CambridgeFrom Wisbech to Tanzania
Sarah Butler
Tuesday April 29, 2008
EducationGuardian.co.uk
The Harambee Centre in Cambridge,
which celebrated its 20th anniversary last
year, is an example of how development
education centres have metamorphosed
since their first inception.
Once staffed entirely by volunteers
supported by a local church, the centre
now runs a whole range of projects.
Harambee is currently running the
Oxfam-backed Perceptions of Africa
scheme, which helps key stage 2 children
develop a more balanced view of life on
that continent. A key project over the last
few years has involved working with a
group of young offenders from Wisbech.
The centre's development education
coordinator, Claire Bennett says: "Often
young people will identify a personal or
local issue and it is up to us to put that in
context and show it is global."
The group might discuss drug-taking,
for example, and then explore how drugs
are part of an international chain, talking
about whose lives are affected by taking
them.
The young people in Wisbech first
made a film about their lives. The filmmaker
who worked with them also made
a film with young people in Tanzania. The
two groups were then put in touch.
"Some issues, such as teenage
pregnancy, were identified in both
Wisbech and Tanzania, where there is a
problem with young girls who are not
married getting pregnant and being
rejected by their families," says Bennett.
The project helped challenge
assumptions on both sides. The Tanzanian
youngsters could see their counterparts
in Wisbech weren't incredibly rich and
driving Mercedes around, for example,
while the British group were able to see
that the African young people were far
from struck down by poverty.
EducationGuardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2008