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Faces of Change

From the Impact of a Grandmother and Educator to the Reflections of a Student Bound for Medical School, Kenya

Swafiya's Story

Swafiya Said, grandmother to a child of pre-school age and a madrasa schoolteacher, realized as she followed her grandson's education through his early schooling, that the system of education in the Muslim community of Mombasa was not stimulating or challenging enough for the children. The traditional madrasa schools emphasized rote learning and provided few practical and enjoyable learning opportunities to children. Swafiya knew the children were clearly capable of wonders if they were exposed to more interactive and innovative teaching methods. Backed by years of teaching experience, Swafiya developed a new model for learning, which integrated child-centered methods in pre-school subjects with a solid grounding in religious and cultural education.

In 1986, recognizing her successful but still experimental methods in teaching, Aga Khan Foundation provided Swafiya with a grant to design pre-school curriculum, training and tools for low-income marginalized communities in Mombasa, Kenya. Swafiya's vision and techniques proved successful and the demand for balanced madrasa education increased exponentially within the Muslim communities. Following Swafiya's pioneering step, Aga Khan Foundation jumped in and established a Madrasa Resource Center (MRC) to provide ongoing training and teacher resources to the growing number of madrasa pre-schools. Eventually, the Madrasa Program spread to over 200 schools in Tanzania, Uganda and Zanzibar.

Mombasa, Kenya. Some young boys in red checked uniforms watch as Swafiya Said, the project director, shows them how to make patterns out of a string.

Today, communities from all around East Africa are actively involved in managing the schools and supporting the quality of education for their young children. Communities create endowments to finance their local schools. They also help teachers create locally crafted, low-cost, culturally appropriate educational tools. Through expanded training programs, the MRCs in all three countries are actively involved in improving the skills of parents and community members to effectively fund their schools, recruit and train teachers and troubleshoot problems that come with running good schools.

Five boys sit on the floor on woven mats
as they learn to read and spell with their
teacher, who was trained through the Madrasa Resource Center. The educational aids are locally made, created by parents and teachers.

People do not graduate individually from the MRC's programs. A community must, as one unit, meet the graduation requirements of the MRC in order to graduate from the program, including the collection and investment of financial resources as an endowment, the revenue of which will be used to support the pre-school. The MRCs continue to provide guidance and encouragement to the communities after graduation. Furthermore, associations of graduated communities have been formed so that once communities are independent of the MRCs, they can share experiences and lessons learned on the management and maintenance of the madrasa pre-schools.

Aga Khan Foundation partners on an ongoing basis with champions like Swafiya, who are the real forces behind development, to enable their initiatives to have the greatest impact for the benefit of the people.

25 years after the program began, it continues to transform lives…

Naima’s story

Naima Shatry, now 22, is one of the first Madrasa Resource Centre (MRC) pre-school graduates in the late 1980s, currently enrolled in a Bachelor’s of Medicine at the University of Nairobi.  She reflects upon her experience.

I am happy that, although I was brought up by a single mother, she was supported by all the other relatives including my grandpa and grandma.  I was brought up by a whole family network. Apart from my family, my greatest influence came from my preschool experience.  My two teachers, Miss Hanifa and Bi Swafiya made learning fun.  They treated children at a very personal level. We were like their children not just their pupils. They were our second parents. At the end of each day we were not eager to leave. Preschool was our second home.

The teachers blended learning numbers and letters with Islam and the reality of life. This not only helped me in understanding life with God and in God, but also God in our lives. This has continued to enable me to interpret life religiously and religion from a life perspective. Such integration makes knowledge emotionally real and sensible. I remember the many colorful learning materials, but it was the human aspect that made all the difference in our enjoyment of play and learning, created by our friendly and trustworthy teachers at Liwatoni preschool. It was something that became rarer as I proceeded with my education.

Preschool gave me the impetus to learn and to live. The preschool teachers were committed to us children. It is still a lesson that commitment goes beyond working and becomes part of one’s life when you are truly committed. My joy in being a potential medical doctor is that I will be able to help people.  To help someone is like a gift. Not everyone has the privilege of assisting someone.

When Naima learned in early 2007 that Aga Khan Foundation U.S.A. wanted to share her story with people in the United States, she responded with joy and gratitude.  She said “I find it inspiring that somewhere far away, schools like these have not gone unnoticed, thanks to the Aga Khan Foundation.”

For decades, Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) has understood the critical importance of early intervention in a child’s development, particularly in the lives of the poor and disadvantaged.  In East Africa AKF’s early childhood development and school improvement programs have had a profound impact on the lives of children and their parents: increasing access to education especially for girls, raising academic achievement levels, keeping children in school longer, and getting communities involved in schools.

Swaifya Said, who introduced an integrated curriculum into traditional madrasa schools is using active learning techniques in Liwatoni preschool in 1988.

Two uncompromising passions have led the program’s success:  The first is the use of active learning methods and an insistence on a maximum student-teacher ratio of 15:1.  The second commitment is community ownership, no matter how poor the community.  MRCs train community members to manage and maintain their school.  As community members actively engage in school-related matters, they experience first-hand the value of early childhood education techniques; by committing their own resources and time, they become invested in seeing that the school succeeds.