LOCAL teachers Steve and Lesley Hooper will be heading out to Rwanda in September, to live and work in the country for two years.
Steve and Lesley will be working with VSO, a leading independent international development organisation which works to fight poverty in developing countries.
The move is an ambition that the Frome couple have harboured for many years and say they are now in a position to take up their challenge to use their skills overseas.
Lesley said, “Both my husband and I are teachers and about 20 years ago we went to Africa. At that point, we weren’t in a position to give up jobs and we said we’d come back. And now here we are!
“VSO is a very well established organisation and they send people like ourselves to work in developing countries with things like education programmes and health programmes. What we really liked about them is that they were very interested in our skills and all we’ve developed in the last 30 years, so we can take those skills and use them to help.”
Steve will work as an education management advisor, looking at assessment and data analysis with headteachers. Lesley’s role will be as an education methodology trainer, training teachers in active classroom methods.
While the couple will be supported by VSO and the Ministry of Education in Rwanda, the VSO is a charity and so Steve and Lesley are working to raise £900 each to put back into the charity. Quiz nights, car boot sales, friends and colleagues have all helped to contribute to the cause.
Barbara Gregorczyk of Part 2 hairdressers in King Street is giving the couple free haircuts until they leave, so the money saved can go towards the fund.
The couple also have a justgiving page that you can donate through: http://original.justgiving.com/steveandlesleyhooper
Above: Barbara Gregorczyk of Part 2 (centre) with Lesley and Steve Hooper
