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It was great to be able to visit a couple of the madrassas (Arabic for schools). They are operating in a number of the villages where there are Koti people who have become followers of Isa (Jesus). We went to one village, Manari where a number of Makhua people are also learning to read in their own language.
The programme is now in more than 20 locations and at most places there are two or sometimes more groups meeting. The madrassas start at 7:30 each morning and go for an hour with around 1,000 children getting an hour everyday of teaching. The children who are old enough then go off to school.
Then, after school finishes others come and do lessons in the evening. The adults join these evening groups as well as they are keen to learn how to read.
They have developed material for training and for each lesson. The teachers are mainly volunteers in each village. Some of the leaders are the prayer group leaders who come together every Wednesday for training with Tarikhi ya Haakhi.
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Last YearA number of new groups were started last year. They are very excited about the growth and see this as a major contribution to the communities.
The course is now into it’s second year in most places. The Koti kids are a pretty lively bunch and most of them are quite young, many still do not go to school, so controlling them and teaching them is a very difficult task. Of course when we turned up to observe, it totally distracted the kids who were full of beans and mischief.
Talsamo is the leader of the madrassas and with Georges ensures that the teachers are doing OK. He provides them with the materials, organises a meeting with them monthly and teaches at a number of centres. He is full time doing this and loves it.
Talsamo clearly understands the purpose of the programme. A number of times he explained that it was to teach them to read Koti and to be exposed to God’s word and the love of God. This is a very powerful programme.
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There are a number of different reactions from the community. Many of the families are Moslem and some mosque leaders have discouraged families from sending their children or attending themselves. However, some families refuse, saying that the mosque is not teaching them Koti and they have to learn Arabic!
The parents are seeing the love of God being shown to both their kids and themselves in ways they could not imagine.
The hearts of the people are opening and they are changing. The longer they are part of the programme the more change becomes apparent, particularly with the children. This impacts the families.
Once the children have been in the programme for a couple of years, they are reading Koti quite well. It was obvious from attending a couple of programmes that the older ones were doing quite well while the younger ones were pretty much playing games and guessing the answers to the questions being asked!
The parents love the way the teachers care for the children. They get frequent comments that the children love the care and friendly teachers. This has broken down the suspicion of those who thought the main purpose was to convert the kids.
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A biproduct of this programme is that it is preserving this language which has been under severe pressure. It is not taught in schools and there are few resources in Koti. They are the only people developing written resources apart from Wycliffe translators who are working on the Bible in Koti. Of course, having people who can read Koti makes that translation work more meaningful.
They want to continue this into the future. They see it as a major part of their strategy to transform these communities and bring about shifts in mindsets.
As they have resources, they want to expand it into more Koti villages.
1) The acceptance in the community
2) The gradual change in the children, young people and adults as they continue to come. This is a long term investment and with the number of people involved, this has the potential to have long term, significant impact.
This is a great programme. It has both short, medium and long term outcomes for the Koti people. It is worth every cent we invest in it.