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Marshall Islands: Partnering with the Ministry of Education

From the field

September 5, 2018

Our organization, “Changing Focus Ministries”, that partners with YWAM Ships Kona is doing some great things in the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) to promote education.

For the month of July, on the island of Gugeegu, a neighboring island to Ebeye that is connected by a man-made causeway, we have been a part of a month-long summer camp called, “Spartan Summer Camp”.

It’s a collective effort of the Ebeye Ministry of Education, PREL (Pacific Resources for Education and Learning) and the University of Hawaii to teach kids in the Marshall Islands a variety of educational subjects which includes math, reading, English, and writing. The students are also introduced to drama, Marine Science, and Marshallese traditions.

One of the main ministries we feel God is leading us in is youth education. These kids are the future of the Marshall Islands and they can make a huge difference in their country, especially by learning subjects like Marine Science, which teaches them how to manage what’s happening in the environment due to climate change.

Kara Miller, the instructor, came to teach on this topic as well as bring some hands-on learning in areas such as “How to count the amount of coral inside the lagoon of an atoll” and “How we can make a difference in the health of our oceans”.

We took the kids out to the ocean and taught them how to snorkel. They also learned how to create quadrats, which can measure amounts of coral. The quadrats are put into sections to find out what percentage of coral is in each square of the quadrat. This number gives us the ability to estimate how much coral is in the Kwajalein Atoll. It was a lot of fun and educational to be part of this class.

This program is just the beginning of some of the programs that we are looking to be a part of for the 2018/2019 school year. We were excited to be asked to be part of this summer camp and look forward to more joint adventures in education in the future.