voluntourism.
Why Development Education?
For over 20 years, the UK government has understated the importance of development education thereby creating apathy in development issues amongst UK citizens. This has resulted in the general public questioning the rationale behind UK government commitment to poverty reduction and achieving the Millennium Development Goals. Young people in the UK are far behind on global issues and the programmes in place are divers and uncoordinated. Not surprisingly, the vast majority of pupils (81%) believe that it is important to learn about global issues at school and that young people need to understand global matters in order to make choices about how they want to lead their lives (MORI survey on children’s knowledge of global issues, 1998). The educational institutions are not fully integrated into the development sector and access to resources on development issues is proving difficult for them. This underscores the need to create opportunities for teachers and schools to respond creatively and to develop their own practical responses to the challenges involved. These, as recognised by DFID will be achieved through:
For locally owned and sustainable Action Plans
For a coalition strategy involving a range of partners and structures
To embrace other educational and curricula matters and make use of complimentary initiatives
For creative work to explore how teachers introducing global perspectives into their teaching can be practically and effectively supported.
Support us in:
Developing and implementing an educational packages for volunteers; This will involve training and learning in the UK.
In encouraging those volunteers to disseminate their knowledge to the wider community by providing information and raising awareness at fundraising events.
To streamline our partnership with higher education, schools and educational centres to develop a locally owned and sustainable action plan for development awareness.
In carrying our development awareness campaigns across issues of global concern.
