The Power of Partnerships
Following the December 2004 tsunami, IB World Schools organized a campaign to help schools in Sri Lanka and Indonesia recover. Its horizons are about to expand…
Life, infrastructure and education were torn apart in 13 countries of South East Asia when the tsunami struck in December 2004. As the story unfolded, schools around the IB community contacted the IB to ask how they could help.
The chosen approach was not to send aid from afar, but to reach out to form partnerships between IB schools and the affected communities, intended to generate practical and economic benefits. The result? A year on, an. estimated $1million of direct support between partners has been generated by the IB schools-to-schools campaign.
As IB Asia-Pacific Regional director Judith Guy said in her speech to the IB General Forum in Geneva on 27 April, “Direct partnerships strip away the anonymity of ‘donations’ and build transparent, meaningful relationships that benefit both sides.”
With help from the IB’s Asia- Pacific staff, and support from World Vision International, Unesco, the Sampoerna Foundation and the Red Cross, schools were contacted in Indonesia and Sri Lanka. For the past year, as part of the schools-to-schools project, IB students and teachers from 176 schools have created partnerships
with and visited 88 schools in the area. They have raised funds at home to pay for their work and materials and during their visits, have:
- helped clear debris and rebuild and paint schools
- bought textbooks and school supplies
- built and repaired furniture
- installed pumps and pipes for clean drinking water
- bought bicycles for children who now face a long commute to school
- provided school uniforms and sports equipment.
These are just a few of the initiatives undertaken by IB schools. One IB school has even bought mobile phones for the children in their partner school, so they could keep in touch on a one-to-one basis. And to help with the phone payments, the IB students have bought seeds for the children to grow so they can sell vegetables to pay for running costs.
Most importantly, the IB volunteers talked to their partner schools and
listened to their stories, forming real friendships. It is via these that true partnerships have evolved and, because they are built on personal contact, they have the capacity to develop into the kind of long-term commitment that such a project demands.
By talking to their fellow pupils, IB students have found what the real needs of the schools are, and have come up with better ways to help them.
Schools from countries around the world have been involved, and can now call on the help of two project officers in Sri Lanka and one in Indonesia to advise on local needs, help coordinate projects and enhance partnerships.
In 2006, the IB will be expanding the schools-to-schools campaign. It will be developed as an ongoing programme to help other schools around the globe and the goal is to have 300 partnerships in place by the end of 2006.
Like-minded organizations, agencies and schools (not necessarily IB schools) are invited to expand and sustain the programme into the future. Schools-to-schools will also be supported by its own website, www.schoolstoschools.org, which launches in July 2006.
Schools-to-schools has become an illustration of IB values in action. As Glynn Richards, the IB’s new projects manager in the Asia-Pacific region, says, “We’re not talking charity here. We’re engaged in collaborative action.”
Read further for examples of what IB World Schools have achieved:
Firm links for the future: Hong Kong’s Li Po Chun United World College [insert link to new page]
Web enterprise makes a difference: ISS International School in Singapore [insert link to new page]
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How you can get involved
United partnerships are crucial to the long-term success of development efforts in the tsunami-affected areas. This year, we expand the horizons of the schools-to-schools project beyond Asia to link schools in the developing and developed worlds. The
aim is to create 300 partnerships by the end of 2006. To achieve this, we invite organizations, agencies and schools (and not just IB World Schools: all are welcome) to partner with the IB to help develop the programme. Would you like to share our vision for the future? Please contact us: International Baccalaureate, 70 Shenton Way, 04-03 Marina House, Singapore SG-079118.
Tel: +65 6 776 0249 Email: projects@ibo.org
Visit our web page on partnerships
