Making games for Africa
The contrast between education in the UK and poor areas in Africa was brought home to Year 9 pupils at the Royal Alexandra and Albert School on Wednesday. Alison Naftalin, founder of the charity Lively Minds, gave a very thought provoking talk to pupils about the hardships and barriers to learning faced by children in the Developing World. It can be hard to keep the attention of a group of 150 Year 9 pupils for half an hour, but Alison did just that as she explained how she had set up the charity on her own and built it into a growing and successful organisation that has helped thousands of children in Uganda and Ghana.
Alison set up the charity Lively Minds after working as a volunteer in Ghana. She wanted to make a difference to the lives of children in the country by giving villagers some basic skills to help them to educate their children. Mothers and teenagers are taught how to use simple games to enable them to teach young children basic literacy and numeracy. This has benefited not only the children, but the mothers and teenagers who are also learning new skills and gaining status in their villages.
The talk from Alison was in the morning and during the afternoon pupils made games and books for her to take out to Africa.
Head of Geography Anne Vaughan said “Alison’s visit has given pupils a real understanding of what life is like for poor people living in villages in Ghana and Uganda. It is great that they can do something to help, even if only a few of the millions of destitute children, by making games and books for the children in Africa.”
6th December 2013
