Each year in October, a group of middle school students from the United States and other countries meet in New York City to learn about the work of the United Nations and how to effectively support humanitarian causes. This meeting, the 2002 idea of Dr. Ruth Selman, NGO/DPI representative to the UN from the American Montessori Society, is called the Global Citizens Action Project (GCAP). According to the article, "Teaching Inventive, Forward Thinking, Big-Picture Capacities," from Middle Ground, a journal published by the National Middle School Association, middle school students are "a group of young people who have more on their minds than music, video games, and clothes. Students wonder about poverty, waste, world affairs, war, religion, the power of love, and the love of power." (Feb. 2008)
Featured below are several of the humanitarian organizations that have been represented at GCAP. We hope this list will serve as a resource for schools to begin outreach work. Also included in this newsletter is an article, written by a student, about an event the students at her school organized to support Adopt-a-Minefield, just one of the infinite number of ways to assist people in need.
Chandra Fernandez, whose work has been featured in the Peace Seed Connection (PSC) before, has been working on a project called "Kids for Kids," and an article about her work with them is also featured here.
Emma L. Stubbs, Montessori School of Evergreen (Evergreen, CO)
"When elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers." —African proverb
As a little girl, I wanted to travel the world. I dreamt of seeing the highest mountain, the tallest building, and the biggest lake. But the number one place at the top of my list was New York City: the lights, the Empire State Building, Times Square, and yellow-colored taxicabs filling the streets.
For the past three years, my school, Montessori School of Evergreen (MSE), has offered six students the chance to attend a three-day conference on the United Nations in New York City. I was turned down once, but this year I was amongst the finalists. I was excited to visit the UN. But I was going to NYC, and that was initially the biggest part of it for me.
Our hotel was right in the middle of Times Square (first wish granted). I was hoping this trip would be filled with a couple of enjoyable lectures and a whole lot of sightseeing. Little did I know that one of the UN speakers would spark my interest in something much larger than New York.
The topic was land mines, presented through a very moving and thought-provoking slideshow. The speech triggered many more questions than any other presentation. I was hooked! I knew I had to go home and share what I had learned with as many people as possible.
Once back at school, my project partner, Ryan Singer, and I put together a presentation on land mines for the elementary and middle school students. Each time we talked, our audience ended up flabbergasted and in awe.
However, I was struggling with a dilemma: I had been talking about the Mine Ban Treaty and how important it was; yet my country, the United States, had not signed it. Yet, the U.S. is one of the most generous providers of land mine assistance. I just had to delve some more into the problem. After extensive research, Ryan and I decided to take our concern for this issue to the next level. That's where Night of 1,000 Dinners (N1KD) came in.
Night of 1,000 Dinners is a global event that takes place between March 1 and April 4 to raise awareness on the global land mines crisis and to collect funds for mine action. All of the proceeds are used toward Adopt-a-Minefield mine action programs. Hosts throughout the world volunteer to organize dinners, joined by tens of thousands of individuals. Launched in 2001, N1KD events have been held in over 50 countries worldwide, offering participants a rare opportunity to contribute to solving a global problem. Adopt-a-Minefield is a public-private partnership between the UN, the UN Association of the U.S., and the U.S. State Department.
My fellow classmates and I were the hosts of a N1KD fund-raiser at the Evergreen Lake House on April 2nd, 2007. The sit-down dinner included ethnic foods from the six countries supported by Adopt-a-Minefield programs, namely Afghanistan, Bosnia, Croatia, Cambodia, Mozambique, and Vietnam. The 8th year students of MSE taught the audience about land mine issues using short videos, slideshows, and activity booths, all covering major topics such as mine risk education, survivors' assistance, and de-mining. We were delighted to have Rob Witwer, District 25 House Representative, as our guest of honor.
In order to spread land mine awareness throughout the Evergreen-Conifer community, we asked local store owners to hang shoes in their windows, symbolizing that an innocent civilian who steps on a mine doesn't need shoes. We wanted to sell gear in order to raise even more funds, so we came up with the acronym HEAL (Help Eradicate Anti-personnel Land mines). A student created a graphic that included a rose wrapped in barbed wire and a drop of blood falling from the rose like a tear.
Because every 22 minutes, someone, somewhere, becomes another anonymous statistic in the land mines chapter, I was excited about our efforts to support this worthy cause. Through the gear sales, the fund-raising dinner, and donations, we raised $7,000 for Adopt-A-Minefield.
For information or questions about the event, please contact the Montessori School of Evergreen at 303-679-9065 or mms@montessori-evergreen.org.
Chandra Fernadez
As the Montessori Centennial drew near, there was such excitement within the Montessori community worldwide. Even as I preparing to mark this significant celebration, the grim shadow of Darfur was never too far from our thoughts. Images of starving and malnourished children haunted us. Dr. Montessori's 1947 message to all governments in the free world echoed in my mind.
I decided to find a way to celebrate the centennial in a manner that would be a fitting tribute to Montessori’s work and legacy. The project would not only celebrate Montessori education but would generate some funds to help the children of Darfur. What better way to do it quickly than to use illustrations from my book, Little Book of Peace, to design and sell a centennial calendar and to donate the profits to the children of Darfur?
I dove right in. With the help of my friends and Montessori colleagues, I released a limited edition of the Montessori Centennial Calendar, an eighteen-month calendar. At first, proceeds were donated to two international organizations that help children in developing countries, including Darfur. But I also wanted funds to be directed to an organization whose sole purpose was to make a difference in the lives of children in the Darfur.
Online, I discovered a British-based group, called Kids for Kids. I read everything I could find about them and began an e-mail exchange with the organization's chairman, Patricia Parker, MBE, the mother of a British diplomat to Khartoum. While on a visit to her son in Sudan, she traveled to Darfur and saw firsthand the devastation and misery in the villages where people still lived. It was clear that it wasn't only the people that were living in refugee camps who needed assistance.
As I researched this project further, I found a Montessori connection. Just as I was affected by the constant media reports of the plight of the children of Darfur, young Cassidy Donaldson, while still a six-year-old Montessori student, wanted to go to Darfur to help out with the crisis. When her parents informed her this would not be possible, Cassidy began to raise funds. She raised the first $105 through her school. Then she decided she didn't like "just asking people for money." Instead, she began to make cat toys out of scraps of leather given to her by a family friend. She has now raised several thousand dollars for Kids for Kids.
Kathy Donaldson, Cassidy's mother, says, "Our involvement with Montessori had a profound impact on this work of Cassidy's. She knew how to do research, to learn what she wanted to know, knew how to work through the process to achieve her goals. . . . But, to me, the most important thing is that I think she must know that she is a valuable citizen of the world, capable of making a real difference in the lives of others. It is not something she articulates but something she knows." Although Cassidy has now moved on from her Montessori school, I am sure she will be influenced by the Montessori philosophy of interdependence and will continue to explore her cosmic task for many years to come.
I was drawn to this project initially through my determination to do something for the children of Darfur. But Patricia Parker's enthusiasm and dedication edged me on! As I discovered when I visited her in England a few weeks ago, she is an amazing person whose determination knows no bounds. I was so happy to finally meet Patricia and to personally hand over my donation from the sales of the calendar.
Kids for Kids gives six goats to a family for two years so that the children can have goat's milk, often the only source of protein and vitamins available to them. Now the organization has expanded its work to include the gift of a donkey to each family for the transportation of water and other supplies. Another project is targeted toward providing water pumps in villages. A project of providing solar lanterns to midwives to help with delivering babies has just begun as well.
If you would like more information, please go to www.kidsforkids.org.uk.
Amman Imman Project
The Azawak people of Niger, Africa, are some of the poorest people in the world. They live on the edge of the Sahara, where it rains only during a 3-month rainy season. The rest of the year, the children travel up to 35 miles a day to collect water from the nearest deep well. Even though the Azawak live under the worst of conditions, they are a generous, loving people. Montessori schools across the nation are raising money to dig boreholes for the Azawak. Find out more at www.montessoriammanimmanproject.org or www.waterforniger.org.
BRAC
Started after the Bangladesh Liberation War as a system for helping people in Bangladesh move out of poverty, BRAC (formerly known as the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee) works to support women starting businesses, with the aim of alleviating poverty and empowering people toward sustainable human development. BRAC recognized women as the primary caregivers most concerned with educating children and insuring the continued health and successful development of their families and communities. The organization is responsible for the employment of 97,000 people around the world, provides and sustains the livelihood of 100 million people in Bangladesh, and has expanded its work to Afghanistan and Sri Lanka.
The Heifer Project
The goal of the Heifer Project is to support self-reliance and sustainability within communities where people are going hungry and living in poverty. The Heifer Project guides and supports these communities toward helping themselves and continuing to help each other. Find out simple ways to help give these people the support that will enable them to lead productive, healthy lives.
The Rainforest Alliance
The Rainforest Alliance supports conservation of tropical, temperate, and boreal forests around the world; promotes ecological awareness in the tourism industry; and works to change the way essential crops are cultivated in order to benefit the agricultural workers and wildlife. To support the alliance, go to www.rainforest-alliance.org.
Removing Land Mines
The Greensboro Montessori School Student Council held a rock-a thon to raise money for removing land mines.
Students around the world are working to increase land mine awareness, remove land mines, and support survivors of land mine accidents. Land mines maim or kill 15,000 to 20,000 civilians each year, 30 to 40 percent of which are children. There are still approximately 75 million land mines in 82 countries, and people in 25 of these countries have had no risk education about the mines. A land mine costs $3 to make and up to $1,000 to eliminate. Many of the mines are made to look like toys to entice children to pick them up. To find out how students can help, visit www.thatlandminething.org.
Roots and Shoots
Started by the Jane Goodall Institute, the Roots and Shoots program offers a variety of ways for students to make a difference in communities, in the environment, and for animals. Students can create a project of their own, start a new group or join an already established group, get a large variety of ideas from the Website, work at any level of funding, and have fun while doing any of it.
United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)
UNICEF's mission is to protect the rights of children, to help meet their basic needs, and to expand their opportunities. In 1989, world leaders set up a convention with the sole purpose of discussing children's rights. Out of this convention came a legally binding, international document, listing basic entitlements and freedoms, that governments should be obligated to uphold for the well-being of children. To learn what students can do, visit www.unicef.org and click on "Voices of Youth."
United Nations Millennium Campaign
A group of 189 world leaders made a promise at the 2000 UN Millennium Summit to give 0.7 percent of their gross national product (GNP) each year for 15 years in order to improve the living conditions of the world's poorest countries by the year 2015. These leaders agreed on 8 Millennium Development Goals: universal education, gender equity, child health, maternal health, environmental sustainability, global partnerships, ending hunger, and combating HIV/AIDS. An offshoot of this international campaign is the ONE Campaign in the U.S. It is led by an organization working to mobilize Americans to fight global poverty through government policy measures, such as debt cancellation, fair trade policies, and persuading the government to raise its contribution to 1 percent of the GNP. Ways to help can be found at www.endpoverty2015.org or www.one.org.
UN Refugee Campaign
Ninemillion.org is a UN Refugee Agency–led campaign to raise awareness and funds for education and sports programs for refugee children. Find out how just a little money goes a long way toward providing books, desks, latrines, solar lamps, teachers' salaries, and more for refugees.
