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All About Africa
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SUAS in Nairobi - Niamh O Riordan. "At first, it looks all nice and happy but the longer you stay here, you think 'Oh, God. I don't want to know.'". - Irish SUAS Volunteer. SUAS is an Irish organization that sends Irish college students to developing countries for the summer months to work as teaching assistants. We were lucky enough to visit the assistants themselves in Nairobi's second largest slum, Makuru Kwa Reuban. They call it a village. I am not sure how I feel about SUAS. As a piano teacher, it took me several years to learn how to teach properly. SUAS volunteers have only three weekends of training before they are shipped off. They are working in very challenging environments where resources are scant, children are malnourished and where all levels will be found in one class. One volunteer described having to try to teach long multiplication to children who couldn't subtract. The overworked and underpaid teachers seem to think that the volunteers can do no wrong and often let the volunteers to work alone with the classes. But if the goal of SUAS is to open the eyes of Irish students to the realities of life in the developing world, then it is definitely a success. Each volunteer had their own stories that would break your heart. One volunteer told of a girl who'd burnt herself. At whatever centre she went for treatment they would apply a gauze and each day, they would rip it off again and apply another one. For months, they did this to her every day. Thankfully, she is being properly helped now and her leg is beginning to heal. Another volunteer told us about Cynthia. She is HIV positive but was not born that way. She is just ten years old. We ourselves met Janet, another girl of about twelve whose hair is turning blonde because of the Antiretroviral drugs she is taking to fight the disease. |
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