Hour of ownership

Nadine Niyomwungere of Cankuzo ADP, in eastern Burundi finished grade 1 first in her class and continues to do well in grade 2. Her success in school has never been observed in any other members of her family. Thanks to World Vision’s Literacy Boost Project, she went to school knowing already how to read and write. She learned from a nearby World Vision reading camp and home and from her grandmother, who decided to make Literacy Boost her own project after training.

“After training, I realised that Literacy is not hard to understand,” explains 55-year-old Elisabeth, Nadine’s grandmother.

What was lacking was their awareness on how and on which materials to use to teach their children, she continues.

One year before Nadine started school, World Vision Burundi launched its reading to Learn Project. Elisabeth Kaguruguru was among the first parents who were trained by the project on how to help children learn from home.

Now Elisabeth uses a door, banana leaves or other items around the house as objects in her lessons and her grandchildren learn without any problem. This is something they were not aware of, before they were trained.

World Vision’s Literacy Boost Parents’ awareness training showed her how parents can teach their own children at home using already existing teaching materials in their homes.

Elisabeth’s own children did not go to school. They grew up before development programmes had reached their village. When her children got married and Elisabeth was left alone, her children decided to be send her grandchildren to stay with her, so she would not feel lonely.

Elisabeth’s other grandchildren, who went to school before Nadine, did not perform as well, and she did not know how to help them.

Now that schools are available, she wants her grandchildren to study and become nurses when they graduate, Elisabeth explains while holding Nadine’s hand.

Though Nadine knows how to write, she still has difficulties to make straight lines while writing on a door or a blackboard. But with more practice and guidance from her grandmother, she is sure to improve.

Jean Bosco, a Literacy Boost facilitator realizes that parents are very supportive. When hours of his reading camp sessions come, they bring their children themselves, some of them offer to recount tales to children.

Literacy Boost draws lessons for children from the local culture embedded in the tales especially, and children like it very much

Apart from stories collected and written in booklets, community members, especially aging people, are offering to come and recount stories to children in the reading camps. They have made the Project their own, Jean Bosco appreciates.