Peers for life
Witnessing poverty first hand is a life-changing experience for young people. Australian IB history teacher John Arbuckle explains how joining a World Vision project can help peer-to-peer learning about social justice.
As an IB history teacher at St Leonard’s College in Melbourne, Australia, I enjoy being side-tracked by my students onto issues related to social justice and social action. One of my passions is to find ways to teach about poverty, justice and other global issues more effectively. So, in 2004, I approached World Vision Australia (WVA) as a prospective partner offering a model to tackle this challenge: the Global Issues Education Experience.
Peer education about issues of developing nations is the core purpose of the project. To this end, one or two key students from a number of schools were briefed on development issues and given the necessary skills to pass on this learning to their peers.
Schools were first invited to join the project in late 2004; St Leonard’s was the only IB World School involved. Each school chose their student representatives based on their leadership skills, passion for social justice and history of involvement in social charity. Their task was to learn about issues such as causes and consequences of poverty and development strategies to alleviate these causes and symptoms. A significant part of their learning was from a two-week study tour of World Vision projects in Vietnam and Cambodia.
Improved knowledge and understanding of development issues among Australian students was a key aim. The students are also expected to raise funds for World Vision projects.
The first challenge, though, was fundraising for this project. Sausage sizzles, raffles, trivia nights, film nights, car washes, chocolate sales, after-school jobs, cake stalls all played a part. It was a long, slow process, but eventually the funds were raised.
The training sessions also began. The students needed to be aware of general poverty and development issues, as well as specific information on the projects they would be visiting.
With great anticipation, we met at Melbourne Airport on the morning of 17 June. By that evening, we were having supper on China Beach in Da Nang, Central Vietnam. The team consisted of eight students (representing six schools), two teachers and two WVA staff.
During the week that followed, the team visited different types of projects as we made our way south to Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon). The second week was spent in and around Phnom Penh in Cambodia.
In one mountain village, a health centre was established and funded by World Vision. The high rate of child mortality was a major factor in its establishment. It was staffed by one nurse, and services included child immunization, education in child healthcare and nutrition, and support for pregnant women and mothers with young children. The children had prepared songs for their foreign visitors (many had never seen foreigners before). The Australian students responded with songs of their own, games for the children and gifts.
This scenario was repeated in villages and schools over the two-week period. After each visit, the students had a review session in which all information that had been learned could be shared, clarified and understood in relation to the goals of the development project. This was an important component of the study tour, as it allowed the students to understand what factors led to the establishment of a development project, the overall strategy and goals of the project, and what measures were in place to establish its success.
Volleyball in the Vietnamese hills
The students visited a number of agricultural development projects. Many poor families receive farming assistance in various ways: gifts of crop seeds or livestock to kick-start a seeding or breeding programme; gifts of farm equipment or buildings; education and professional advice. The students visited the farms, were welcomed into family homes, witnessed an agricultural extension training session and met the many development officers who managed the projects. They heard stories of struggle and success. The students were deeply moved as many families and villages hospitably shared their food, despite their obvious hardships.
The World Vision Bamboo Shoots project in Phnom Penh was probably the most challenging project. Families cope with poverty in different ways. Some parents simply give up under the burden and children are left to fend for themselves.
One aspect of the project is a street ministry programme. The staff set up a ‘safe zone’ on the footpath in the city, usually two nights a week. Lights are set up, and children emerge from the shadows. A first-aid station is established, and most customers are sporting wounds from street fighting. During the evening, games and education are offered, then an evening meal is served.
Some of the children choose to live in a shelter: a large house in the urban outskirts of Phnom Penh. About 47 children (aged eight to 16) were living there when we visited. The shelter offers a school, support for family reunification or fostering opportunities and apprenticeships for older children.
The students were struck by the lack of social equality in Vietnam and Cambodia. They saw remote towns with mobile phone and satellite TV access for those who could afford it, but limited public health, education, housing and welfare for the rest. From the mountains of Western Vietnam, the low-lying valleys and coast of Southern Vietnam, the urban sprawl of Ho Chi Minh City and Phnom Penh, and the river plains of Southern Cambodia, they saw the human faces behind the statistics.
Now, these students face their most important challenge: to help their peers understand what they now know. A review process is in place to assess the success of the peer education.
Jess Birnie-Smith, an IB student at St Leonard’s College, summed up her experience of the project: “It has changed the way I view poverty. At the Bamboo Shoots project in Phnom Penh, it was great to meet the kids and hear their stories, and the connection I felt with those kids was the strongest I felt throughout the trip. I don’t want to sound clichéd, but the experience really was life-changing.”
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Bonding in Bali
Cultural divides were bridged when students from an IB World School in Japan visited a village school in Bali.
Most international schools have similar mission statements to those of Osaka International School (OIS): caring, creative, informed individuals contributing to the global community. Such high ideals sound good, but how do teachers and educators make them a reality when most students at international schools lead such affluent lives?
One way is to offer students the chance to participate in exchange programmes so they can learn through their own experience. OIS CAS coordinator, Lyn Melville-Rea, arranged for eight students, seven teachers and nine others to visit Sekolah Menengah Kejuruan (SMK) Payangan, a rural vocational high school in Bali, Indonesia.
The students learned different things from each other: OIS students taught English, Japanese and basic computer skills, and were served lunches prepared by the SMK students as part of their hospitality training. In the afternoons, SMK students and teachers taught OIS students drawing, dance and Indonesian. Between classes, they played basketball and badminton and ate snacks from the canteen.
“As the students were of similar ages it was easy for them to form friendships and gain insight into others’ personal lives, values and cultures,” says Lyn.
The Japanese visitors were taken on a tour of a village and heard speeches about child labour and how to eradicate poverty through education.
For the farewell dinner, OIS members attempted a short speech in Indonesian and students from both schools performed dances. Many tears were shed and countless promises made to keep in touch.
“Now we are back in Japan, we look at our own school facilities with more appreciation and increased awareness of our responsibility to help those who are financially less fortunate than ourselves,” adds Lyn. “We are now looking at ways to support students in Payangan. We’re excited that our fundraising will go directly to our new friends.
