Rita Alverinho is a Portuguese volunteer with the Guinanos (Guinean Brothers) association, which helps teachers in several Guinean schools improve their skills in subjects such as mathematics, pedagogy and verbs.
On the Guinean island of Bolama, the first capital of the former Portuguese Guinea, Lusa met Rita Alverinho and her friend at a verb conjugation training session for about 15 Portuguese teachers.
“The Portuguese language is very difficult when it comes to verbs, and here most of the time, sometimes in Portugal they are also poorly conjugated, so in order for us to be able to speak normally on the streets, it is important to know the verbs, not just if we are Portuguese teachers.” , said Alverinho.
A Portuguese volunteer from Guinanos, an organization created by young people who love Guinea-Bissau, remarked that “everyone needs to speak better Portuguese,” “which is the official language of Guinea.”
At Ulysses Grant School in Bolama, Rita Alverinho and her friend, also called Rita, work with teachers from level one to four, but in Guinea-Bissau they are already training teachers from kindergarten to secondary education.
Over the course of a month, six Guinanos members worked with approximately 100 teachers in the towns of Bolama, Bissau, Ondame and Kinamel in northwestern Guinea-Bissau.
“In Bolam, as in the rest of Guinea-Bissau, we help schools, educational institutions, universities like colleges of education, and to help them we provide teacher training so that when we leave, they can better teach local students,” emphasized Rita Alverinho.
In Bissau, Guinanos also worked with more than 50 teachers from schools for the deaf to improve mathematics, Portuguese and educational subjects.
“It was very difficult but very interesting, even now we can speak a little Guinean sign language for the deaf, which we also learned,” said Rita Alverinho, who says she feels “at ease” in Guinea-Bissau.
Guinanos volunteers work in Guinea-Bissau in collaboration with the João XXIII Foundation, which is mainly dedicated to the education of Guineans.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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