Programming Part IV: Good Governance

The Program

YCI has developed 7 modules to train students in good governance. The modules deal with many different topics, including what good governance is and some problems that can affect a nations ability to be governed well. About 30 students are offered the chance to go through our training (which in this case is about 5-6 sessions and potentially one or two field trips) to get a certificate of attendance.

My Job

My job is twofold. Along with Melissa, I helped prepare a pre and post questionnaire, implement it and mark it to check if students learned a lot from our course. Luckily for us, previous volunteers with YCI had already done this and minimal modifications were made.

The second part of our job is to help teach the class. Godfrey is always present and offers help with translating when necessary, but many of the students speak English quite well and we have so far been able to understand most of what is being said. Our job is to deliver some information and lead the students through activities which will hopefully generate meaningful discussions and allow students to gain the confidence needed to actively participate in the way their town and country are run.

Challenges and Successes

The biggest challenge to this program was just getting permission to start it. Originally Godfrey had confirmed everything with the headmaster of the school. When we went after exams were finished to double check that the times were ok, we were sent to two other teachers who were very skeptical of our project and made us come back several times to make sure that we weren’t going to teach any bad things to their students. Eventually, though, they saw the modules we were going to be presenting and were very pleased with the material. I’m glad that this worked out and we were able to start, but it is a good example of how difficult it can be sometimes to do things here in Morogoro.

When we did start, the class went fairly well, if a bit rushed due to us starting late. Some of the students were very involved and loved to speak a lot. It’s nice to be able to discuss things like governance with young people who are willing and eager to participate in public discourse.

One challenge we came up against was that a lot of students recognized the problems their communities are facing, but many didn’t feel like they could do something about them now. When we asked what they could do many of the responses we got were about what they would do when they were older. I’d like to think that by the end of this class we will inspire a few of them to take action on issues that are important to them and to give them the confidence to feel like they can make a difference.

Below are pictures of the students performing skits.