Building on Community Contribution for Primary Education in Rural Kenya

One of the biggest challenges I have faced while working with my team to develop our education model is our isolation from innovation. We are in a remote place, working where there are no other NGOs and the only education approaches in place are private and public schools. I know that this is not a challenge unique to me and my team, but one that many people working in the remote areas of developing countries face. I have been thinking about the need for a collaborative online space where we can share best practices, resources and success stories.  As the education team prepares to launch our outreach program in May, I would like to explore the possibility of creating a dynamic place for all of us to share our ideas, lessons learned, and high impact project ideas. I want to propose the idea and hear what you think – would you participate? What type of online space would inspire you? Would you frequent a site that contained lesson plans, ideas, activities coupled with a discussion thread where you could solicit and receive feedback?

The education team is currently in the process of developing a manual for the outreach program. This manual will contain activities, exercises and inspiration for the various outreach initiatives that include writing workshops, reading hours, educational murals and student clubs. I see this as the perfect opportunity to set the stage for ongoing collaboration. I know that a lot of you have extensive experience in primary education and would like to leverage your expertise toward the creation of our program manual. More than that though, I think it would benefit all of us to have a resource like this – one that you can trust and draw from whenever the need arises.

I propose we start contributing materials and resources around the following areas – writing workshops, educational murals and student clubs. To start, please feel free to send me links or documents that you are willing to share and think would be valuable to other readers? I will work with the Nuru team to present these resources in a user-friendly way. Let us try to not only provide the resource, but also try to answer questions like these. How do you effectively lead this activity? What impact have you seen on literacy levels as a result of this initiative or activity? What types of teaching aids did you use and find effective?

I hope you are excited about the potential of a resource like this and can help me build one. Here’s hoping that I am overwhelmed with responses and we can start a community of contributors all passionate about collaborating for good.