Revised Program per Village Input

Hello all.

Want to bring you up to date on the status of the summer program from this end.

Got an opportunity to present grant proposals to the Canadian High Commission in Georgetown. Chose to ask them for monetary help with our planned program: more laptops, cameras, software (Rosetta Stone?), office supplies. Also asked Mike to design a counterpart leadership program for boys, which he did, using the design and construction of a long-desired nursery school playground as the core activity.

This led to discussing the programs at several village meetings, first with the Caiman House Committee (a body of 5 villagers who liaison the Field Station with the village) and then put it on the agenda at the teacher-training meeting we hold weekly at Caiman House will all nine teaching staff.

Interestingly, the two groups had identical comments. They liked the ideas about developing youth leadership that underpin the program designs, but wanted to see both programs be co-ed and multi-age. The premise of single-sex, age-based grouping was not persuasive to them -- a cultural difference? While I still plan to fence off "girl time" on the computers to ensure access, we can run the media literacy program as co-ed I think without losing anything (comments, arguments, alternative solutions, etc., welcome). I am inserting here what we submitted to the Canadians (it's short), which incorporated the village inputs. Whether or not we get the funding, we need to absorb the village requests while we continue to shape our thinking.

Here's the proposal:

Introduction

Meetings in Yupukari, whether public or private, large or small, have over the past several years come to routinely feature criticism of the state of education in the village. Not one Yupukari child has passed the Common Entrance Exam in the last four years. During this same period Yupukari has joined the North Rupununi District Development Board (NRDDB), has repeatedly been offered grant opportunities, and has received attention and encouragement from any number of NGOs, to little consequence. Villagers have become increasingly aware of their lack of preparation for self-advocacy and its costs, even as the pressures on their lands, waters and culture are mounting. This proposal was prepared against that background by the Rupununi Learners Foundation, a US-based 501c3 headquartered in Yupukari (http://rupununilearners.org), and in consultation with the Toshao, Village Council members, and entire teaching staff of Yupukari.

The proposed program aims to develop substantive leadership, communication and teamwork skills in female and male Yupukarians. While two single-sex, youth-oriented program were originally contemplated, villagers have repeatedly suggested that a multigenerational, coeducational program is a better cultural fit.

Together We FLY (Future Leaders of Yupukari) – Village-making

Together We Fly is an experimental prototype of a program that will develop team building, leadership skills and facilitate effective collective action, communication and supportive consensus-building among participants while making use of new and available technologies in the village.

The experience of growing up in Yupukari involves growing pressure to seek work outside the village and results in a large migration of labor to mines and forestry projects in northern Guyana and to large-scale farms in Brazil. The sentiment among many in the village is the strong desire to leave, that home has nothing to offer, and that creation of an improved quality of life in Yupukari is impossible (out of their hands). Current views of leadership in the village include distrust, lack of participation, inaction, poor communication and jealousy. In the same breath villagers express a growing need for more committed leadership.

The goal of the “Village-making” program is to facilitate the conception, design and construction of a schoolyard playground that incorporates many types of play. Participants will be on their feet, practicing new skills and improving their abilities with the tools that are available in the village (from computers to hammers). While group members create a project that allows them to lead an entire process (from conception to completion), the conditions for supportive teamwork can be shaped. Originally conceived as an all-male program of mentors and boys, villagers have suggested that women and girls be equally involved.

The Together We Fly program, currently in development through partnerships with several local woodworkers and a variety of local leaders, will teach a variety of computer-based design skills, woodworking tool safety and technique, and facilitate the exploration of teamwork and leadership. The program will run from June to August, at which time we will evaluate it and derive recommendations for a second run: as an ongoing after-school program during the 2007-2008 academic year, that will identify and tackle other tangible ways that life can be improved in Yupukari.

Together We FLY – “Girl Power” Media Literacy

“Girl Power” Media Literacy is an experimental prototype of a program that will develop computer skills, English language skills and stimulate reflection and expressiveness on the topic of growing up female in Yupukari. A wide variety of expressive media are available, including but not limited to digital photography, digital video, audio recording, web and desktop publishing, bookmaking and illustration. While not closed to males (per village suggestion), this program will recruit female participants and prioritize resources for use by females. Also per village input, a multigenerational roster is anticipated.

Yupukari girls show interest in computers every day but have a hard time wresting them away from the boys (currently the public library owns nine solar-powered laptops). The girls need English in order to read for life, pass exams and access opportunities. Typically they do not go to high school, do not read well, and have few employment or life choices. They are under considerable cultural pressure to become sexually active at a young age, to become mothers early and often, and to relinquish to males the limited available power roles. As mothers they pass this matrix down to the next generation as an inevitable norm. Macushi women do not generally hold positions of power or influence in the community, the region, or the state.

The goal for this program is to support women through learning experiences to value themselves, to value each other as females with a common cause, and to seek better opportunities and choices. By putting the development of expressive skills at the center – English and media literacy – and by modeling a teamwork approach, the conditions for female leadership in Yupukari can be created.

The “Girl Power” Literacy curriculum, currently in development through a partnership with two Queens University (Ontario) seniors and an ESOL high school teacher/volunteer from the US (all women, volunteering with RLF this summer) will use English as the language of instruction, teach a variety of computer-based skills and facilitate the exploration and expression of group and individual reflection on female village lives. The program will run from June to August, at which time we will evaluate it and derive recommendations for a second run: as an ongoing after school program during the 2007-2008 academic year.