Ducere Foundation

Flying to Madagascar was magical, with the call of magnificent mountain ranges, beautiful beaches, sparkling waterways and, of course, its people. As we drove through small towns, we were entranced by the vibrancy of people clustering around open shop fronts purchasing meat, vegetables and spices. The countryside was splashed with colour where washing was laid out to dry on bushes. Very few people can afford a privy or washing facilities in their home, so the rivers and lakes are populated with women washing clothes or bathing their children.

Most Madagascans speak Malagasy, with French the official language, so we were extremely privileged to have the former High Commissioner for Madagascar (and Mauritius, Comoros and Seychelles) in our company. Her Excellency Susan Coles is not only a fluent French speaker, but also a person well connected with the education authorities and passionate about literacy for all.

The African Children’s Stories program began in Madagascar through the auspices of the Australian High Commission, in partnership with innovative Vision Valley School. The school was established in 2000 in the home of Gavin and Rhoda Jordaan with only three students. Today, it has grown to nearly 300 pupils from nursery age to Grade 12.

The Vision Valley School community was electric with excitement on the day of the launch. The school had invited guests from the local community and surrounding schools. The students had prepared dances with graceful movements, sophisticated costumes and mesmerising music. Cameras flashed as proud parents watched their children perform.

Our Madagascar collection is available to purchase via our online store: https://bit.ly/3AwdefM (or via link in bio).

Senegal is a coastal country with a diverse environment, ranging from tropical rainforest to desert. We began the Foundation work there in two coastal desert regions: Ton Tivaouane Peulh and the Apix Resettlement Zone.

Travelling to the schools was full of surprises. On arrival in the township, the sealed road stopped abruptly and we had to navigate desert sand in order to get to training at Tivaouane Peulh Elementary School. High-heeled shoes seemed out of place, but African women, particularly the Senegalese, dress in the most beautiful silks and it was important to us to respect their formality by dressing accordingly.

The training was a wonderful experience with frequent laughter. We were intrigued by each other and we learned so much. The success of the training was due to our Senegal Country Coordinator, Dr Oumar Diogoye Diouf, a brilliant academic, Fulbright Scholar and Assistant Professor, who also translated many of our stories into English or French.

In total, 23 teachers from the six beneficiary schools were trained. At the end of the program, a taxi was booked for our return to Dakar. No typical western taxis arrived, but rather a donkey cart, which was unusual and so much fun to ride in. We laughed with new-found friends while feeling quite conspicuous as children from the villages we passed ran alongside, waving and laughing. The children were not used to seeing a white woman travelling through their village.

The students who contributed to the African Children’s Stories Senegal collections came from both Tivaouane Peulh and the Apix Resettlement Zone. There is high value placed on education at both schools, with wonderful examples of student commitment and ambition.

Our Senegal collections are available to purchase via our online store: https://bit.ly/3HgnGf4 (or via link in bio).

Rwanda is beautiful with stunning scenery and warm, friendly people. Rwandans are a resilient people who have, in the main, put the horror of the 1994 genocide – when nearly one million people died during 100 days of slaughter – behind them.

Ducere Foundation’s work began with Cheryl Mutubazi (our inspired Co-ordinator) connecting us with Imagine We, a Rwandan non-government organisation dedicated to empowering children and young adults to love literature, and to inspiring confidence in potential writers. After holding the competition Kagire Inkuru, or ‘Tell a Story’, in schools around Kigali, this collaboration resulted in the first Rwandan collection.

Collaboration within Rwanda also impacted positively on the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) program. The Foundation staff were not allowed to travel into the DRC because of the level of civil unrest, so the DRC team, led by ActionAid, came to Kigali. A number of the master classes were held at Wellspring Academy where teachers and students were already immersed in the program. The stories generated during the intensive training were later developed and published into the Fifty-ninth Collection, which we call the Wellspring stories.

The value placed on education in Rwanda means that children all over the globe can read and enjoy the Twenty-second and Fifty-ninth collections, sharing in Rwandan children’s daily life and being inspired by words such as these by Ganza Axel, who wrote: "... be independent, creative and think out of the box."

Our Rwandan (and DRC) collections are available to purchase via our online store: https://bit.ly/3ZYjHLf (or via link in bio).

South Africa is a country of great beauty, from the mountains of Cape Town, the historic Cape of Good Hope, the rainforests of Limpopo, the mountain peaks of Mpumalanga, and Kruger National Park, a magnet for tourists.

Our experience with the Makuleke, a Tsonga tribe, is indelible. In 1969 they were forcibly removed from their homes by the apartheid government and their land was incorporated into Kruger National Park. While the park is known for its beauty, incredible animals, bird life and thousands of baobab trees, it cannot be forgotten that the Makuleke no longer live on their land.

Our partners are the key to our success and it was Children in the Wilderness (CITW) who managed and taught the children from the Makuleke community, making it possible for Ducere to publish these stories and take another step in its vision to share stories from all 54 African countries over time. There are other partners too. Monash South Africa (MSA) worked with us in the Zandspruit Primary School, as well as schools in Gauteng, Johannesburg with Spell It South Africa bringing the South African collections of the African Children’s Stories to life.

MSA and Ducere worked together in township areas in the West Rand, aiming to improve literacy in the public school sector. Since this work began, two collections have been published – the first one written by students at Zandspruit Primary School, and the second one written by students from many schools and based on Nelson Mandela’s Legacy, which was launched just before Mandela Day in July 2016.

The students across South African are hungry for books, as they know the importance of learning and recognise the influence of their late President, their hero, Nelson Mandela, who made schooling accessible to everyone for the first time.

Our African Children's Stories collections are available to purchase via our online store: https://bit.ly/3E70aPm (or via link in bio).

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