The Icitabo Diary #13
Once again we have had a very busy week here at the Icitabo Project, and at our last meeting we did some research about how our project will tie in to the YSI ethos, especially their "Four C's", the elements of social innovation. These elements are Care, Co-Operation, Communication and Change. Our project leader, Eoin Kelly has written a fantastic article about this project, which you can find below.
"The following “four C’s” are elements which we have used to help us learn and reflect on our social innovation.
Care
We as students are caring for the education and future well-being of the disadvantaged children of Kabwe. We are very passionate in the work that we are doing, in providing books which will in turn provide the basis for greater education for the children in Sables.
Not only do we care about their education, we also care about their culture. This can be seen by the work that we do in translating the English books into Bemba, to make sure that their official language does not get over-shadowed by English. This is very important to us, and therefore a major importance in the work of our project.
Cooperate
We are cooperating and collaborating with other people, groups and the community as much as we can as part of The Icitabo Project. Within the group, we cooperate with each other to create the best working environment, in order to get as much work done as possible.
There is also another YSI project running in the school, which we cooperate with in order to gain experience and ideas for our project. On a bigger scale perhaps, we cooperate with people outside of the school community. This includes organising workshops, such as the Irish Aid workshop which we will be attending in the coming week.
Another organisation it is essential for us to cooperate with is Sables Nua, which is of course run by Pat Fanning. We are constantly in touch to discuss fundraising activities, and how they can help us to achieve what we can achieve, to the best of our ability. Finally, we cooperate with our community. This might involve doing some fundraising in the area, such as church gate collections, or even book collections.
Communicate
As we cooperate with many people, the art of communication goes along in tandem with it. We must communicate with the various committees we have in the project, who then must communicate with the school staff. It is essential for our project to work.
Again, when we go outside the school community, we communicate with various different groups of people. One way we communicate to people is via social media. We explain the progress of our project through visual images with captions, which reach many people.
We are also in communication with Sables, in terms of email and discussing the idea of Skype calls if they are needed.
As part of our project, we are communicating with various high profiled people. This includes people as high up as politicians, and even the President of Ireland. This is how important we believe our project to be, and how passionate we are about it.
Change
We have already brought about change as a result of our project. Our aim was to collect books in Bemba and English and send them over to Sables Nua, where they will be housed in a library provided by us. We already have most of these books, over 2500 in fact, and we already have the library which is due to be sent over in the coming months. Therefore, as far as we are concerned, we have begun to change the education of the children in Kabwe, for the better. Our initiative will change the future of these children in a positive way, perhaps allowing them to get a well-paid job and provide safe and healthy lives for themselves and their future families. We have begun with this significant change, and believe we will see it through for the benefit of the children in Kabwe."
