Training Teachers in the Chaco

The river Paraguay splits this land-locked country in two: The eastern half is lush and fertile, while the western half is a dry, flat and harsh region they call the Chaco.

There are indigenous communities in both parts of the country, speaking a variety of languages. FEISA has had links for a number of years with indigenous communities in one particular part of the Chaco. The college has run several training programmes with teachers and mothers to improve education for the under-fives. All these programmes have come at the request of the communities themselves, who are largely neglected by the national government when it comes to useful and practical training and resources for teachers.

The mother tongue of most of these communities is Enxet, but the schools haven't had resources to teach in Enxet, so the children have been doing much of their learning in Guaraní, or Spanish. FEISA realised the importance of encouraging the use of Enxet in school, in order to preserve the language for future generations, and has been translating the teaching resources developed for indigenous Paraguayan contexts into this language over the past year or so.

This weekend, I had the privilege of accompanying a FEISA training visit to the Chaco, where the teachers, some of whom speak Spanish, but most either Guaraní or Enxet, were taught games, songs and other activities to do with their young pupils in their mother tongue.

I had the job of taking photos, which made me very happy! So do go see them, if you're interested:

Chaco visit FEISA training session

© Fiona L Cooper 2009