The next item on the agenda is a presentation by World Vision Ireland.
World Vision Ireland: Presentation.
I think I speak for everyone who attended the last meeting of the committee when I say that a report in one newspaper that a particular individual who represents an NGO was attacked or criticised at the meeting was misleading. It is fair to say that we had a very thorough discussion on Ethiopia. To my knowledge, no adverse comments were made about any individual at the meeting. We were all very careful to say that we acknowledged the good work of GOAL representatives in Ethiopia and that we had met them. This is all I wish to say about the matter. One would receive the impression that we had responded in some way to a message from one individual, which is not a fair construction of what took place.
I welcome Ms Helen Keogh, Ms Sheila Garry, programme director of World Vision Ireland, and Ms Eileen Morrow, programme officer for World Vision Ireland. The delegation has come before the committee today to discuss World Vision Ireland's work in tackling the causes of poverty through education.
Before we commence, I advise witnesses that while Members of the Houses enjoy absolute privilege in respect of utterances made in committees, witnesses do not enjoy such privilege. Accordingly, caution should be exercised, particularly with regard to references of a personal nature. I now invite Ms Keogh to introduce the delegation. I understand that Ms Morrow will give the main presentation on behalf of World Vision Ireland.
Ms Helen Keogh
I thank the Chairman for giving us the opportunity to come before the committee today. It is nice to see some familiar and friendly faces from the past. I will discuss World Vision's activities for the benefit of those individuals who are unfamiliar with it. It is quite simple; we change lives. World Vision Ireland is part of the greater World Vision partnership, which is one of the largest humanitarian aid and overseas development agencies in the world. We give individuals, communities and, particularly, children a better life. We work across cultures, nations and creeds and hope to leave a legacy of hope in the community.
World Vision Ireland focuses on Africa. We have seven long-term development programmes in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Swaziland and Mauritania. A further five programmes are just commencing. We hope we will have 24 programmes in operation by 2011. More than 20,000 people in Ireland support our work, along with the Government and the EU. Currently, we help approximately 400,000 people every year, a number which is obviously growing.
As the Chairman noted, our programme officer, Eileen Morrow, will deliver the bulk of our presentation. I will briefly introduce our director and deputy CEO, Sheila Garry. She puts the entire issue in its strategic context. We aim to ensure that the Government spends at least 20% of the overseas development allocation on education. We realise how important education is in the fight against HIV and AIDS.
Ms Sheila Garry
World Vision Ireland's strategic objectives include reducing the vulnerability of children to HIV infection and the effects of HIV and AIDS in their families and communities. The objectives also include improving the health, wellbeing, rights and opportunities of children. These objectives are far from being separate themes, as there are strong links between them. For example, access to education and various opportunities will have an effect on how vulnerable a child is to HIV-AIDS and, vice versa, children who are vulnerable due to HIV-AIDS are less likely to address their basic needs, such as education and other opportunities.
To meet these objectives, World Vision Ireland puts a strong emphasis on quality primary education and children's access to it. For many reasons, this is particularly the case for girls. When speaking on education for girls, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan stated no other policy is as likely to raise economic productivity, lower infant and maternal mortality and improve nutrition and health.
Ms Eileen Morrow
We are here to request the Government to increase its expenditure on education to a minimum of 20% of its overseas development assistant budget. Nelson Mandela stated: "Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world". It is central to the fight against HIV and reducing the vulnerability of children affected by AIDS.
The HIV pandemic is in its third decade and shows no sign of slowing. Every year 5 million people are newly infected and it is estimated that, in 2005, as many as 45 million people were living with the disease. Its spread is fastest among young people, especially women aged between 15 and 24 years. In sub-Saharan Africa approximately 12.3 million children have lost one or both parents to the disease and millions more have been left extremely vulnerable.
As such, a child's basic rights, including the right to life, a stable family environment, education and health care, are severely undermined. Furthermore, these children, especially girls, are left open to abuse and exploitation. For example, in our programmes in Dodoma in central Tanzania, many girls drop out of schools and leave their villages to find work in towns as barmaids or housegirls where they fall prey to sexual abuse. The community told us many girls returned home pregnant and infected with the disease.
With no cure or vaccine for HIV-AIDS in sight, international organisations including UNICEF, states and civil society bodies have identified education as the most effective message to reduce the rate of new infections and mitigate the impact of HIV. The Global Campaign for Education conducted a study showing 700,000 new infections in youth could be prevented every year if all children completed their basic primary education. Many young people are getting infected because they do not have sufficient knowledge to protect themselves and are not empowered enough to demand their partners practise safe sex.
As Ms Garry outlined, one of World Vision Ireland's key focuses is on improving access to quality primary education, especially for girls. We conducted a review of available literature and found that keeping children in school, girls in particular, can dramatically improve their lives. A general school education empowers young people with both information and confidence and cuts the risk of becoming infected with HIV by half even if they are never exposed to AIDS related information in classrooms.
Experts in the UN agree education is the single most effective preventative weapon against HIV. Girls stand to benefit the most from education. Those who stay in school, especially through secondary level, are less likely to contract HIV. AIDS spreads twice as quickly among uneducated girls than girls with even some form of schooling. This is partly because girls who stay in school are more likely to delay the onset of sexual activity. Of those who stay until they are 19 years old, 60% are more likely to delay the onset than those out of school. In our programmes in central Tanzania, the establishment of a secondary school has helped reduce the number of early marriages among girls. Previously, parents married girls off when they finished primary school because they feared that, as the girls had nothing to do, they were likely to become pregnant.
Education is also crucial in giving the most vulnerable groups in society and young women in particular the status, independence and confidence they need to assert themselves in relationships so they can act on what they know and protect themselves from infection. The benefits of educating girls are not limited to reducing the prevalence of HIV alone. Children of women with even five years of primary education are 40% more likely to survive than the children of women with no education. Educated women are 50% more likely to vaccinate their children than uneducated mothers. A woman's chances of surviving childbirth are also dramatically improved if she has completed her basic primary education and she will probably be healthier, as she has learned of the dangers to her health, and is able to take preventative measures such as practising safe sex.
Girls who stay in school are literate, which empowers them to earn incomes to help support their families and communities. They can find employment as teachers or health workers and set up businesses and co-operatives. Educated women are more likely to employ improved farming techniques and, as 80% of farmers in Africa are women, education will improve food security on the continent considerably. However, despite the strong evidence supporting the benefits of education, more than 100 million children worldwide miss out on schooling and one in two African children does not have the opportunity to finish primary school.
Accessing education is even more difficult for orphans and vulnerable children, particularly girls, which leaves them more vulnerable to HIV infection and less likely to find their way out of the poverty trap. In recent years international recognition of the plight of orphans and vulnerable children and the importance of improving access to education has significantly improved. The Government has led by example on this issue and we are pleased with its commitment to spend 20% of its HIV-AIDS budget on programmes specifically for orphans and vulnerable children. It is also committed to international agreements such as the Declaration of Commitment on HIV-AIDS developed in a UN General Assembly special session on HIV-AIDS. This declaration is the most internationally agreed statement of intent on the issue and sets out more than 100 articles and a clear timetable to direct regional, national and international efforts to fight the pandemic. It is of note that three articles specifically refer to children and orphans made vulnerable by AIDS, including ensuring their enrolment in schools through Article 65.
The declaration is backed up by many other international commitments, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the declaration made at the UN's special session on children in 2002, A World Fit for Children, and the millennium development goals. As committee members know, three of the millennium development goals focus on improving access to education and reducing the HIV-AIDS pandemic. Goals two and three are to improve universal primary education and eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary schools, respectively. Goal six is to halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV. At current progress rates none of these goals will be achieved by the target date of 2015.
Last year, World Vision Ireland conducted a study, More than Words — Action for Orphans and Vulnerable Children in Africa, to review the progress towards the commitment set out for orphans and vulnerable children in the Declaration of Commitment on HIV-AIDS. Original research was conducted in Ethiopia, Uganda, Mozambique and Zambia. The study makes for disturbing reading. I have brought a few copies for committee members.
The report's key findings are that many governments and donors have fallen short of their promises and progress has been frustratingly slow. The report also found that orphans and vulnerable children in all four countries are least likely to have their basic needs and rights met, be in school, have access to health care, receive normal meals, receive psychological support or have their births registered. They are also victims to property grabbing.
The report indicates that special attention is required for facilitating access to education for orphans and vulnerable children, especially girls, as current attendance rates for orphans and vulnerable children are far below those of other children. For example, only 64% of orphans and vulnerable children in Zambia were reported to be in school compared to 72% of other children. In countries where universal primary education has been successfully introduced, such as Uganda, orphans and vulnerable children are still more likely to be absent from school. The communities interviewed for the study identified many reasons for this, the main one being the costs associated with sending a child to school. While school fees have been abolished the poorest households struggle to raise money for school uniforms, teachers' salaries, maintenance fees and books and stationery.
Another reason identified for the poor school attendance of orphans and vulnerable children was the long distances to schools. Some children in our programme areas must walk ten kilometres to reach the school.
Parental support was identified as a major factor influencing child attendance. Many children drop out of school if they lack parental guidance. They may be pressurised into working for a living, staying at home to look after siblings or marrying at a young age. Girls often drop out because of early pregnancies and sometimes guardians deny orphans the opportunity to attend school or mistreat the orphans. Peer pressure, leading to bad behaviour or truancy, and fear of poor school performance were also factors identified as limiting the attendance of orphans and vulnerable children at school. The report did not find significant differences in attendance rates between boys and girls although all communities in east and west Africa have stated that girls were less likely to attend school because of early marriage or a heavy workload at home.
While universal primary education is not a substitute for expanded treatment, prevention or care of HIV-AIDS, it is a crucial step towards slowing infection rates in the short term. It will also ensure the hardest hit countries can recover from the economic and social damage done by the pandemic. Experts suggest that economic growth in countries hardest hit by HIV-AIDS will drop by 1% to 4% each year. According to UN research, raising the average education of the labour force by one year raises the GDP by 9%. It also increases an individual farmer's productivity by 3% to 14%. Deliberate steps to safeguard and expand access to education are essential to protect the fragile stock of human capital, on which the livelihoods of poor men and women and the economic future of developing countries depend.
The Irish Government is committed to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the millennium goals, both of which recognise and promote the right to education. The Government has also endorsed the declaration of commitment on HIV-AIDS and the framework for the protection, care and support of orphans and vulnerable children, committing it specifically to ensuring school enrolment for such children. Ireland has taken a lead by committing itself to the 0.7% target in overseas aid expenditure by 2012 and it is essential this budget is allocated to sectors that will have the greatest impact on promoting sustainable development. In 2004 the Government spent 12.9% of its bilateral aid on education but it is unclear how much of its total budget for overseas development assistance was spent on education. The research we reviewed presents a compelling case for increasing expenditure on education to halt the spread of HIV and lift millions of women out of the poverty trap.
World Vision Ireland has asked the Irish Government to allocate a minimum of 20% of its budget for overseas development assistance to achieving basic education for all and that this expenditure be tracked. I appreciate the support of all committee members.
I thank the delegation for outlining the views of World Vision Ireland. The delegation makes a point about education, of which committee members are very much in favour. Education has played a major role in Ireland's development and its importance to developments within Africa, particularly sub-Saharan Africa, should be emphasised.
The delegation suggests spending 20% on education and that in 2004 this figure was 12.9%. As the Minister has stated that the figure for this year will be 14%, we are going in the right direction. At the same time much additional money is being spent on HIV-AIDS and the total increase in funds made available is approximately €735 million. The amount spent on education is a higher percentage of a larger amount of money. Education is one of the best antidotes to HIV-AIDS .
I thank Ms Keogh for her overview of the group's activities. She referred to broad principles about the importance of education in development aid, helping people to help themselves. I note the group has 1,500 sponsors from Ireland and has activities in five countries. Can Ms Keogh expand on the activities in these countries and how this is linked to non-governmental agencies? Our deliberations in recent weeks include affirming that taxpayers' money or money from private sources is not passing through government coffers without reaching the people who need support. The committee would appreciate more detail on how World Vision Ireland manages activities in those five countries and the extent to which it is satisfied funding is being effectively used.
Like Deputy Allen, I welcome the delegation. Many committee members are or were involved in education so the delegation's presentation preaches to the converted. I saw the work of World Vision Ireland in Uganda when the Chairman and I visited that country last year and possibly in Ethiopia. Although it is a cliché, education is the key and on my visits to that part of Africa I have seen successful education projects and also some that have question marks hanging over them. How does World Vision Ireland propose we achieve the 20% figure?
In Uganda and Ethiopia I was struck by the patchy approach to the recruitment of teachers. Consequently, the quality of education is patchy even in Uganda, where there is universal access to primary education. Great variation in standards could be seen in standards between Kampala and Gulu, both of which we visited. DCI and World Vision Ireland could play a role in pre-service training or recruitment of teachers, which is crucial.
I observed some education projects where up to 120 people were crowded in a classroom, placing a strain on education delivery. What is of even more concern is what I regard as the lack of appropriate teaching materials. I have been in places where, if the children were able to read and understand the books placed in front of them, they should be pursuing Open University degrees. Perhaps the books were there for our benefit.
Ms Morrow mentioned AIDS prevention and that the level of literacy and numeracy among the population should be increased. That is an area in which World Vision Ireland could get involved. Much of what is stated in the report regarding literacy and numeracy could also be stated about Irish education. The Chairman and I visited a teachers' centre somewhere outside of Addis Ababa, which was built with funding from Development Cooperation Ireland, DCI. It was a fine building. However, it contained little stimulating materials for teachers. One would expect to see a good library with IT materials in a teachers' centre.
Is World Vision Ireland involved in peer health education programmes? I saw what I consider successful programmes in southern Ethiopia a few years ago under the sponsorship of the UN population fund, the UNFPA. They were based around youth delivery services and early education services and seemed to be quite effective. Is that an area in which World Vision Ireland sees a future?
Success is down to investment in teacher training, appropriate curriculum development and materials. When I started teaching here, most of the materials we brought in for the so-called "new curriculum" came from the Nuffield project in the UK. While they were fine, they were not entirely appropriate. I know the former Taoiseach, Garret FitzGerald, discussed that issue before he became involved in serious politics. This issue will not go away.
The key factors are developing research and appropriate education and curriculum. Does World Vision Ireland see any of those playing a part in usefully extending spend to the 20% target requested? We can easily reach the 20% target. How can we most effectively reach it?
I join in welcoming the presentation, which was extremely useful. Choosing a child is the entry point to an area development programme. How does that area development programme integrate with other projects? How is the structure of the development programme selected?
All of the reports I read tend to underestimate the urbanisation phenomenon in Africa. It is not the same as the urbanisation problem of the 1960s and 1970s. Most people are moving to shanty towns and I was interested in Ms Morrow's reference to it. I am interested in the specificity of how the programme is established. Is the assumption about females who become pregnant and are affected with HIV-AIDS an assumption of circular migration or an assumption of circular migration having finished and been replaced with a new form of migration?
At our last meeting, when we heard a contribution on Ethiopia, I referred to an article published in the Journal of Economic Perspectives in summer 2005 by Jakob Svensson. That article, which I wish to have circulated to members of the committee, was entitled “Eight Questions about Corruption”. It was the basis for my statement at that meeting that between 1991 and 1995, in one country in Africa, 13% of what was allocated to education found its way to the primary schools.
Having made a change and publishing the transfers between the department of education, the regional office and the actual schools, the amount accounted for in the same country between 1995 and 2000 was 80%. One could trace 80% of what was spent on primary education back from the schools. It is a powerful statement regarding what we are regularly told and it enables me to ask about the degree to which the transfers are published. If we are to learn anything from this, it is that the more the transfers are published, the more accountability there is and the more empowering it is.
I am becoming dissatisfied with global figures. The department at DCI suggests it spent approximately €200 million between 2000 and 2004. Although it is not intended, sometimes one glazes over as noughts come behind digits. It does not work. I am interested in putting an end to the notion that aid in primary education in various African countries can be considered investment if any penny of it is wasted. I referred to a scientific study published in a journal of economics which showed a change from accounting for 13% to accounting for 80%. The article is either right or wrong. I want it circulated. Therefore, we can examine it carefully.
I was interested in the difference described between genders regarding absenteeism. It was mentioned that in some countries the higher absentee rate from primary participation is female and in other countries it is male. I noticed from elsewhere that those figures need to be adjusted as follows: a higher proportion of vulnerability to HIV-AIDS affects both male and female children, as a terrible choice is made regarding which child is likely to survive. The figure is also affected by the health of the mother, as the tasks performed in African countries by the female are transferred to the female child. In those circumstances, I suspect one would notice a larger dip in female participation. That is not an academic point. However, it is real. The figures for 2005 show a drop in female participation in a number of countries.
I notice access to a World Vision Ireland development programme is through choosing a child for sponsorship. In some conflict-torn countries where World Vision Ireland has a presence, the Red Cross operates a tracing system for orphans. That has been extended to some extent to orphans suffering from HIV-AIDS. What happens to the orphans who are not traced, particularly in the community of Rwandan orphans, whose parents were victims of the liberation army in the north of Uganda? Some of their parents returned to Rwanda. Some categories of orphans are particularly vulnerable even beyond the status of being orphans and are extremely at risk.
If we are to sustain a strong level of public interest in this we must present it with maps and statistics. In three of those five countries the number of new teachers being trained is only between half and two thirds of the teachers who have been lost to HIV and AIDS. Therefore, there is a net loss in the number of teachers at primary level.
It will help to concentrate people's minds if DCI moves beyond the global figures and percentages and starts publishing, country by country, histograms on numbers of teachers trained, teachers lost, primary school children attending by gender and the amounts of money given to schools. In an ideal world one should be able to look at all the countries where primary school spending has taken place, and in one country, it is 80%, add it all up and arrive at a final figure. That would put an end to the argument, although I am not suggesting that those who have criticised corruption have invented it. Such a statistical exercise would be a powerful deterrent to corruption.
I welcome the delegation. It is nice to see Ms Keogh again. I was very taken with the presentation. I have visited South Africa and Botswana and met a number of groups working there in the AIDS and HIV areas, but their work is mainly reactive. The groups are reacting to the fact that a large section of the population in those countries and many other states in that area of Africa, are affected by the HIV virus. The measures taken are reactive, such as the administration of anti-viral drugs and so forth. The approach of World Vision Ireland is the correct one because we must break the cycle. As Deputy Carey has already said, getting through to the leaders and peers of young people is the answer because unless we can break the cycle, we will back here talking about the same issues, time and time again, with the only difference being the date of the meeting.
Some of the groups I met in Africa were in denial or were delusional and did not accept the seriousness of the problem. We must get through to people at peer level to break the cycle and education is paramount in that regard. World Vision Ireland is a proactive organisation in that it is trying to break the cycle. How can the organisation get through to the community leaders, politicians, religious leaders and educationalists? They are the people who can give the lead. There must be peer leadership, which is absent at the moment. If such peer leadership was generated, we would be moving in the right direction. We can throw money at this problem for as long as we wish, but until the cycle is broken we are going nowhere fast. I hate to be so graphic, but that is the way it appeared to me when I was there and nothing I have seen in the intervening period has changed my mind.
I welcome the delegation. I agree with what has been said about education and I hope that we will reach the target of 20% for bilateral aid on education in the near future.
Having visited a number of countries in Africa, I am very familiar with the formal schooling system but would like to know a little more about the informal system. I have seen some television programmes showing prominent sports people who went to Africa and became involved in physical education, including hurling, which seems to be a universal game at this point, played as it is from Japan to Africa. The informal side of education is important.
Mr. Alan Kerins, a physiotherapist from Galway, attended a meeting of the Sub-Committee on Development Co-operation recently. He went to Zambia off his own bat and has raised a considerable amount of money. Deputy Tony Dempsey has referred to the work other people are doing in Africa. GOAL is involved in bringing well-known personalities over there and is good at that type of work. Many people are working in the field, some on their own, others with other NGOs. Where does World Vision Ireland fit in with regard to the formal and informal education sectors?
Deputy Allen referred to the presence of World Vision in many countries and the fact that it has many sponsors and I would welcome more information on that. I support the principles and work of the organisation and I hope the 20% target will be reached soon.
I am sure the delegation has noted all of the questions and will respond accordingly. Deputies placed an emphasis on teacher training, availability of materials and accountability, in terms of how money is spent. Deputy Michael Higgins suggested that the use of illustrations would help to get one's message across to people. One must continually examine ways to communicate with people in Ireland so that they understand the work being done and its value. One is inclined, when one is deeply involved in work, to presume others understand what one is doing.
DCI has embarked on a series of immersion projects for schools, whereby groups of four to six Irish students go to African countries to experience, first-hand, the terrible conditions in which people live. Those students come back here and tell all their friends about the reality. While there are a great many people here making an enormous contribution, more support and understanding needs to be generated. In recent times, people have questioned the amount of money that is being spent on aid but the point made by this committee is that a country is not required to contribute more money unless its wealth increases. There is no need to worry because the 0.7% target refers to the growth in wealth. Therefore, a country holds onto 99.3% of its wealth for its own use, whether for the private sector, government or services.
I am sorry to interrupt, but no one has told us so far how much it costs to train a primary school teacher in the countries in which World Vision operates. People can attend primary school for free but the fees are often very high for second level schools. In Uganda, for example, it costs just under $1,000 per term. How many years are spent at teacher training colleges? I know that in some countries referred to, third level education is free but attendance at teacher training colleges is not. I am interested, therefore, in how the teachers emerge and the cost involved.
Ms Keogh
I will try to deal with as many of the questions posed as possible, but my colleagues will also answer some of them. Deputy Allen and Senator Glynn asked similar questions about World Vision itself. The organisation has 20,000 supporters here. We raise half of our funding through donations by private sponsors. That is mostly done through child sponsorship, which is good for planning in that somebody donates on a regular basis over the long term. We are setting up further programmes, which will take two years to establish, in partnership with people on the ground in Uganda, Tanzania and Mauritania. The money involved does not go to the child but to the community and we make a guarantee that we will stay for a period of ten to 15 years. It is a true partnership in that programmes are organised according to communities' demands and we do not instruct them but they tell us because they understand what is needed. As Deputy Carey noted, education is the key to the matter. We will work out funding programmes in consultation with our partners and the World Vision field office in Tanzania after working with a community for two years.
We invite our sponsors to visit the children involved because seeing the work done on the ground is a powerful life changing experience. It is also important for sponsors to understand the difficulties and challenges experienced by the children and their families, as well as the improvements brought by World Vision. Our system is accountable and transparent because we work with the poorest of the poor in co-operation with local governments and leaders.
With regard to the question on education and how to reach the 20%, we do not know exactly how much money is being spent on education and want to determine how it will be tracked and measured. In our work, we do not seek information on spending figures without knowing what is happening but want to see results. World Vision is able to claim, for example, that school attendance rose from 10% to 87% in our area development programme over a period of eight years and from below 40% to 88% over a more recent period of three years. Thus, we can see the direct correlation between spending and results.
Ms Morrow
We have focused in our broad education strategy on classroom construction because overcrowding is common and facilities are so lacking in some areas that children have to study under trees or out in the baking heat. Projects are completed in partnership with communities, which gather the local resources required and volunteer labour to construct classrooms, while we provide cement and technical support. By the time the classrooms are built, the communities have gained real ownership and are prepared to care for the buildings far into the future. Attendance levels increase because the people who built the classrooms are keen to send their children to school.
We also place an emphasis on teacher training by providing all teachers with refresher training through Ministries of education. That, unfortunately, does not address the issue of inappropriate or faulty curricula. We plan to help resolve that by bringing teachers from Ireland to our programmes in Tanzania to train local teachers.
We are also supporting communities in establishing parent-teacher committees, where parents and teachers work closely together to manage schools and to encourage higher attendance rates. Parents are mobilised to raise the money to provide children with lunches, books and stationary because there is little point in going to school without these items.
Ms Garry
A couple of members raised the problems with curricula and teacher availability and training. It is true that teacher training is vital because some of the teachers in the schools we support, far from attending teacher training colleges or being fully qualified teachers, have only a primary standard of education. I was recently in Somalia, where teachers had only three or four years of primary school education. In other developing countries, someone with secondary education may be considered sufficiently qualified to become a teacher. Remote or marginalised rural communities often encounter difficulties in attracting teachers, who prefer to live in large towns offering higher standards of education to their own children and access to better services. We try to support initiatives by the community to make a teacher's life easier by guaranteeing regular pay, housing and other supports. We also support the ongoing training needed to retain teachers.
It is true that only a graduate could understand some of the books provided to schools and that some of the teaching methods are very old-fashioned. World Vision recently facilitated the implementation in our partner schools of a new curriculum developed by UNICEF in Somalia. This curriculum is more interactive and modern, with more visual teaching methods. Teachers are motivated because they find it easier to transmit messages to children using new tools rather than old books. We continue to work with local departments to introduce more motivational methods for both teachers and pupils.
In Francophone Africa, the primary school education is conducted through French, which alienates parents because they cannot relate to the system and, at a more basic level, it is difficult for children to learn through a foreign language. Our partners in Senegal have worked with that country's government to promote alternative forms of education, whereby children learn through their local languages and teachers are trained in basic literacy in those languages. Practical elements are also drawn into the course in order that children might learn about health, agriculture and other subjects that concern village life. That programme has been successful; parents are enthused and engaged. When we visit the schools they are there and talk about how they can raise money to make this last and replicate it in other areas.
Non-formal education was mentioned and it is important. We had a women's literacy project in Mauritania. The area in which we work in Mauritania has low rates of school attendance, 10% in some areas, and few adults can read or write so there is no culture of education. It is considered foreign. One of the ways of tackling that was offering literacy classes to women and that has made a difference to the women in their everyday lives and attitude to the education of their children. Now they are more motivated to send their children, particularly their girls, to school. It is important not to forget the women but to engage them in schools and literacy programmes wherever we can.
Ms Morrow
We have also established cultural groups in many of our projects because we work in some of the most marginalised areas of Africa where there is no media, print or radio. The groups include men and women who we train on issues such as malaria, basic hygiene and HIV prevention, treatment and care. They communicate this to the villagers in the way that is most effective, namely song, dance and theatre. They put on shows in the villages, demonstrate how to use malaria nets and answer questions. The whole community gathers around as it is a source of entertaining education so it is successful in spreading the message.
It is a rewarding exercise in which to be involved. We must move on to another issue. DCI gave us some examples of their contributions. One of them was in Limpopo province in the northern area of South Africa and in Lesotho where DCI provided child-centred literacy learning materials in mother tongue called "breakthrough to literacy" for all grade one classes and funded the training of all grade one primary teachers in the methodology. It is just one example of the kind of work that happens. I thank the witnesses for giving us such a clear exposition of their work and for both the paper and the backup material which is valuable to our members in knowing what World Vision Ireland is about and its composition. We are much more familiar with their work and we wish them success.
Ms Keogh
I thank the Chairman, members and officials of the committee. It is a wonderful opportunity for us to come here and we appreciate it.