Mwezi Teacher Training Centre
The next project visited, was Mwezi
Teacher Training Centre (TTC). The
teacher training resource centre at
Mwezi TTC, was constructed with funds
and help from Dubai Cares. Eagerly
waiting to welcome us, with beaming
smiles, songs and dance, were the
students and school community at
large. In my interactions with the
student teachers and their exhibits,
I was impressed with how innovative
they were, in how they used their
limited resources. The teacher training
centre’s mission is to train and equip
teachers who will be at the forefront of
leading the country’s early childhood
education reform, by teaching in the
various local schools.
Dubai Cares Project In Partnership
With Educate!
Educate!’s mandate is to prepare youth
in Africa with the skills to succeed in
today’s economy. Its goal is to tackle
youth unemployment by reforming
what schools teach and how they
teach it, so that students can acquire
the skills necessary to start businesses
or get a job which would help drive
development in their communities.
Educate! currently operates in
Uganda, Rwanda and Kenya. It serves
as a technical advisor to the Rwanda
education Board on Rwanda’s national
curriculum reform.
ECD Muyumbu School
Our third project visit took us to the
outskirts of Kigali, in Rwamagana
district, at ECD Muyumbu School,
which is one of the schools being
supported by Dubai Cares through
its local partner Educate! under a
programme known as Learning and
Innovation Partnership. The initiative
aims to introduce practical and skills-
based training in schools which
would help equip students for future
leadership roles and entrepreneurship
skills to start businesses, while at
school. While at ECD Muyumbu, we
were able to sit in, on a Skills Lab lesson,
which is a student-centred pedagogy,
consisting of a simple; ‘Build, Practice,
Present’ framework. We also sat in
on a Student Business Club lesson,
in which students applied the skills
they learned in the entrepreneurship
subject (Skills Lab), to start their own
enterprises. After the lessons the
students displayed their business
products, which included; liquid
soap, envelopes, basket weaving,
agricultural produce and pastry. A
further interaction with the students,
revealed that after raising their own
Students dance and sing
along as they welcome the
Dubai Cares and VSO teams
Signage at Mwezi TTC,
welcoming the Dubai Cares
and VSO teams
Students perform
for their guests
Students pose for the camera with
a Dubai Cares employee and their
Principal, Ernest Akimana
nominal initial investment capital,
they had already broken even and
were now making a modest profit.
A student makes a presentation
on behalf of her group, in a
Student Business Club lesson
The snapshot of the work Dubai
Cares has embarked on in Rwanda,
with its partners VSO and Educate!,
is set to build on a legacy that will
help lay down part of the foundation
on which a developed Rwanda, will
emerge and thrive.
CEO Tariq Al Gurg, chats
with a student involved in the
basket weaving project
Dubai Cares CEO Tariq Al Gurg,(R)
and Educate! Executive Director and Co-
Founder Boris Bulayev, (L), having a chat
After The Bell
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Jan - Feb 2019
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