Kigali 14th June 2019-Inspire, Educate and Empower Rwanda (IEE) hosted a group of teacher trainers and students from Green Farms Academy (GFA) Connecticut, USA in the month of June on a three- days education exchange visit. The group of 10 students and 3 faculty members were hosted by IEE on an exchange programme and they interacted with IEE employees across all the programmes.
Robbi Hartt is the group leader. She has been teaching at Green Farms Academy for the past 20 years and is the director of the reading centre at Green Farms Academy. She shared the importance of this exchange visit:
It’s a mutual exchange between IEE and GFA. In such visits, we learn new ideas, challenges, experiences and this brings a deep understanding, sharing, empathy and rich connection between people. Said Robbi.
According to Kabeera Betty, the Deputy Country Director and Head of Programmes at IEE, such exchange visits are important because they benefit both the students and teachers:
Such a visit is a good opportunity for both learners and teachers since it makes them meet new people and they get exposed to new ideas and environment which helps them to change their attitudes and perceptions. Particularly, these young people from a Western country such as the US benefit a cultural exchange that makes them informed about affairs beyond the US– Betty noted.
One of the visiting scholars from GFA is 16-year old Ava Ewing. Ava is in high school. This is her first experience and she confessed to have gained a lot from it:
I am privileged and it’s such an amazing education experience. I have gained a lot from it. I met and talked to the Teaching Assistants and teacher trainers and I loved interacting with them. I loved how the Teaching Assistants are so courageous and open to feedback. She happily narrated.
As part of this exchange visit, the GFA group interacted and had a continuous Professional Development-type of training session with Teaching Assistants from the Teaching Assistantships Project being implemented by IEE in partnership with Mastercard Foundation. Niyigena Flora is a Teaching Assistant at Groupe Scolaire st. Dominic Gitarama in Muhanga district in the South of Rwanda. She interacted with the GFA team and according to her, she got exposed to new ideas:
Meeting the GFA team has really inspired me. I interacted with them and this opened my mind to a new set of ideas. When you meet new people, you learn new things, skills and ideas. I loved the science experiment sessions. As a Teaching Assistant, I will be able to share the ideas with my fellow students whom I assist. She confidently said.
IEE has been having such exchange visits with GFA for the past eight years where they visit IEE schools of intervention in Rwanda and IEE sends its trainers to learn from their counterparts at GFA in the USA.
At IEE, we are open to new interactions, to learn from each other, in the face of a fast-changing world where knowledge evolves by the day– said Emmanuel Murenzi the IEE Country Director.
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