Starting this spring, we have been working closely with Gradia Jyväskylä, EduExcellence and the Kenyan government to improve the state of Kenyan education and healthcare. This collaboration was supposed to start three years ago but due to COVID it was, unfortunately, postponed. Kenyan students will come to Gradia to study and become practical nurses in order to develop the Kenyan healthcare system or to stay and work in Finland after graduation. EduEffect’s job was to make sure that the Kenyan students learned the basics of the Finnish language and culture before their arrival.
A total of 65 students participated in our first Finnish course, which we started in May. We had weekly online lessons that lasted approximately 3 hours per week. In June, three of our teachers here at EduEffect – Pinja, Emmi and Laura – traveled to Kenya for intensive Finnish language and culture classes. They spent six days in Eldoret, Kenya, at Sergoek Vocational Training Centre, where the students had a chance to learn more about their future home country and our teachers got to learn about their backgrounds.