Silent Voices

It was a very exciting week for us – we were going to see the Parent Representatives in action as facilitators. It turned out to be a roller coaster week: some Parent Representatives were excellent – well prepared and confident; some were less confident and needed reminding to speak up; one set had forgotten it was this week that they were in action but soon remembered their parts; one set had prepared pictures and further improvised on what we had planned; at one school only one of the three Parent Representatives was present and the attendance was disappointingly low which was worrying; but the next day we went deep into the hills to the most remote of our schools and found a room full of parents already on their second session of sign language lessons.

I think that day at Butare was the most exciting. All these parents walk a long way to be present at Silent Voices’ meetings and one of the facilitators walked 4-5 hours in each direction. The three facilitators divided the session between them and led a thorough and very professional workshop. That day we drove home with our hearts singing. The next day we were also at a remote school in a low income area and again we had an excellent turn out.

Perhaps it is because in these remote areas the parents get less support and so Silent Voices means more to them. The parents in the schools near the main road are more used to getting help from various NGOs etc. We are not sure of the reasons – we just know that we have some parents in all the schools who are really well motivated but that at the two most remote schools we have many more parents who turn up and participate.

Overall the Parent Representatives did really well. At every school they had re-arranged the desks so that people sat in a circle rather than the classroom style rooms that they used to have. At every school they ran energisers without my help. Only at one school did I really step in and give them lots of support – everywhere else I was able to sit back and watch and just deliver the part I had planned. I was reluctant to step in when I did but those parents deserved to get as good a workshop as all the others and these particular Parent Representatives will need more support than the others.

During the week we developed a different analogy to explain a Community Based Organisation. A CBO is a tree planted in the community which needs care and weeding and watering and protecting. It will grow slowly and if looked after properly will grow strong. Eventually the fruits of the tree will grow and drop back into the community in which it is planted. This analogy really made sense to the groups we were working with and actually came out of the discussions during the week.