RSIS UPDATEIssue 7 - March 2014

www.roundsquare.org • +44 (0) 1225 320 854 • liz@roundsquare.org • Registered Charity No. 327117

Round up of December 2013 projects

5 projects:India

Kenya

Cambodia

Thailand

Cambodia LeaderTraining

INDIA

During the mid-project break the team embarked on a hike in the Western Ghats, not far from their work site. Over two days the team walked up to a village and double hill-fort which was a spectacular site to those that were able to hike up to the top. The team camped at the edge of the village, with spectacular views over the surrounding hills and enjoyed a BBQ which they all helped to cook. The second day saw the team walk down a fairly steep path with their packs to a pick-up point and carry on to the beautiful hill-station of Matheran where they could enjoy showers and a proper bed!

The team stayed at Matheran for 2 nights, enjoying a day of project work at Hasachipatti which is another long-term DAIS Project. The team hiked down the path towards the village, and spent the day helping to build more of the path that connects the village to the town. They then returned to Khumbharghar to finish off the rest of their building work, doing a fantastic job of completing all their set tasks (and more!) with a good amount of work for the 2014 team to finish off when they visit.

The team then returned to Mumbai, bade farewell to their Indian friends and boarded a train up towards Agra which was an exciting overnight journey! They arrived very early, and slightly bleary-eyed and were transported off to see the Taj Mahal which is enough to awaken even the most exhausted student! The team also enjoyed time in Jaipur seeing the Amber Fort, doing some essential market shopping and taking in the Jantar Mantar Observatory and City Palace. They then returned to Delhi for flights home!

The team in India in 2013 embarked on a new project in partnership with Dhirubhai Ambani International School (DAIS) based in Mumbai. After arrival in Mumbai, the team had a day to rest up before heading down to Khumbharghar to start their project work. Staying in a nearby camp, the students had to literally start their project work from scratch, and set about making mud bricks using a man-powered brick machine. These then dried and were transported (along with lots of clay and gravel) over 50 metres to the work site. The team were starting to build the first ever school for this tiny community of only 25 houses. All the people in this community are illiterate and make a very meagre living either working for money-lenders, or selling any firewood they can gather from the hills around them. It is a very beautiful, and secure village and they are being helped by DAIS over a number of years to provide housing for the families as well as a school for their children.

Our amazing team soon set about building the first school room (the school will consist of two classrooms and a teacher room as well as an enclosed balcony) and they also built one house for the village too. They worked extremely hard in the very hot weather at the site, and all were kept busy for the whole time they were there! Local people helped with the building work, and the young couple that will inhabit the house helped with transporting materials and bricks up and down to the site. It was particularly satisfying for the group to be building this house alongside the people who will benefit from their hard work.

“There were always new experiences around every corner. I really feel like all the students

bonded strongly, worked well together as a team, and always looked out for one another and lent a helping hand. I learned so many new things about India and the people who live here and I had the trip of a lifetime! It

was incredible to see the house and the classroom that we made and to meet the children who

will use the classroom.” The team of 13 international students came from Westminster School, St Philips College, Markham College, Bayview Glen School, Trinity Anglican School, St Clements School, Ballarat Grammar, St Cyprians School and Salem. They were joined by four students from Mayo College, Assam Valley School and Vivek High School.Vanessa Tait (Methodist Ladies College) was the Project Leader, Peter Smith (Trinity Anglican School) was Deputy Leader and Yassir Choonawala (DAIS) was Project Manager

“If you have come here to help me you

are wasting your time. But if your liberation is wrapped up in mine, then

let’s work together” Lila Watson

Well as usual we have been spinning multiple plates simultaneously here at the Round Square Projects office! The lead up to the December Projects was a whirlwind of activity as we saw five teams off to Thailand, India, Kenya and two to Cambodia, and all five were working with new project partners or in new areas so there was lots of anticipation ahead! We are now planning for a smaller selection of projects in 2014, but already the July trips have filled up and we are starting to think about December again. Enjoy reading all about their adventures! Liz Gray, RSIS Projects Manager

KENYAOur team in 2013 was working on a new long-term collaboration with the Moving Mountains (MM) Trust, Kenya. This is the first year we’ve worked in partnership with this organisation, which is overseen by Adventure Alternative in the UK. The Moving Mountains Trust is a charity that “empowered equitable relationships that will ultimately drive the revolution of development” and is driven by a belief that everyone should have an opportunity to succeed and improve their own quality of life. MM Kenya is run by an excellent team of local staff who have all come from challenging backgrounds in Nairobi, and some were former street children. All were helped by MM, and now work with more street youth in the slums to bring more and more of them the opportunity to grow, learn and become responsible citizens.

The team of 13 international students and 11 boys from Starehe Boys Centre started the trip at a camp in Nairobi where they met the MM team and received briefings about the trip. They enjoyed a wonderful morning trip to the Sheldrick Centre where they look after orphaned elephants and in the afternoon the group visited Brookhouse School for a tour of their campus and a bit of a sports tournament!

They departed early the following day for a very long all-day drive over to Ulamba, in Siaya District which was to be their home for the next few weeks. The team camped at Ulamba Orphanage which is a beneficiary of Moving Mountains Trust, and they worked at two different schools while learning about what true long-term sustainable development is all about. They worked first at Barkatado School where they demolished a classroom floor and replaced it with a new cement floor (which will reduce the incidence of jiggers getting into student’s feet while they learn), installed windows and painted inside and out while also adding a verandah to the front of the classroom!

Then they progressed to Malunga Primary School which was is far greater need of help, and which we anticipate we will be able to continue to help for several years to come. Every classroom here was in a huge state of disrepair, so the team could see first hand the importance of working with a community to determine their needs, then utilise the resources already available to make some change happen. So the team set about doing the same tasks here as in Barkatado, clearing up some classroom floors and installing windows, doors and generally making for a much better learning environment for everyone there. One of the team members (Ollie from Abbotsholme School) had raised over £1,000 to bring to Kenya which was used to provide 60 desks and benches for the schools which were very much needed and which will last for many years to come! Two local carpenters were employed to put these together, and Ollie and the team helped to do the final work on them before they were installed, giving a huge sense of pride and satisfaction!

While the team was there, they enjoyed some great cultural activities such as visits to the local markets to assist with food shopping and buying building supplies, enjoying having to barter for goods! They also attended a church service locally and enjoyed home visits (to families of some of the local children), which was a particularly profound experience as it opened up everyone’s eye to the daily struggles that so many local people face. The team was also lucky enough to enjoy a visit with Sarah Obama, grand-mother to a certain very famous US president! They learned about her humanitarian work and heard some of her stories about her son and his journey to the USA, and about her famous grandson!

Santa Claus paid a visit to the orphanage at the end of the team’s stay there and delivered gifts to all the children which was a lovely event for everyone, except David MacLellan (the Deputy Leader) who, it was claimed, was off sleeping at the time……

There was a wonderful hand-over ceremony at both schools on the final day, which was an official event attended by the community, Moving Mountains Trust and school councils and chairmen. Some of our team members spoke at these ceremonies about the pride they’d all taken in the work they’d been able to do and sending our best wishes to both communities for the future.

At the end of the trip, the team visited Lake Nakuru National Park, and also Lake Naivasha to do some camping and wildlife spotting! They enjoyed a wonderful Christmas Day doing a 15km bike ride through Hells Gate National Park past giraffe, zebra and gazelle and they ended the day with a great dinner at the restaurant in the lodge at camp. They returned to Nairobi (via the giraffe sanctuary at Langata) to enjoy a great final night together.

A wonderfully moving experience for everyone, and an extremely positive start to our new partnership with Moving Mountains Trust who were exceptional leaders, logisticians and friends to our team throughout!

The team came from Abbotsholme School, Gordonstoun, Westminster School, St Clements School, Mayo College, Salem, Kings Academy and Starehe Boys Centre. Kate Anderson (St Philips College) was the Project Leader; David MacLellan (Honorary Member of Round Square) was the Deputy Leader and Peter Ndungu (Starehe Boys Centre) was the accompanying adult.

I’ve learned to find small things to appreciate. I’ve

learned that positivity goes a long way even if things seem negative. I’ve learned that you don’t need stuff to be happy. Everyone at Ulumba taught

me this. They were some of the kindest, most genuine and

joyous people I have ever met; without running water, laptops, TV and all the things we’re led to believe we need to

be happy.”

watch their vegetables starting to grow! They created new garden beds and planted seeds, fencing the area to keep the local cows out!

The group also enjoyed a challenging 3-day hike in Kulen National Park, which involved some steep climbs up to a plateau over 40km square in size. The team camped in hammocks at the edge of communities living alongside local monks, exploring villages, seeing some bat caves and waterfalls and trying some interesting foods from the jungle! The team had a great Christmas Day at the camp (with a very creative local Christmas Tree!) eating lovely food, enjoying Secret Santa gifts, carols and a big play session at the school with the local children. They finished the trip back in Phnom Penh, enjoying a meal with fried tarantula (!) for some.

A hugely successful trip, run beautifully by the expert local team at Camp Beng Mealea. There is a great article on the Gordonstoun School website by one of the team members:

http://www.gordonstoun.org.uk/news/1955/357/RSIS-Cambodia

The team of 20 students came from St Philips College, St Clement’s School, Mayo College, Trinity Anglican School, Westfield School, Westminster School, St Cyprian’s School, Glenlyon Norfolk School, Doon School, Markham College, Bunbury Cathedral Grammar School, Windermere School, Gordonstoun and Bishops College School. Lesley Buckmaster (Appleby College) was the main leader, and Andrew O’Connell (Armidale School) was the Deputy Leader.

This year our RSIS Cambodia student team were the first to embark on a project in partnership with Camps International. They have an established camp up in the north of the country, managed and run by an exceptional team of locally employed staff. They work long-term on projects with communities all over the world and have a well-established project in a community called Beng Mealea, just outside Siem Reap.

The team arrived on the 6th December and spent the first few days getting to know each other as well as visiting the Killing Fields and Toel Sleng genocide museum in Phnom Penh. These set a cultural reference for being in Cambodia and although it was an emotionally challenging morning, it meant that the team could be more aware of the atrocities that the country had been through just 30 years ago, and to see how far they had come since those times.

The group then headed up to Beng Mealea which is a whole day’s journey taking in some stops along the way at Tonle Sap Lake. On arrival at the camp, they were met with big smiles from Han, the manager and his staff. On the first day of work, the group headed off to the village, with a tour round to get a picture of the community they were helping. One of the highlights was the Beng Mealea Temple which harks from the ancient Khmer Empire. After a blessing from a local monk, the team headed to their project site at a local elementary school that was 15 minutes walk from the camp. The team was helping to complete work on teacher accommodation as well as other pieces of refurbishment at the school itself. Smaller teams stayed at camp to help with kitchen duties while others went to help out in the classes at the school and there was plenty to keep everyone busy!

During the mid-project break the team travelled to Siem Reap, visiting a floating village community on Tonle Sap Lake on the way. The team then had a wonderful day at Angkor Wat, arriving there in time to see the sunrise and spending the rest of the day exploring some of the temples in this vast complex.

During the last phases of project work, the group continued work on the teacher’s accommodation and painting classrooms and walls at the school. They also worked at the organic garden at the community and could literally

CAMBODIA“From the time of arrival in Phnom Penh, until the time I

departed, I am sure I have never felt, or never will feel more at home. The project, the involvement of the group, the

accommodation, the transport were all well organised and up to the mark. The approachable and knowledgeable leaders with a very experienced local manager ensured that the trip was a great

success. Thank you! “

THAILANDOur RSIS team went back to northern Thailand in December to work again with the Pakanyor Foundation, who provide clean water and health projects to the Karen hill-tribe people who live in the very north, not far from the borders with Burma. Our teams have been working with the Pakanyor Foundation for a number of years, and the experience is always a unique one!

In 2013, our group of parents and younger students (aged 14 and 15) came from five different schools, and all met in Chiang Mai on the 7th December eager to get out to the Inthanon Resort, their accommodation for the first few nights. After a day’s briefing from the leaders, the group headed up into the mountains to the village of Ban Sob Pha Luang (after an arduous drive over muddy and rocky roads!) to build them a new clean water system in just 9 days! The team were staying in the school building in the village, and they immediately set about their task with huge energy, damming a water source, laying pipes down to the tank site, and building two huge 7,500 litre tanks so that the village can collect and store clean water. Working with local builders and villagers the team soon settled into their tasks and became a slick working group!

Fed with delicious fresh Thai food by Mem Soutar and her team, the group finished in record time, and at the end of the Project received newly woven traditional Karen shirts as gifts from the community by way of thanks.

After the work was finished, the team headed back to Chiang Mai where they spent a day at an elephant conservation project, and had plenty of time to wander round the night market hoovering up lots of local bargains!

The team of 5 family groups (5 students, plus 5 parents) came from Radford College, Herlufsholm Skole, Bridge House School, Gordonstoun and Glenlyon Norfolk School. Jan Matthews (formerly at Ashbury College) was the Project Leader, Carlos Heleno (Appleby College) was the Deputy Leader and Sophie MacDougall-Davis was the team’s medic. Jim and Mem Soutar from the Pakanyor Foundation were the Project Managers and the team was also assisted locally by Ekachai and his team of builders and Richard Brookes from the UK

You can see a fantastic article written by Al Monkman, one of the parents in the group on:

http://www.gordonstoun.org.uk/news/1967/357/Reflections-on-Junior-RSIS-Thailand

We wanted to take this opportunity to thank ALL our fantastic Project Leaders who’ve worked with us in December. While all were met with challenges along the way, they faced them with smiles and common sense! Everyone was kept safe, and all our participants had a great time. Our leaders don’t get paid to do the job that they do, and we are ever grateful that they are passionate enough about the Round Square IDEALS, and giving opportunities to students. We sleep easy at night because of your hard work, so our thanks to all of you! Thanks also must go to our wonderful Project Managers in all our destinations. They organise everything before arrival, and ensure that all runs smoothly while our teams are visiting them. Thank you!

The group was then split up into leadership teams of 2, who would each lead a day of the trip themselves. This involved having to write a risk assessment of their day, liaising with the local building team and project manager, briefing the rest of the team the night before, and de-briefing the team at the end of the day.

The worksite was 25 minutes drive from Takeo, in a village called Prokeab. This is a community that is spread out over a number of kilometres and the area we were in was quiet, and in the middle of endless paddy fields and beautiful swaying palm trees. We built a weaving centre to provide vocational training and employment opportunities for local women, who lack any formal education and have very limited chance to earn any money of their own. The building materials had already been delivered to the site, and the team arrived, looked at the daunting piles of sand, gravel, rock and bricks and wondered how on earth they were to achieve this huge feat from scratch! But we were under the watchful eye of Phearom and his fearless team of local builders and our day leaders set us tasks including forming huge lengths of re-bar (re-inforcement metal that is woven into long tubes to make the cement columns in the foundations – the real strength of the building), putting a floor of rocks into the foundations and mixing cement to lay bricks.

For the first 5 days, the team worked incredibly hard mixing hundreds of buckets of cement, laying beautiful courses of bricks and bringing the building up to head

From December 7 to 22, a group of 21 teachers, and 2 leaders from the UK, Australia, Singapore, Switzerland, Jordan, India, Oman, South Africa, Thailand, Pakistan and Canada embarked on the second Round Square Leader Training Project in Cambodia. The range of experience in our group was enormous – some had very limited knowledge of risk management, of leading student service trips or even developing world travel. Others had a lot of experience of travel, service and risk management in their own schools, and we were sure that over the next two weeks that a huge amount of sharing and knowledge exchange would take place.

The team met in Phnom Penh, and the following day travelled down to Takeo to start a 2-day training workshop covering areas such as the skills of leadership, selecting sustainable project partners, risk assessment, incident management, checking the suitability of third party providers, medical issues, selecting students for trips, the importance of reviewing and evaluation and how to lead a safe trip. At the end of the workshop, the team members completed an informal test to consolidate their knowledge and then excitedly looked forward to starting work on the project site. It was an intense two days of workshop, but one in which they asked lots of questions, shared a lot of experience and even managed to stay awake during the driest of topics – risk assessment!

CAMBODIA LEADER TRAINING

height. The group were already astonished at how much work they had achieved so far, and each day’s leaders had been given enough of a challenge each day to put their workshop learning into practice.

The group enjoyed a day back in Takeo in the middle of the trip, where we re-visited the workshop training, looking at what they had learned while on the work site and also looked back on the test that was done at the end of the workshop. That afternoon, we headed out on five boats for a 1.5 hour fast ride along the canals and flooded fields around the town, over to some ancient temples which was an excellent exercise in dynamic risk assessment for that day’s leaders!

For the last 5 days, the team returned to the work site desperate to finish off our weaving centre. We were hampered by some torrential rain and wind (who knew it could actually get cold in Cambodia?) but the group persevered and by the day of the opening ceremony the building was 95% finished, with only a bit of painting and tidying up to be done. The opening ceremony was a faintly comedic affair with a representative from the local police and authorities there, as well as speeches in English and Cambodian to the expectant audience of children and members of the community. At the end of the ceremony, the team gave away 50

bicycles to local children, and 11 chicken-rearing businesses as well as toothbrushes and toothpaste during a very entertaining dental hygiene demonstration!

During our time in Takeo, the team had plenty of opportunity to experience some other interesting facets of Cambodian life. Some of the teachers went to the nearby school (that our student group had built in 2011) to deliver some short lessons; others went to the community centre (built by our student team in 2012) to learn how to weave bracelets and baskets for the local women to sell. Most of the team went by tractor-taxi to visit a local agriculture enterprise that is training local people to run their own little farming and chicken-rearing businesses; the whole team took part in a Cambodian cooking morning, helping to buy ingredients at the local market, then preparing and cooking them all up for lunch. At the end of the trip, the team had a day back in Phnom Penh to explore the markets, visit the Killing Fields and Toel Sleng and also have lunch at the Friends Restaurant which is a project training street children to be chefs and run a restaurant business themselves.

...continued overleaf

...continued CAMBODIA LEADER TRAINING

“Such an awesome opportunity to meet like-minded people from around the

world who are passionate about children, education and service. You get to

experience a different culture while giving back to a community, and you learn skills that enables you to help kids experience

something similar.”

“A truly inspiring trip. For me the chance to meet some amazing people from whom I learned so much and will never forget. A country that has taken a piece of me,

with such a history and to think we went there and helped to make change all in just

2 weeks.”

“RSIS Project Leader 2013 for me was an experience of a lifetime. I had a great

time developing my project leader skills and working with an amazingly inspiring group of educators. Learning the history of

the beautiful country and getting to know its people has opened my eyes on things

in life I take for granted. This will never happen again.”

“Cambodia Teacher Training 2013 was absolutely the best example of taking learning outside of the classroom. Even when we were in the classroom, our fearless leaders, Liz Gray and Rod Summerton

were filled with energy and real life examples that made our intensive course both practical and realistic. Being able to use all of the risk

management skills that we learned on a real work project really solidified everything that we did. The icing on the cake was that our learning and work actually made an impact on the community in Takeo. In two short weeks, we left a trail of donated toothbrushes, playground balls, bicycles, mosquito nets, clothing and even chickens that

went straight to those that needed it”

Post project... the weaving centre started operating a couple of weeks after we left. As you can see - a hive of activity and already producing beautiful scarves!!

It was the most wonderful trip and an absolute privilege for me to lead. Our team of teachers was astonishing both in terms of their enthusiasm, total dedication, passion, fun and most incredibly of all – they independently fund-raised US$11,500 in total with which they provided chicken-businesses, bicycles, teachers for the weaving centre, wages for the weaving students, electricity and fans for the centre, a fruit-tree orchard outside, weaving materials, furniture and a pot of funds to be used throughout the coming years to support the centre. The centre became fully operational just a few weeks after we had left Cambodia, and have already produced a good pile of scarves which will be sold in shops in Phnom Penh, as well as to the teachers and schools of the team that helped to build the centre!

Everyone left Cambodia leaving a huge piece of their hearts behind, with incredibly close friendships made and a true sense that we had made a long-term difference to the lives of women and families in the community in Prokeab.

The team came from Westfield School, Inter Community School Zurich, Aiglon College, Box Hill School, Glenlyon Norfolk School, Indian School Oman, King’s Academy Jordan, Doon School, The Lyceum School, Bridgehouse School, Armidale School, Regents School Pattaya, Bunbury Cathedral Grammar School, New England Girls School, United World College (South East Asia), St Philips College and Geraldton School. Liz Gray (RSIS Projects Manager) was the Project Leader, and Rod Summerton (Ivanhoe Grammar School) was the Deputy Leader.

Leading Role

Rosie is on the left, with Eva Muronji who was the Moving Mountains Team Leader

Before the project and after of the project is completed, the feeling of achievement and exit from comfort zones for participants. Seeing that sparkle in their eyes on the last day and change in attitude, knowledge and appreciation of opportunity to be there.

What’s been the funniest thing you’ve seen or heard on a trip with young People? How they dive into the moment! For example, one of the boys on the trip in December is a Hindu but when we went to church and the boys from Starehe were doing some dances he was there in the line-up, dancing off beat and lip-synching… but still continuing while the whole church was watching and clapping.

When the young people have their first campfire and throw away all their reservation/dignity and join in the dancing and singing with the kids.

The first briefing and when I do the demonstration of how to use a long drop toilet (just seeing their faces!).

What is your most important aim when hosting students on trips in Kenya?Apart from teaching them about long term sustainable development and why we do what we do, which I think is the most important it is also about introducing them to a different way of life, showing them our country, our food and giving them a chance to be in our shoes. It is also important that we make them see the ripple effect of choices they make and the responsibility that comes with being role models with each other. The kids they meet here and back at home too. We hope to plant a seed in them to look beyond the (“me, myself and I”) and to think of others before themselves.

With Rosie Gathirimu, Project Manager for RSIS Kenya

What is your job Rosie? I am a Volunteer Coordinator and Board Member of Moving Mountains Kenya, in charge of social welfare, and on trips and expeditions I am sometimes a Venture leader, assistant Venture leader or pastoral care team member.

How did you get involved with the Moving Mountains Trust in Kenya?After high school, in 1997, I packed a bag and went camping at the Rowallan scout camp in Nairobi. My mission was to give back through volunteering as so many people had moved mountains in my life and helped me finish high school. Previously I was helped with everything from school fees to clothing and at times even food. I was also able to earn a little money through high school with some small jobs (washing peoples clothes and cleaning houses) so I wanted to give something back to my fellow Kenyans who maybe didn’t have the same chances that I had.

During my time volunteering at Rowallan I met Gavin and a team of Scouts that had accompanied him from the UK. The team was camping with kids from the streets of Nairobi, Embu and Western Kenya. I camped with them and helped with cooking, translation and counseling, etc and this started what would turn out to be the start of a long relationship with Gavin, Adventure Alternative and eventually Moving Mountains.

After the camp, I joined one of the former street boys and girls Scout groups from Muthurwa in Nairobi as their female scout leader and when Gavin officially started Moving Mountains in 2002 he continued to work closely with the street scouts from Muthurwa. I joined Moving Mountains as a Board member having just completed my diploma in Social Work and Community Development with Gavin’s support.

What is the biggest or most important lesson you’ve learned on your route to your current role? Life is too short to waste time looking at your side mirror! Live for the day, be grateful and don’t give up on dreams. Every opportunity comes with responsibility, so does freedom!

What have been the most difficult, and most amazing moment on a project trip and why?When there is conflict of interest/break down of communication and emotions have been thrown left, right and centre is always the most difficult thing for me personally. I am not a big fan of confrontation in any situation, I always prefer to sit down and talk openly to resolve cases but unfortunately not everyone shares the same view!

What message do you want to get across to young people today?Enjoy being young!!!!! It is great to be young but never let your “now” hinder you from your future as you over indulge in vices that feel great now but don’t add value to your life. Let your opportunity pull up another less fortunate, and share your life with others that may only be dreaming of such opportunity… Never take life for granted. Don’t postpone what can be done today for later……you never know!!

If money were no object and you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go and what would you do there?I would go to Nepal and volunteer on the Moving Mountains projects in the Himalayan villages of Bumburi and Bupsa. I would go on the Everest base camp walk and spend time with the Sherpa community there that Moving Mountains are involved with. A slightly bigger plan would be something like the movie ‘Around the World in 80 Days’. I would love to see all the world and be able to share my adventures with others. Let them travel through me like we did with the ‘finding life’ project with Elia Saikaly several years ago. This was a Mt Kenya Expedition and MM project in Solio that was broadcast live in schools around Canada as it happened in Kenya. So children from Kenya were able to talk to children from Canada on a large scale and learn some things about each others lives and culture!

Which actor would play you in a film about your life, and what would the title of the film be?Tyler Perry!! (Mabel “Madea” Simmons)... If you haven’t heard of Madea you might need to Google it!!. The movie would be called …”Chillax and be …”

If you had a super-power, what would it be and what would you use it for?To be able to open people eyes… so they can look beyond what they see now and hopefully make changes in their lives that will make this world a better place to be. See all the opportunities out there to move mountains and grab, and run with them!

We are running three RSIS Projects in July 2014, and at the time of writing all are full with reserve lists operating!This has surprised us all as only 1 of our 5 Projects in 2013 filled up before departure. But we are very happy to have good full teams, and hope that this continues for the rest of the year! Here’s an update on what our teams are doing:

Projects JULY / AUGUST 2014

We are very excited that our team in 2014 will be returning to Yuncachimpa, the Andean community where the 2013 team built a kindergarten for the village. Our group in 2014 will be continuing to provide facilities to support the kindergarten, so will be providing toilets, basins and showers as well as a water-fountain for the children. They will also be designing and building a playground for the school out of simple recyclable materials such as tires, wooden poles and rope! If there is enough time and budget, we also hope that they will be able to build a small greenhouse for the school (out of adobe mud bricks, wooden poles

and special plastic). The team will be camping in small groups with different families around the village and each family will cook meals every day for them, as well as rope them in for some of their daily chores, thereby giving them all a great taste of local life!

The team will also have a chance to climb up a via ferrata (a metal ladder placed in a rock-face), go down a zip-wire, spend a day learning to play the pan-pipes and will have a mid-project break visiting the Mondorpampa Forest and Machu Picchu! An amazing trip that is going to leave our partner community with even more resources for their children.

Peru

The team returns to the beautiful area around White River, near Kruger National Park this year! They will be working at Lwaleng Primary School, located in a township area called Spioenkop just outside White River. The school’s principal is an amazing lady called Kelina Ngwenya who along with her teachers does a great job in difficult circumstances to educate all the children in her care. But there are not enough classrooms, so some of the classes have to be taken under the shade of a tree outside. The tree also serves as the staff room! So the team is going to build a classroom for the school with help from our trusted local builder who’s worked with our teams now for 3 years!

The team will also make a quick visit to Kruger National Park and also the Moholoholo Conservation Centre during their stay, and will spend their final five days at Elephant’s Drift, a huge area of the Klaserie Game Reserve owned by renowned film-maker and conservationist Richard Goss. Here the team will be learning some bush-skills as well as sleeping out under the stars and learning about wildlife film-making and conservation!

South Africa

Our team returns to beautiful Baisoara this year, to continue work started by the 2013 team! They will be working on three different projects this year – the first is to finish the youth centre that the 2013 team started. All the walls are up, and the roof is on so our team this year will be doing all the plastering of the walls, painting and finishing off the work outside with some landscaping! The second project is at the primary school up the valley in Muntele Baisoarii where last year’s team re-built a wall around the school yard. The school has no sports facilities, so the team is going to help make a court for ball-games, as well as a sand-box and few other smaller initiatives which will help get the children outside and playing games and some sports. The final project will see the team working alongside the local parks authorities. They will be making signs and a rest shelter for one of the trails in the hills and mountains around Baisoara, and then hiking up those trails to re-mark them for local hikers, and install the shelter. Romania has a huge network of trails, which are well used by families and tourists in the summer so the benefit of their work will be felt immediately!

The team will be enjoying some small day-hikes in the local area in their mid-project break, and after all the work is finished they will travel in a big cultural loop taking in ancient Roman settlements at Targu Jui; two Monasteries which are UNESCO World Heritage sites and covered in amazing frescoes and icons; will make a visit to Poienari Fortress ruins (which was the residence of Vlad III the Impaler, inspiration for “Dracula”!) and then spend a day around Sibiu seeing this beautiful city and all the cultural sites it contains.

Romania

While it’s only February, we are already looking towards

December and starting to plan the Projects that are going to

take place.

We anticipate that we will be running Projects in Kenya, India, Cambodia, Nicaragua and possibly Thailand (to be

confirmed).

While we do not yet have fixed dates or prices, please bear in mind that some of these trips fill up very quickly! So do encourage any interested

students to look at the website, and maybe take a look at some

of the reports from previous trips to get an idea of what

these trips involve!

What’s coming up later this

year!

ON Nicaragua!

A recent article in The Sunday Times in the UK stated “Peaceful, proud and with beauty to spare, Nicaragua should be the next adventure on your list” and claimed that “In short…holiday paradise. I lost count of the times I stopped and thought: this is brilliant, why didn’t I know about this before? And why isn’t everybody here?”. Why indeed! Nicaragua is a jewel of Central America that has left it’s turbulent past way behind, and is now embracing tourism and show-casing it’s incredible assets of jungles, rivers, volcanoes, beautiful beaches, wonderful architecture and fascinating history. We have long wanted to send a team over to explore this beautiful country and are very much looking forward to sending a team in 2014. The group will travel to El Castillo, a river community in the jungle, not far from the border with Costa Rica. This community has no roads, so the local people get about on foot. The pathways are paved in the centre of the town, but in the outlying areas these pathways consist of leg-sucking mud, and some fallen branches and tree trunks. That’s no way for a small child to try and get to school so our team is going to help the local people to lay proper pathways and several bridges over the worst sections so that the local kids can get to

school and their families can get about a lot easier. Getting places is so easy for all of us isn’t it? But for them, a simple pathway or a bridge can literally make the difference between going to school or having no education. As they say in the movies “you do the math”. The team will be hosted in small groups, by local families who have hosted international visitors before and are fantastic and welcoming hosts. They’ll get involved in family life, and get a view of a country through their eyes which is priceless and unique. The group will work alongside a local non-governmental organisation called Fundacion del Rio and they work with Nicaraguan youth and communities on various projects such as:

- Community development

- Conservation of natural resources

- Economic issues with families, helping them to diversify their learning and earning opportunities

- Training to help improve businesses in the community

This organisation is working alongside the people of El Castillo to bring them more infrastructure, environmental projects and tourism in the area which is just starting to happen. So our group will be really privileged to be here while it’s still peaceful, and moderately touristy. It’ll be good to experience it before everyone else does!

Nicaragua is- The largest country in Central America, but only half the size of the UK

- The second poorest country in the Americas

- Has a population of only 6 million

- Enjoys temperatures of 30 centigrade year-round

- A country of two coasts with the Pacific Ocean on one side, and the Caribbean on the other.

- Horatio Nelson was here in 1780!

- They are obsessed with baseball in Nicaragua and it is the national sport (over soccer!)

- The latest extreme sport is volcano boarding, on active volcanoes. No, we won’t be doing this on our Project!

DID YOUKNOW ?

RSIS v ideos on YouTube Just a reminder that you can find videos of our Projects on YouTube at the following links. Please use them to advertise the idea of Projects to your students and parents!

December 2012 RSIS Projectshttp://youtu.be/iO0CZm8Kpxo

July 2013 RSIS Projectshttp://youtu.be/wt1VHiEVvcU

2012/2013 PAPF Presentation (no music - you’ll have to provide your own!)http://youtu.be/c1fVKbpSQWQ

5-minute RSIS “Marketing” video showing a typical project (also on the RS website)http://youtu.be/d9fPAy9-hzw

Here are some seminars and courses that you may be interested in attending (if you live in these areas):

At the Royal Geographical Society in London, UK

http://www.rgs.org/OurWork/Fieldwork+and+Expeditions/GO+seminars+and+workshops/Workshops+Safe+and+effective+field+research+expedition.htm

Off-site Safety Management Training 4 and 5 February 2014 & 10-11 June 2014 Relevant to those organizing educational visits (teachers, youth leaders, trip leaders)

Educational Visits Coordinator TrainingAimed at newly appointed EVC’s looking at roles and responsibilities, risk management, supervision and competence.

Conferences & Courses in USA

NOLS Wilderness Risk Management Conference, Atlanta, Georgia http://www.nols.edu/wrmc/1-3 October 2014 An excellent meeting of like-minded outdoor experts offering workshops and talks on exploring, working, teaching and recreating in wild places!

Association for Experiential Education, USA http://www.aee.org/ Annual International Conference - 23-26 October 2014Chattanoga, TN, USA

ISEEN, USA (Independent Schools Experiential Education Network) http://iseeninfo.com/annual-institute.html10th Annual ISEEN conference will be hosted by Phillips Academy Andover, MA, USA from January 21-24th, 2015 (registration opens in May 2014).

NOLS, USA (National Outdoor Leadership School) risk management courses in the USAhttp://www.nols.edu/nolspro/risk_management_admin_training.shtml March 11-12, Phoenix, ArizonaApril 8-9, Seattle, WashingtonMay 6-7, Sausalito, California

RISK Nerds Corner

BS8848 (the British Standard for organising and managing visits, fieldwork, projects and adventurous activities outside the UK) is in it’s seventh year, and the new version of the standard is due to be published in April 2014. This version will contain feedback and changes suggested by many of the organisations that use it (including some RSIS, and some Round Square member schools) and will be available through the BSI website in April. www.bsigroup.com

“If you think adventure is dangerous, try routine. It’s lethal” (Paulo Coelho)

www.roundsquare.org • +44 (0) 1225 320 854 • liz@roundsquare.org • Registered Charity No. 327117

View from Seat 43ASince the last RSIS newsletter, Liz has travelled to Thailand to run a 2-day Leader Training Workshop, and then travelled over to Cambodia for 2.5 weeks to run the Leader Training Project. It was an exhausting December, but a wonderful opportunity to meet so many passionate and interesting teachers and have plenty of laughs and hard-work in Cambodia!

In January of this year, Liz was lucky enough to go to the Americas Regional Conference, being held in Haliburton, Ontario during a particularly cold winter! Here is a report of her experience:

From January 27th to 31st 2014, I was lucky enough to attend the Round Square Americas Regional Conference in Haliburton, Ontario, Canada. As our buses rolled up to Camp Wanakita, we were greeted by high banks of snow, and howling cold winds that hit minus 30 centigrade on the second day. Last year, when the Round Square Secretariat were deciding who was going to attend each of the Regional Conferences in 2014, I was the only one who volunteered to come to northern Ontario in January, and now I was beginning to question my sanity. Would my clothes be warm enough? Did I have enough hand-warmers to get me from the bus to the cabin without danger of dying of exposure? Would people laugh at my newly purchased $20 furry Canadian hat with earflaps? I needn’t have worried – along with my fellow 100 delegates from countries as diverse as Columbia, Australia, Bermuda, Canada and USA we put smiles on our faces, and pulled together ready to throw ourselves whole-heartedly into everything despite the elements.

Our spirits were warmed straight away by the incredible welcome we received from ALIVE Outdoors, an organisation brought in to facilitate our week. Their staff bounced through each day on a wave of high spirits and endless energy ensuring that our delegates not only enjoyed challenging and safe activities, but also took home tangible lessons about humility, team-work, mutual respect, leadership and kindness.

Throughout the week we were split into activity groups, and then into different barazza groups ensuring we met lots of different people and had time to debrief and discuss the day. We moved through a rotation of activities such as dog-sledding, cross-country skiing, high-ropes, quincy-building (like a snow-hole, and definitely NOT an igloo!), a sport called “broom-ball” (otherwise known as “bruise-ball”), drumming, iron-chef and snow-shoeing, each activity designed to test our bravery, endurance and skill.

Dog-sledding was a huge highlight for everyone. The sight and sound of 60 howling, worked-up husky dogs definitely sets the adrenalin racing, and they pulled us with ease on 2-man sledges across the frozen lake giving everyone the ride of their lives. Suddenly, students who had never seen snow before in their lives found themselves strapping on skis and gliding along between the pines with consummate ease. Others eagerly strapped ropes to their harnesses and climbed poles to reach a bucket-bell high up in the trees without questioning the reason why. Others donned helmets, slid across the ice in their shoes (or in my case, flat on my back) and tried to whack a soft ball into a goal with what looked like a huge Q-tip. The cold had clearly got to our brains, but the magic that comes from the Canadian winter worked its spell on us all and painful, cold fingers and toes were met with fascination rather than complaint.

On the relatively rare occasions that we were all indoors, we enjoyed some fascinating speakers including one who had run right across Canada; a former professional volleyball player who now helps youth through sport; speakers from the YWCA who work with victims of domestic abuse and the founder of Winterdance (the dogsledding company) who talked about the extreme hardship endured during the Iditerod husky race. The ALIVE Outdoors team ran some fascinating sessions on personal strengths and goals, as well as a great session on “transiting home” which focussed on how to process our experiences on conference, or during service projects and how to apply new learning to our everyday lives.

As I write this article I am barely 24 hours beyond the end of the conference. What strikes me the most while processing the journey of

the last week is that while all the activities were fantastic fun, they are eclipsed somewhat by the impact I got from the from our student delegates. I have attended many conferences in the years I’ve worked for Round Square, but rarely have I seen such intelligent, insightful, thoughtful, honest and mature input from them all. They participated fully in the smaller barazza sessions, but it was in the larger group sessions with the facilitators that they really came alive. Opinions, life-stories, insight into their past behaviour (for better or worse) and dreams for the future were all coaxed out and it was a privilege to witness some of these young people transforming in front of our eyes. These students were great ambassadors for their schools and provided me personally with renewed affirmation about the wonderful nature of the Round Square organisation.

Bayview Glen School and St Clement’s School did a truly outstanding job organising this conference, and along with the ALIVE Outdoors team have really made it a week to remember. Being without any technology for a week, living in cabins in the snow and all in the company of wonderful students and teachers made it personally a real highlight of my Round Square career thus far. Thank you! And thank you especially for not laughing at my rabbit fur hat with earflaps…