Protection versus participation in Tanzania

Hello!

My name is Karoline I'm 28 years old and I was a part of the group that had the exchange in Dar es Salaam. Dar es Salaam is the biggest city in Tanzania with over 7 million inhabitants. I had my internship at Uhuru primary school at two different units, one unit for the children with intellectual disabilities and one unit for the children who were deafblind. We got to observer, interact and learn over several weeks, this gave us new knowledge, experience and perspectives.

For me the most interesting learning is about participating versus protection in Norway and Tanzania. At Uhuru the resources are limited and it's often only one teacher on so many children with different needs. The children need to do much more them self, but they also interact with each other and help each other much more in comparison to Norway. The majority of them participate together in class, games etc. We observed several students that were blind who always got help with getting around at school from their peers. Ofcourse it will always arise difficulties with so few teachers on so many children, but on the other side it forces them to help eachother and the participant in the day to day activities increases.

In comparison to Norway, the focus on protecting the children and youths goes on the expense of their participation in the day to day activities. Therefore I will take with me what I have learned here in Tanzania and try to shift my focus in my profession. I still want to protect the children and youth I interact with, but I need to find a better balance with the new knowledge I have so the children/youths gets a bigger participation in their on life.