Scottish Catholic Observer

Teachers from across Scotland came together last week at the Conforti Institute, Coatbridge, to prepare for a life-changing journey this summer to witness the development work of two Scottish charities.

SCIAF and Mission Matters Scotland are taking ten education professionals, a youth officer from the St Vincent de Paul Society, and a representative from the Catholic Conforti Institute, Coatbridge, to Ethiopia and Zambia on a trip that they hope will inspire children in Scotland.

Laura Lawlor, an RE teacher at St Kentigern’s Academy, Blackburn, is one of the team travelling to Ethiopia, and said the visit will help her relate the poverty of the country to her pupils.

“What are kids interested in?” she asked. “Are they interested in a picture of a field affected by drought or will they be interested in a story about someone their own age that doesn’t have access to education or health care? If you can put things into plain terms and compare it to the children’s lives you make it relevant and they can then understand that and invest in it. I’m looking forward to meeting the local people and finding out how people can be so happy with so little,” she added. “That is something I’m hoping to bring back to kids here who have so much. And I’m excited about experiencing their religion and how they can have faith despite struggling so much.”

The education groups—one six member team travelling to Ethiopia and the other to Zambia—will spend the first week of July in Africa, visiting farmers who have been helped by SCIAF and Mission Matters and exploring development work in the countries. The Ethiopia group will also visit those affected by HIV/AIDS, including children orphaned by the disease.

Laura McPherson, a teacher at St John’s Primary, Barrhead, said she would find this side of the visit challenging. “I work with children all the time and the ones I’m in contact with all go home to parents and they have a roof over their head but for these children it is so completely different. We are going to be visiting street children… I think I’ll find that hard.

“Something that is definitely high up my agenda is to speak to children… and then bring that back to the children that I teach.”

Accompanying the teachers on the trip will be SCIAF’s schools officer Mark Booker and John Dornan from Mission Matters Scotland. Mr Booker explained that the visit will show the positive aspect of aid agency work.

“It will be showing that these people are relying on themselves with our help—it’s about giving a hand up, not a hand out,” he said.

Sean Hagney, depute head at St John’s Academy, Perth, has previous experience of such trips having visited Malawi while working in a different school.

“The two things that struck me after my previous visit was the beauty of the country and how happy people,” he said, “In Scotland, even in the poorest communities there are ways out… But people can do that in these countries and still not get anything. Hearing some of those stories last time, it did make you weep.”

Mr Hagney believes that teachers are able to communicate to children the poverty of Africa in ways that others cannot.

“The children are endlessly fascinated by the world in which they live in, but often info is not targeted at them—it’s bamboozling,” he said. “I think a group of teachers can do what a journalist can’t and what an economist can’t. The stories that come across our television set only focus on the negatives and I know there won’t just be negative stories there.”

The educational professionals going on the trip are also busy fundraising to make a contribution to the costs of the venture.

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— Pic: Paul McSherry

—This story ran in full in the May 16 edition print of the SCO, available in parishes.