Access to education is one of the main problems of the world, but at the same time also a potential solution for most of them. During the meeting participants will get to know that education in different countries doesn’t look the same. They will also discover that children and adults live in different conditions and do different kinds of work than children and adults in their own country. They will think why learning foreign languages is important. They will also observe their own surrounding and they will try to present their reality to children from other countries.
Author and translation: Anna Książek
Proofreading: Andrea Pucci
Main objectives:
Indicate education as one of them main areas of changing the world.
During the workshop the participants will:
Get to know how children from other countries live (case study are Cambodia and Indonesia), notice similarities and differences between their life and the lives of children from other places in the world.
Notice that their own life and surrounding can be special and interesting for people from other countries.
Get interested in education in general, above all in learning foreign languages.
Think why education is needed.
1. Starting the meeting with the chant:
We change the world together
To make everything better
For people and for nature
This is our adventure
2. Story
Read to the participants the next letter from our travelers, whom they got to know during the previous meeting.
Hi!
We are so happy you’ve decided to continue the journey with us! Today we will share with you the first story. It will be the story of Dan, a changemaker from Cambodia. Dan comes from a small village called Sandeck. There is no electricity, no running water there. Most of the children from the village finish only the 6 levels of primary school and then – instead of studying – they help parents on the farm, collecting fruits and rice. The secondary school is far away from the village. To get there you need to go a long way by bike every day. Most of the parents decide to not send children so far away. Girls and boys stay on the farm and work hard all their life.
Dan was one of the very few children, who decided: I want to go to secondary school! Every morning he woke up very early, going by bike to school, studying, and coming back home to help his parents on the farm. It was not easy, but Dan was stubborn and he managed to finish the school. Thanks to that he found a good job in Phnom Penh – the capital city of Cambodia. He doesn’t have to work hard physically, he earns more money, lives in better conditions and he can even help his family. And everything thanks to education!
Dan knows how important it is to get an education. That’s why he is organizing English classes for children from his village. At the beginning he organized some classes in his parents place for just few children, who really wanted to learn, because they knew that knowing English will help them to get a good job. Then, more and more kids started to come and today there are almost two hundreds girls and boys! They come six times per week, one hour per day. They learn in seven groups, the first of which starts the lesson at six in the morning! Even children from other villages come willingly to learn. They got to know Dan and understood that education is very important. And Dan, thanks to education, not only got a better job, but he also understood how important it is to change the world and help others.
Anna and Andrea
You can find Dan’s story, “Be the spark” here.
Ask participants if we can call Dan a changemaker? If yes, why? And children from Cambodian villages who, despite difficulties, learn English also can be changemakers? Make sure participants understand the word “education”. Explain them why learning English is so important for children in Cambodia. Is learning English (or other foreign languages) useful also for children in your country? What languages do the participants learn?
3. Game
The children described in the traveler’s letter learn English. Let’s check if participants also know something in this language (if English is their native language, you can choose a different foreign language for these exercises). Name one by one different colors in English, for example: red, blue, yellow. The task of the participants is to touch something in that color, as fast as possible.
4. Discussion Look at few photos of children from Cambodia (below), see what are the conditions in which Dan organizes English classes. Show also photos from Indonesia. Check on the map where Cambodia and Indonesia are. Think together what are similarities and differences between schools in Cambodia, Indonesia and your country. What can you really see on the picture and what is only your guess? Show also pictures of adults from the Cambodian village. What do they do? Check the caption of the photographs to correct the answers of the participants. Then have a look at photos of landscapes and nature. How are they different from what you can see in your country? Underline the fact that in Cambodia and Indonesia, as much as in your own country, villages look very different than cities and urban and countryside people live very different lives.
Cambodia
English lessons –in Phnom Penh, capital city of Cambodia, (above) in a school which is often visited by volunteers from abroad, and in a Cambodian village (below), where children from different villages join for classes organized in one of the houses.
Very common view in Cambodia – a village surrounded by palms and rice paddies.
House in Sandeck village (Cambodia), similarly to others, built on piles.Rice, drying on the mates in front of the house, is base to almost every meal.
On the square in Cambodian villages people sell fruits and vegetables, for example the jackfruit, delicious fruit of a loaf tree.
The rice produced for house consumption is often collected manually.
Whole families from Sandeck village work on collecting rice. Once transported from the field, the rice has to be cleaned and dried. Then, it is put in bags or clay pots.
Indonesia
Young students of an Indonesian school in school uniforms. The majority of Indonesian people are Muslin. A scarf covering head and shoulders (hijab) is part of the school uniform for girls.
5. Reconnaissance
Participants in small teams prepare a photo reportage showing their own country – children, adults, landscapes, streets, etc. Think what kind of photos you should put in such kind of reportage. What can be interesting for children from other countries? Prepare the equipment and make sure that every small team has phone with camera and participants know how to use it. Trained and equipped participants go for a walk around to take photos. Explain them that they should not do photos of people who didn’t agree for that.
Attention! Participants go outside only with an adult person.
6. Artwork
Participants, with your help, prepare a reportage or presentation from the photos they made. Before the meeting prepare the equipment – computer, printer or projector. Watching the result of their work, the participants discuss if getting to know other countries is important. If yes, why? Is it also part of education?
7. Game
How to say in English “My name is…?” Participants stand or sit in a circle and everybody, one by one, says in English what is his/her name. Record the presentation of your team and attach it to the photo reportage.
8. Song
Propose to the participants a song which will develop their English skills – it will help them remember the English for different parts of the body. Underline that participants could easily play this game with other children.
Head, shoulders, knees and toes
Head, shoulders, knees and toes
Eyes and months and ears and nose
Head, shoulders, knees and toes
Singing, participants touch the appropriate parts of the body. Firstly they sing slowly, going faster and faster with every repetition.
9. Game
Name in English different actions. The task of the participants is to show them with their bodies:
Jump
Run
Swim
Jump 3 times
Sing
Sleep
Sit down
10. Summarize Ask if participants want to share photo material or movie they prepared with children from other country. Find together the best method of presenting it. Remember, before making public any material with your participants, you should have the agreement of their parents. Ask participants also to share their experience about making good deed (task from the previous meeting). Appreciate their creativity, helpfulness and efficiency in action. 11. Finishing the meeting with the chant We change the world together To make everything better For people and for nature This is our adventure
Additional tasks for the group:
Send ready reportage and movies to children from another country.
Prepare the exhibition “Our city/village in the eyes of children”. Invite guests. Maybe you manage to reach people from other countries? Ask what was particularly interesting for them in the exhibition.
Meet with children from other countries living around you. Learn few words in their language. Prepare a game during which they can learn some words in your language. If there are no children from other countries in your neighborhood, organize an online meeting.
Do you see any mistake in the text? Do you want to support us in translating scenarios and stories to different languages? Don't hesitate to contact us! We are constantly looking for people to help us with any language. Let's make together changemaker materials available for more people! --> hello@exchangetheworld.info
More Changemaker stories: exchangetheworld.info
The material published on Changemaker Tool Kit and ExChange The World was developed as creative commons (BY-NC), feel free to use them! As you do it, please, mention the source and the author. In case you use them for commercial purposes, share 10% of the bill with us. This will allow us to continue to develop our work and keep creating new educational material. You can do so by supporting our crowdfunding campaign (https://zrzutka.pl/en/pmcpkg) or contacting us directly, especially in case you need an invoice (anna@exchangetheworld.info).