6.4 Stakeholders’ perspectives regarding adult education in EDF
6.4.1 Adult education as a ‘key’
6.4.1.2 A vignette of Bigaga Community
Bigaga is one of the communities that has just been added to the existing communities in partnership with EDF. Bigaga community is also known locally as Kinyarwanda since the majority of the inhabitants are of Rwandese origin. The community is located about 30km from Karuguuza, the headquarters of EDF. It is located in what used to be a forest reserve, which has recently been invaded by landless people, mainly immigrants from Kabale district in western Uganda and Rwanda.
Poverty levels are seemingly very high, much higher than the district average. The only visible economic activity is the growing of corn, which doubles as the staple food crop and a source of some income. Forests have sadly been cut down in search of cultivable land. This community is so isolated to the extent that there are no known government services for them except for local council official structures. The only primary school in the area was reported to be church supported with only four classes. The road connection to this area is burungi bwa nsi (a community road).
I visited this community in the company of EDF staff when they went to launch a medical camp supported by a charity in Spain. This medical camp, which was being operated as a mobile clinic, was meant to extend medical services to selected disadvantaged communities, which hardly have access to government health services such as Bigaga. The health services being extended were both preventive and curative.
During this visit, I observed but also participated in the distribution of medical supplies such as mosquito nets, soap, toothpaste, tooth brushes and towels. People were made to stand in lines in the priority order of pregnant mothers, school children, the elderly, women and men. The curative section of the camp had a fully fledged medical clinic equipped with a laboratory,
capable to diagnose, prescribe and dispense drugs. They could also do referrals to those found with major ailments.
I noted that some people could not distinguish between the services offered by EDF and the government. As we were packing leftover items to take back to the organization, one middle-aged gentleman commented: ‘Babituhe byoona, barikugarurayo ebyaki. Kuni bintu byaitu bya government’, meaning ‘let them give us everything, why are they taking them back? After all it’s our money, its government facilities’. In the middle of distributing these items, it rained very heavily but people couldn’t leave the lines lest they miss out on these items. An estimate of all items per person could be put at about 30,000 Uganda shillings, which is the equivalent of approximately 100 South African Rands or 12 United States dollars.
The visit to Bigaga helped me, not only to understand the other extreme of Kibaale in terms of social services, but to also compare Bigaga with communities such as Kidukuule where EDF had operated for some time. The number of requests from the community made to the executive director of EDF could be compared to ones that would be put to a government official. The requests were for things like schools, hospitals, water and roads.
In Kidukuule, where EDF has worked with communities for about seven years, you notice substantial socio-economic transformation in terms of household incomes, agricultural production, quality of health standards and people’s sense of empowerment shown in their self confidence and pride in themselves. Kidukuule are at a level of giving back freely to EDF instead of asking for handouts from them. During the celebration of EDF’s 10 years of existence, many community members including Kidukuule contributed many things such as money, goats, chickens and all sorts of food items.
In comparison, in Bigaga where EDF is just starting their work, the situation is very different.
There are virtually no health and agricultural services. People openly express an attitude of dependence on outsiders, an implication that they are yet to discover the potential in themselves.
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People were fighting in the lines to receive free supplies. Some would even hide the supplies and then rejoin the lines in order to acquire as much as possible.
My firsthand interaction with the communities of Kidukuule and Bigaga, which are about 40 kilometres apart, provided me some basis to compare two communities that were partnered with EDF by the length of the partnerships. Both communities have government structures and therefore one assumes that they get equal attention from government. However, there is quite a big difference in the quality of life between these communities. All stakeholders of EDF, that is, management, staff and community members in Kidukuule, attribute the socioeconomic transformation to the education interventions. This is of course notwithstanding other support in giving seedlings, animals and drug kits for the health programmes.
The reason I have included these vignettes of the two communities is to assess whether partnership with EDF makes a difference in their transformation. As noted above, stakeholders describe adult education as the key towards transformation. It is important to stress, however, that the vignettes do not present a scientific evidence-based assessment of the two communities.
In adopting a critical paradigm perspective, the vignette of Kiduukule cannot just pass as a perfect success story of community development. It was noted that although some selected homesteads have made great strides in agriculture and health improvement, other families are still struggling. It was reported, for example, that the drug kit in Kidukuule managed by a CHW collapsed because people couldn’t pay for the medicines given to them, an indication that poverty still remains an issue. A number of questions, therefore, arise as to why Kidukuule is fairly better off than Bigaga. Could it be as a result of closer proximity to an urban centre? Could it be that government is more effective in Kidukuule? Could it be other factors beyond what this study could possibly pursue, or perhaps because of EDF’s role?
The vignettes of the two communities are based on generalizations and do not imply that all families in Kidukuule are alright, while those in Bigaga are worse off. I only based my conclusions on the interaction with a section of the communities and a few homes that I was able to visit. More questions need to be asked, including if indeed adult education is the key to
transformation, and who the holder of this key is. Radical adult educators would be further interested in the role of local people and whether they become the key-holders. The definition of transformation from the perspective of EDF also needs further questioning, in terms of whose definition and whose standards of development are in operation.
The education theory of Nyerere (Kassam, 1994; Mulenga, 2001; Nasongo & Musungu, 2009;
Nyerere, 1967, 1973, 1982) comprehensively explores this form of adult education that is associated with change or what is referred to as a ‘key’ for social transformation in EDF.
Nyerere viewed adult education as a person’s endeavour to better himself/herself as expressed in the statement below:
The first job of adult education will therefore be to make us reject bad houses, bad jembe [hoe], and preventable diseases; it will make us recognise that we ourselves have the ability to obtain better houses, better tools, and better health ... In other words, the second objective of adult education is learning how to improve our lives (Nyerere, 1973, pp.
137-138).
According to Nyerere (1973), adult education is a person’s endeavour to overcome the bad conditions in which they live. Adult education helps people to shake off the resignation about their conditions and the feeling that current conditions are ‘the will of God’. Therefore adult education is an endeavour by men and women to confront their life challenges such as ill health, malnutrition, poor technology and poverty in general. Nyerere (1982) also describes adult education as a process of change when he notes that:
The first function of adult education is to inspire both a desire for change, and an understanding that change is possible. For a belief that poverty or suffering is "the will of God" and that man's only task is to endure, is the most fundamental of all the enemies for freedom ... Men living in poverty or sickness or under tyranny or exploitation must be enabled to recognize both that the life they lead is miserable, and that they can change it by their own action, either individually or in cooperation with others ... The same thing is
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true of what I would call the second stage of adult education. That is, helping people to work out what kind of change they want, and how to create it (Nyerere, 1982, pp. 39-40).
Therefore Nyerere looks at adult education as a process of realization by individuals and societies to change the conditions in which they live. Nyerere also recognizes external efforts by individuals or organizations such as EDF, towards individuals’ welbeing. However, Nyerere stresses that external assistance should be consultative rather than prescribing solutions to the poor. Nyerere’s view on this type of adult education is closely associated to Freire’s concept of conscientization (Freire, 1972, 1973, 1978, 1985, 2004; Fritze, 2010; Gadotti, 1994). According to Freire, conscientization involves working with the poor and illiterate towards the realization of their potential, but not prescribing solutions to their problems. Hence, Freire (1972) describes notions of extension education as forms of cultural invasion. This is discussed in chapter 8.