Hope Orphanage

The children enjoyed the books we brought. Mama Omolehin said they will be help them with their reading. The very young children were given card books and there were some story books for the older children but they need a lot more!

Latest arrivals. These two new babies mean there are now 19 children in the orphanage. One is the baby of a young student who died giving birth. The other has a mother who has mental health problems. She had two other babies who died but this one has been rescued.

The children love seeing new people and want to sit on my lap.

This little boy was desperate to share his book with me.

The babies sleep on a mattress.

A well-wisher gave the orphanage this play equipment which they really love.

Mma Omolehin has a lot of land and would like to build a nursery, primary and secondary school for the children. She would also like them to live in groups of five with a carer so they would enjoy a family type atmosphere.

Baby Danielle just wanted a cuddle!

The Office

Some of my time is spent editing lesson plans in ESSPIN office. This is our office!

Lea tries to hide!

Stephen sorts out transpot and houses. He was very kind when I had to go to hospital and drove me there himself.

Katherine is a grandma like me and makes great moin moin!

Ayo is fantastic. He does all my photocopying and spent ages getting my watch repaired.

Emma is our leader and has her own inner sanctum!

Sobi Hill

 Lea walking down on the white line!

I made it to the top.

We finally found a would-be 'tourist' attraction in Kwara! This is a really interesting place. It is basically a sacred hill which people climb up with bare feet. On the way up you see groups praying, large crosses and churches marked out with pebbles. We kept our shoes on and no-one seemed to mind. There is a white line to guide the way up which is helpful. Views from the top were great.

Reading!!!!

 Last week I visited schools to see how they were getting on with the 'group reading' I had introduced via the SSIT. This was probably one of the most rewarding experiences I have had here. Jacob, the SSIT, had trained the teachers and the SSO in the two schools in Oro that I visited and done a brilliant job! In the photo above the teacher is introducing the text. She made her own picture!

 She then explained some of the new words through pictures (here she is showing them 'bicycle') and mime.

 Then the pupils work in four groups doinf four different activities! Here a group writes sentences about the picture.

 This group were finding the new words in the text.

Here the teacher sits and listen to a group read. She needed some persuasion to stay there but eventually she did! There was also another teacher in this class so she could supervise the activities while the teacher did the reading. I also made a prompt sheet for listening to pupils read.

 Here I am with the teachers and their Reading is Fun' prompt sheets.

This group are playing a matching game and Snap to help them to learn the new words. They loved these gamess!
We have also set this up in a school in Ilorin. One of the teachers there said how they love the games and can play them completely independently of her.
Hopefully all Primary 4-6 teachers will be able to try this in September. The only sad thing is there are very few story books in schools so the pupils have to read from textbooks. However I have applied for a grant from VSO so that I can buy books for three schools. The Governor's wife is interested too so hopefully if she can see the impact of story books she may be able to provide more funds!