ICT&E  /  Learning Circles Children’s Right Highlights 2015

Learning Circles Children’s Right Highlights 2015


On this page you’ll find a selection of students’ contributions in the
Learning Circles Children’s Rights 2015.
Some examples from every phase, from the wiki’s of 5 International Circles (see timeline):

Introduction phase  Get to know each other!

Challenge 1  The right to good food, clean water & health care.

Challenge 2  The right to education and protection against child labour.

Challenge 3  The right to grow up safe.

Completion  An invitation to create a new Children’s Right.

Evaluation  Your tips and tops will help us to improve!

 

Introduction phase: Get to know each other!

The participants introduce themselves in their own way, with stories, pictures, posters, videos etc..:

Paul A. Fisher school, Burlington, Canada:

I am so excited to start our Wiki page!
My name is Anna Massari, and I am the grade 6 teacher at Paul A. Fisher in Burlington, Ontario, Canada.

Stay tuned for my class’ introduction!  This is our grade 6 family out snowshoeing!  We are a lot of fun, and eager to learn about Canada and our relationships with the rest of the world!

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After reading news articles about Children’s Rights being broken, my students came up with the following political cartoons. See if you can tell what they are protesting!

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OLE- club, school “7 keys”, Chelyabinsk, Russia:

Hello, friends! I’m Olga from Russia. My students are very active and experienced enough in international collaboration. Some of them are just students from my school having extra lessons in the ‘Workshop: International project collaboration’, the others (highly motivated children) are active members of the club “OLE-club”, where we’ve been working within many international projects for more than 6 years! The students are 5th-7th Graders. Here we want to share our posters and photos from the exchanges. conferences and Summits!


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Oukba Ibnu Nafiaa, Assa, Morocco:

My name is LAYAT Abderazaq. I am 26 years old. I am a high school teacher of English at Oukba Ibnu Nafiaa High School. 

I have explained and told my students about the previous experiences I had with Learning Circles. They showed a great interest and excitement to be among you this year in this Learning Circle Children’s Rights 2015.  So, I hope they will learn a lot and get to know other students from different countries all over the world. I wish them and all the other students the best of luck.

Keep up the good work!

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Example of a students’ introduction:

Hi, my full name is MAHJOUBA BOUTOUMIT. I am 15 years old. I am a student at Oukba Ibnu Nafiaa high school. I live in Assa, Morocco. Assa is a small town in The Sahara (the south of Morocco). It is very nice. Its People are very kind. We have special clothes here for women. They wear “MALHFA” while men wear “DARAA”. The Sahara is famous with the hot weather in Summer, and a very cold weather in winter. We are known by drinking a lot of tea. It is usually a small glass with big foam and a little of tea. Also, we are famous by a meal which is “COUSCOUSS”, but we have another type of it. It is called “MABROUM”. Now, I will talk a little bit about myself. My favourite school subjects are English and French. I love everything in my life except my enemies. Happiness is my address. I am an honest girl; almost everyone likes me. I love my traditions, and I am so proud of my nationality and my origin. I want to participate in this project to learn a lot of things. I want to develop my English language. I would like to know you and I am very glad to introduce myself to you. THANK YOU!

Het Vechtdal College, Hardenberg, The Netherlands:

Our school, the Vechtdal College, is situated in Hardenberg. A small town in the east of the  Netherlands. Our 2c2 students are practically oriented, so our lessons are too. English can be quite difficult for these learners.
I hope we will learn a lot and get to know students from different countries.


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Kennedy PS, Toronto, Canada:

We are learning about Human Rights in our class. We are reading a book right now about a rich boy and a poor boy who end up living together on the streets of Addis Abba in Ethiopia for their own individual reasons.

Next week we are going to listen to Emmanuel Jal speak about his life. He was a child soldier in Sudan and wrote a book about it called War Child. He is now a human rights activist, and childrens’ rights advocate. He was recently in a movie with Reese Witherspoon call “The Good Lie” which is about starting over, second chances after a very traumatizing youth in Sudan. It is a true story and Emmanuel Jal plays a character from the story. He is also a rapper and hiphop artist.
This is all very new and we are trying to get used to this format online. We will add more about us tomorrow. 

This is us back in October. We looked really young back then.

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Ashram College, Alphen a/d Rijn, The Netherlands:

Finally, we are able to introduces ourselves to you! The preparation for our trip to the Czech Republik took some time, but now we are ready to show you a short video of the great exchange with the students from the Gymnazium Zikmunda Wintra.

First, we would like to introduce each student from our group; we are with 9 students from the Ashram College at Alphen aan den Rijn. The subject in which we are working in this learning circle is called ‘Mondo’ and we learn how to take care of the world surrounding us. One hour a week we are working together on this project, and two hours a week we are learning Chinese which is very difficult of course!

Have fun watching our video!

And this is their exchange school:

Gymnázium Zikmunda Wintra, Rakovník, The Czech Republic:

Our class is called O4 (click for our group photo on Thinglink!)

Gymnasium #2, Chernivtsi, Ukraine:


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Nantyr Shores Secondary School, Innisfil, Canada:

The weather here is very dramatic. In the summer it is very warm and the lake is nice to visit:

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In the winter the lake is completely frozen and snow days are a common occurrence:

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Adma International School, Keserwan, Lebanon:

Adma International School (A.I.S) is home of peace education.
Conflict resolution, human rights, democracy and citizen ship, environment education in addition to service learning are components that are integrated in our curriculum.

The children’s right for education, healthy and safe childhood and environment is of our top priority.
We carry out a weekly activity related to human rights every Friday to enhance our students’ awareness.
Adma International School does not only tackle each learner’s development academically, but also holistically. 

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Dvojezična srednja šola Lendava, Slovenija:
Our glogster presentation:

Visser ’t Hooft Lyceum, Leiden, The Netherlands:

Everyone in this class lives in Leiden or in the surrounding area. We go to school by bike/car/train and follow all sorts of lessons and participate in a lot of extra activities such as a singing competition and stargazing.

In our introduction you get a little view of how we get to school, the area surrounding Leiden and in Leiden, some singing by three of our talented classmates, a bit of the school and us as a class at the very end.

We hope you’ll enjoy our film and we are excited to see what will happen next in these learning circles!

 

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Corlaer College, The Netherlands:

We are a group of 12 pupils from Corlaer College, Nijkerk, Gelderland. We’ve been to India for a Cultural Exchange of 12 days, and yes…to Rishikul Vidyapeeth in Sonepat, one of our Learning Circle schools.

We have learnt so much from this Exchange and therefore appreciate the fact that we are able to work with our Exchange school on this project.

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Hey! My name is Janet, fifteen years old, and I live in The Netherlands.

In my spare time, you can mostly find me in the kitchen;  I love cooking and baking. I am obsessed with healthy food, music, reading, blues, retro, travelling and yoga. :-)

As you know this project is about childrens rights. I think it is an interesting project, because you look and learn about your own rights.
There are a lot of children in the world, and lots of them do not have the same rights as we do. So it is time to change that!

Rishikul VidyaPeeth Sonepat, India:

 

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Comenius College, Hilversum, The Netherlands:

Regarding Childrens’ Rights we truly believe that every child has the fundamental right to be happy.

So why not start with practicing
a little smile

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Dr. Frank J. Hayden, Burlington, Canada:

Challenge 1: The right to good food, clean water & health care.

 There is a saying that goes: “A picture says more than a thousand words”.

Sometimes there are difficult situations in the world you can write many pages about …. the question is whether they are read and if the message gets across. In newspapers and magazines cartoons are often used to make an injustice more clear. 

Topic 1 of this Challenge was to make a cartoon that shows that the ‘right to food and water and good health care’ is not always obvious in your area. 

On the website www.cartoonmovement.com students uploaded their own drawing or cartoon. 
Cartoonists around the world saw the drawings and made their own interpretation.
In our own Newsroom Children’s Rights we can see awesome works of art and cartoons, uploaded by so many creative students in the Circles.

The results of this topic in Challenge 1, the pitches and cartoons, are so powerful!
To see a selection: click here for the wiki page.

(Some cartoons are also uploaded proudly on the school pages, along with the original student’s drawing, sometimes accompanied by a few meaningful words :-))

Anton Resida Mulo, Wanica, Suriname:

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…..However, we should appreciate water more, for it’s very valuable.
We have the right to access to clean water for everyone.
This drawing refers to that right that we as human beings schould have access to clean water.
There are many children who don’t have access to clean water and sometimes have to get water out of a well or a tap that is shared with many other households.
Usually these taps are very far away from their homes.
They even have carry this water walking long distances to their homes.

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The children are busy drawing the cartoon-pics..

Visser ’t Hooft Lyceum, Leiden, The Netherlands:

Hannah, Elaisha and Eva have made a terrific presentation on water in the Netherlands.
They did research and have filmed themselves so that everyone can learn from them!

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Oukba Ibnu Nafiaa, Assa, Morocco:

Here is an interview with a nurse who is working in the hospital we have in our city:

1) Question: what is “Isramid” card ?
Answer: It is a program for the poor people in the Moroccan society which is called “Iramid”. It is like a social help to take part in medical care sector for free. This card is just for a counted category in society. It is meant for people who don’t have money, or don’t have a monthly income

2) Question: How do you treat those who don’t have this card?
Answer: If they don’t have medical insurance, they should pay for everything.

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Centro Interescolar de Línguas de Ceilândia, Brasilia, Brazil:

The 2015 Brazilian drought is an ongoing drought affecting the southeast of Brazil including the metropolitan areas of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. It has been described as the worst drought in 80 years.

Typically the rainy season starts in November, but lack of rain in the 2014/15 season led to a major shortfall in the water supply in the states of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, andMinas Gerais. With major reservoirs operating at their lowest capacity (the main reservoir system of Cantareira supplying São Paulo being at only 6% of its capacity in early February) officials at São Paulo warned about extended rationing as water may run out before the next rainy season in November 2015. In response, the water utility of Sao Paulo, Sabesp, has reduced water pressure in the system. It also started to impose punitive tariffs on users who use more than in previous years. By early February residents had started to recycle and hoard water.

By the end of February torrential downpours caused flooding in Sao Paulo, but the rain was not thought to be enough to result in significant replenishment of the water reservoirs.

(…)Further, lack of protection of watersheds and reservoirs has polluted water sources and made it difficult to bring usable water to the market.The expansion of deforestation activities into the Amazon basin has been linked to the reduction of rainfall in the south of Brazil.
Analysts see the crisis as a relatively short-term stressor but believe that it has the potential to be the “catalyst” to solve specifically São Paulo’s water problems.

Actually, we need to find out any solutions to protect our city, planet so that we have clean water to everyone!

By the way, the following video illustrates
the importance of water around the world from a great song:

Carmel College Salland, Raalte, The Netherlands:

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Rishikul Vidyapeeth, Haryana, India:

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Gymnasium #2, Chernivtsi, Ukraine:

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On March 20 we, pupils of the 5th class, drew pictures for the project and even managed to observe
behind a solar eclipse. And on the air on the computer from the site of NASA and on change
in a schoolyard.

In Chernivtsy on March 20 day was cloudy, in the sky there were clouds therefore it was possible to see a solar eclipse without the special equipment.

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Cesar Chavez Prep Public Charter School, Washington, USA:

Nasim Robinson: What are ways that PREP helps its students get enough to eat?

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Chavez Prep has something called “family emergency funds”. It’s when they donate money and food stamps to the hungry family. Sometimes the only meal kids actually get is the free school breakfast and lunch, and no food for the rest of the day.
2. What does PREP do so students get nutritious food?
It might not taste good, but Chavez’s lunch has lots of vitamins and nutrition. We get white meat and non-fried food in the lunch meals, and also vegetables and fruit, along with whole milk and juice, giving the students healthy meals to eat during the day.

Reflection: Lots and lots of kids who are hungry in D.C don’t admit it to their friends or other people who care about them. That’s why we want to help them so they don’t go hungry.

Nantyr Shores Secondary School, Innisfil, Canada:

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This is a graph of what each country would pay per year in water bills if they used as much as Canadians.

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Dvojezična srednja šola, Lendava, Slovenija:

Thousands have lived without love, not one without water. (W. H. Auden)

Our town Lendava and its surrounding villages get their source of water from the groundwater. It is gathered 18m under the surface of a forest, which is only a few kilometers away from the main road.

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This area is closely monitored so that the important fluid is not contaminated by toxic waste, for instance pesticides. Its pH value is 7.1. They analyze it each week around the pumping station and in different households to determine if it is safe everywhere. If there are any problems with it, it is usually just cleaned with chlorine (Cl). The water is used for everyday things like washing, drinking and in the industry.  

Agrani School and College, Dhaka, Bangladesh:

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Topic 2: An Interview with a man who sells medicines in a dispensary near our school.

Faria: Salamualaikum!
Seller: Alaikum Assalam!
Faria: How long are you selling medicines in this shop?
Seller: For three years.
Faria: From where are you coming?
Seller: I am coming from a village of Barisal district.
Faria: Did you sell medicine in your village?
Seller: Yes, I am trained as a village health worker by BRAC. I also helped people suggesting medicine when they were ill.
Faria: Why did you come to the city?
Seller: To earn more money.
Fariah: How is the condition in the village?
Seller: People are poor. They don’t pay me when I help them with prescription of medicine.
Faria: Are you happy in the city?
Seller: Not so much. But I can earn and send money to my family.
Faria: Nice to talk to you.
Seller: Thank you.

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Challenge 2:  The right to education and protection against child labour.

A selection of the contributions, all created by the students of these Circles:

Adma International School, Keserwan, Lebanon:

Topic 1 B:
Nestle informs me about child labor by involving communities in Cote d’Ivoire in a new effort to prevent the use of child labor in cocoa growing areas by raising awareness and training people to identify children at risk, and to intervene where there is a problem. The initiative is part of an action plan drawn up by Nestlé in response to a report on the company’s cocoa supply chain in the West African country by the Fair Labor Association (FLA). It builds upon existing efforts to develop a more sustainable cocoa supply through the Nestlé Cocoa Plan.

1. We will get this information about the company through interviews, reading through past reports.

2. The FLA made 11 recommendations to Nestlé, all of which the company fully supports and is acting upon, in some cases in collaboration with its partners. Nestlé is committed to the eradication of child labor in its cocoa supply chain. Measures needed to tackle child labor are prioritized, including improvements to the company’s supplier code. Nestlé wants suppliers in Côte d’Ivoire to ensure that the farmers growing cocoa for the company are fully aware of the obligations contained in the code. The company will work more closely with its suppliers, its certification partners and other bodies to ensure those working throughout the cocoa supply chain receive better training on the nature of the child labor problem and how to address it. Nestlé believes that working with local communities to create a robust monitoring and remedy scheme will produce the greatest returns as it seeks to improve working conditions. The company’s management in Côte d’Ivoire will oversee the new child labor initiatives and co-ordinate efforts with partners, suppliers and the authorities. Nestlé will work with its partner, the International Cocoa Initiative, a foundation that works with the cocoa industry, civil society and trade unions, to set up the new monitoring and remedy scheme. It will be piloted in 40 communities covered by 2 co-operatives of cocoa farms during this year’s cocoa harvest. The plan is to scale it up to include 30 more co-operatives by 2016, involving around 600 communities. The FLA will evaluate how successful this model of child labor monitoring and prevention is over the next three year.

Vechtdal College, Hardenberg, The Netherlands:

In our lessons we’ve made some drawings about the right to education and about child labour:


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Anton Resida Mulo, Wanica, Suriname:

The right to education and protection against child labour.
 
Education in Suriname is predominantly Dutch and exhibits many characteristics of the (former) Dutch educational system. Education is free and compulsory for children between 6 and 12 years. Over 90 percent of the population can read and write.
Suriname has since 1967 a University, the Anton de Kom University.

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Unfortunately, child labor also occurs in our country. This research revealed in the year 2002. 
Further been established that gender, there are more boys than girls are involved in child labor.
Some forms of child labor are known image of children that offer fruit for sale at (busy) intersections of public roads in and around Paramaribo, the teenagers as attendant working at the service stations and the situation of children with wheelbarrows to Albina.

OLE- club, school “7 keys”, Chelyabinsk, Russia:

chal2_Ole1_Child Labour

Have you ever thought about one thing: ‘What makes children not to go to school?’. Our group thinks that the answer is poverty, it’s really the main reason. Of course, we don’t know how many millions of children in our world work to earn money for a piece of bread instead of studying. We think that all children deserve a successful career and good future. They just bury their talents because of the level of living. So, why do children need going to school?

We made a survey and the answers are following:

  • Broaden their horizons
  • Developing independence
  • Endurance training
    May be we’ll never solve this problem, but perhaps we need to start thinking over the problem for redusing it and finding the solutions.

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Oukba Ibnu Nafiaa, Assa, Morocco:

We feel that we have to go to school because that’s our right. Children can work and earn money on holidays or in their free time, but No Labour during the time when they should be studying at school. Yes, that’s right. Every child has the right to Education.
There are approximately 15 % of children in Morocco who don’t go to school.
But, in our city ‘Assa’ all children go to school except for the following categories:

1)   Nomadic children: Because they move from one place to another frequently
2)   Poor children: Their families are very poor so that they can’t afford money to buy books.
3)   Early married girls : In some villages, people oblige their girls to marry in an early age.
4)   Street or homeless children : They don’t go to school because they don’t have someone to take care of them and be responsible about all what they need.

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AIDA LAKHRIF is our guest in the interview. He was born on 1989-01-09 in Assa. His childhood was normal like anybody else born in a closed society. His mother was present more than his father because he was a soldier. They lived with a low salary. AIDA used to play with toys made with garbage. He enters to the primary school on 1994, the middle school on 2003, the high school on 2006 in Oukba Ibnu Nafiaa High School and the University on 2009. He finishes on 2011 and he was specialized in philosophy. His personality was all the time silent and serious. The reason that led him to be interested in Human Rights is to change the hard reality, and the nature of his life (the difficulty of his environment especially in the Sahara). AIDA has a project which is to fix the Educational problems in Morocco in general and in Assa (our town) in particular because education is the basic to build a society without problems. This person describes his life with one expression which is “A lot of distress; a little bit of pain and happiness of success”.

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Kennedy Public School, Toronto, Canada:

Some companies in our area (Scarborough, Toronto, Ontario, Canada) that receives and sells products from abroad are Adidas, Nike, Joe Fresh, Reebok, Apple Inc(Foxconn). and Gap. Toronto also receives cars from abroad too. Cars come from companies such as Toyota, Mercedes Benz, Honda, and much more. But we are focusing on child labour so we will not talk about cars. We will explain how clothing companies use child labour. Although we listed many companies, we are only going talk about three:
Adidas, Gap, and Apple Inc.:

Joyce, Angel, Lily, and Michelle:

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Gap: When I read an article from “ABC News” about how Gap uses child labour, I was shocked. Gap has admitted they used children in India to make a line of children’s clothing. These children were 10 – 13 years old. Proof? Well, “ABC News” received a video of 10 – 13 year olds stitching some clothing. The Gap label was on the back of each and every piece. The reporter who investigated this stated that the poor children worked without pay! They did not get any money at all! That seems very unfair. What did they eat? They only received a bowl of rice with flies all over it. According to the reporter, the kids slept on the roof of the building. The reporter said that the kids were basically slaves. At least 10-15 children worked in  one tiny room. Conditions were very bad. What is strange is that Gap Inc. didn’t know about this. So, they launched a full investigation on this matter. “This is completely unacceptable and we do not ever, ever condone any child laborer making our garments” the president of Gap North America stated. The reporter confirmed that all the children that worked for Gap came from Bihar. Bihar is a poor state in India. This place is known for gathering children for undreage labour. Also, they are known for tricking parents into selling their child/children. Gap has 100 inspectors monitoring 2700 factories. It is weird that no inspector realized that the factory was using child labour. Unless they were bribed not to tell anyone. Many people against child labour is angry at Gap. But, Gap said that clothing made by children would not be sold in stores. Also, Gap confirmed to all the customers that  they would not use child labour ever again on their website.

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George Asin Mulo, Paramaribo, Suriname:

In our country and community we still see that a lot of children do not go to school.
Every child in the world from the age of 4 (sometimes earlier) must go to school.  This is very sad because they do not get education. Sometimes when you drive around during school hours you see children selling stuff on the road. Not every grown-up likes this. We think that the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Justice and Police should do something about this. 

There are many reasons why they do not go to school. Some are:
1. no money. Not always do the parents have money to send their children to school. Sometimes it is a poor family who have many children. They have to spent their money on food or other stuff which are needed in the house. Sometimes a mother alone has to take care of her family. There is no father. 

2. no interest. Sometimes the child has no interest in school. They rather go and work so that they can get money. Then they can buy things for themselves.

3. there is no school. Not always is there a school for the children to go to. Maybe the school is miles and miles away so the parents rather let them stay at home to take care of the younger children so that they can go to school.

4. help support the family. There are many children who have to work at an early age to help support their family. This is sad because they do not get an education and so they can not get a good job later on.

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Gymnasium #2, Chernivtsi, Ukraine:

According to 43 articles of the constitution of Ukraine, everyone has the right for education. The state  guarantees general availability and free of charge preschool, main and general and secondary professional education in the public or municipal educational institutions and at the enterprises. 

About a ban of forced labor

Article 37 of the Constitution of Ukraine says: “forced labor is forbidden”. The same is written and in article 50 of the Law “About Education”: “Attraction trained, pupils of civil educational institutions without consent trained, pupils and their parents (lawful representatives) to the work which isn’t provided by an educational program is forbidden”.

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At school we examined basic rights of children.
And each pupil chose one of articles and represented a logo.

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Nantyr Shores Secondary School, Innisfil, Canada:


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Dvojezična srednja šola, Lendava, Slovenija:

Here is the contribution from the group of Barbara Vida, Nika Tompa and Lara Perša:

Here is the contribution from Almos Kovač and Mišel Hozjan.

Follow the numbers to find out more about Nike’s policy on child labour. We contacted Nike directly and are really happy with the results.

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Here is the contribution from Zita Szabó and Anja Cigan.

The International Children’s Peace Prize  2014

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In 2014 the International Children’s Peace Prize was given to Neha Gupta. Neha is only 18 years old, but she is very actively involved in children’s rights. She also inspires other children to take action. Neha is a global child because she lives in the United States, but she was born in New Zealand to Indian parents. In India she saw how those children live and she was shocked. Those children have no chance to education or healthcare. So a project named Empower Orphans was started. They improved their drinking water and healthcare. Neha inspired other children in the United States. That’s why she was able to make the project global. When other
children saw what was going on they started to think about those problems as well. Together they did something great.

 Here is the contribution from the group of Rebeka Bernard, Matyás Feher and Peter Šooš.

Click on the pic to see the Glogster.


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Comenius College, Hilversum, The Netherlands:

Movie about child labour made by Caro, Lucy and Iris:

Topic 1 B: Gaetano, Kim, Dewi, Koen, Britt:

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Agrani School & College, Dhaka, Bangladesh:

Hi! I am Aurundhaty of class 9. I am discussing the questions in the following way.

Many children do not go to school in our country. It is the slogan that all children must go to school. But the poor condition of our people compels their children not sending school. They take them to field, if in villages and in cities, they take them to work in factories or as day laborers. Children’s right for education is the fundamental right of all children and child labour is seriously prohibited. But who will ensure it?

Our government says that all children must go to school. The ministry of education is giving books from class 1 to nine free of cot. Our efficient Education Minister ensures this book distribution on the first day of January. Ministry of Education also provides stipends to poor children for going to school. Still there are many children not going to school because of poverty and lack of knowledge and awareness.

This challenge can be solved only when the country is economically developed. The rich people have to come forward to help also. The UN must come forward to give assistance to educate all children. There should be more budget for education and above all, all adult have to be well-conscious.

The world could certainly be a better place to live in if the children could choose themselves to go to school. If education is made attractive, no child will go to work rather go to school for study.

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Child labour is a burning question in Bangladesh.
Many children are undergoing inhuman torture. They don’t go to school because of poverty.

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Challenge 3: The right to grow up safe.

Visser ’t Hooft Lyceum, Leiden, The Netherlands:

We chose to make a Pantoum with the whole class.

Step 1: Everybody made his/her own pantoum.
Step 2: Having hung all of the pantoums around the room, we had a look at all of them and wrote down the lines we liked best.
Step 3: Using these lines we created a pantoum with the whole class.
Step 4: We divided the lines amongst our class.
Step 5: We made posters using these lines.
Step 6: We made a video for you guys to see the result!


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Anton Resida Mulo, Wanica, Suriname:

The students have different pictures on the internet for that deal with children’s rights, child protection , war in the various countries of the world.

With the collected photos the students have tried to make a short film of it . We hope you enjoy it:

Wanica, May 6, 2015

Honorable leaders,

We hereby inform students of the Anton Residaschool of Suriname following with you;
We have several sources such as newspaper articles, news reports on television and images on the Internet learned that war is in your country.
We want to pay attention to this aspect in your country regarding the war.
War in a country only has negative consequences for the whole country, especially for children and non-working parents (especially mothers).

All innocent people.

We want you to meet with the other leaders of your country to hold talks with the as soon as possible to stop the war as soon as possible to restore your country as soon as possible everybody can again provide food and drink, a shelter as soon as possible again peace in the country.

We also like that you pay extra attention to youth.
Children have a right to safety, love, education, faith and no war!

Yours sincerely,

Students of the Anton Residaschool
Commissaris Weythingweg
Suriname
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OLE- club, school “7 keys”, Chelyabinsk, Russia:

In the very beginning we want to say some words about associations of a word “safety”. Each of us offered different ideas about safety; we decided to analyze the situation asking 100 students from our school.

The result is:

30% of children think that being in “safety” means to have a country/a place for living.
The first image symbolizes the country as a security system where the family lives peacefully”

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20% of children say that the best way of being in safety is having parents.
The image is named – “Home, sweet home!”

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50% think that just Peace is the most important thing nowadays. People must be friends and everyone is useful and very important for our world… JUST in this case people all over the world won’t be afraid of any challenges. We’re sure it‘ll help us to live getting pleasure from every moment of our life.

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Oukba Ibnu Nafiaa, Assa, Morocco:

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Kennedy PS, Toronto, Canada:

Dear Bashar al-Assad(President Of Syria),
You are invited to participate in the peace conference to talk about the safety of the children in your country. You should participate in the peace conference because the civil war that’s in your country has affected the children in a negative way. It affects the children in a negative way because of landmines. Landmines are extremely dangerous because it can easily kill a person or extremely hurt someone. You wouldn’t want a child to die because of a landmine or even the kid’s older siblings or parents since family is especially important for children. Another reason how it affects the children in a negative way is because it can leave them homeless because of the fighting and forces them to flee their homes. 6.8 million flee from their homes and 3.8 million went into refuge into neighbouring countries. Also the population of Syria went from 21 million to 17.5 million.The children also can’t go to the school under all the shooting, brutality, and landmines too. This is why you should participate in the peace conference.

Sincerely,

Mario Liao And Ricky Zhang

Pantoum by: Christy and Jessie

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Curtis and Gong’s map:

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ART CONTEST:
We have also submitted our work to the TDSB CREATES Art contest. That is our school board (TDSB). We thought our art was meaningful and significant to enter this contest.

The topics have become very dear to our hearts and we wanted to share it with others.


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Gymnázium Zikmunda Wintra, Rakovník, The Czech Republic:

’tAtrium, Amersfoort, The Netherlands:

I feel safe
I’m at school
I see peace and happiness and friends around me
It makes me feel safe

I’m at school
What does it do to you?
It makes me feel safe
Grateful as well

What does it do to you?
I experience the feeling of luck to have the privilege to live in a peaceful place
Grateful as well
It feels… special

I experience the feeling of luck to have the privilege to live in a peaceful place
I feel free
Grateful as well
Grateful for my freedom

I feel free
I see peace and happiness and friends around me
Grateful for my freedom
I feel safe

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Carmel College Salland, Raalte, The Netherlands:

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Cesar Chavez Prep Public Charter School, Washington, USA:

See the video of Marco Medrano reading his rap poem:

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Adma International School, Keserwan, Lebanon:

I do not feel safe 
I’m in a continent where children are taken away from their rights
In a place where safety is not as important as the government’s power
Safety is a feeling and a privilege that should not be taken but given

I’m in a continent where children are taken away from their rights
Born in an era where the Word of God is being used as an excuse for war
Safety is a feeling and a privilege that should not be taken but given
Shattered by the idea that a country’s political position is more important than it’s people

Born in an era where the Word of God is being used as an excuse for war
Where I have to keep my eyes open, even when they are shut
Shattered by the idea that a country’s political position is more important than it’s people
Putting us on a cliff where instead of being pushed back by our “leader”, we are being pushed forward

Where I have to keep my eyes open, even when they are shut
Afraid of the risk my country is being placed in based on bordered conflicts
Putting us on a cliff where instead of being pushed back by our “leaders”, we are being pushed forward
Watching what remains of humanity degrade day by day

Afraid of the risk my country is being placed in based on bordered conflicts
In a place where safety is not as important as the government’s power
Watching what remains of humanity degrade day by day
I do not feel safe  

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Dvojezična srednja šola Lendava, Slovenija:

COUNTRIES IN WAR

There are many countries which are in war now, but we choose only 10 countries and studied them more. Those 10 countries are: Pakistan, Afghanistan, Ukraine, Iraq, Israel, Syria, Mexico, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan and Libya.

  • In Africa:
    Democratic Republic of Congo – war against rebel groups
    Libya – war against Islamic militants
    Sudan – war against rebel groups
  • In Asia:
    Afghanistan – war against Islamic militants
    Pakistan – war against Islamic militants
  • In Europe:
    Ukraine – Secession of self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic and self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic
  • In Middle East:
    Iraq – war against Islamic State and Islamic militants
    Israel – war against Islamic militants and Gaza
    Syria – civil war
  • In Americas:
    Mexico – drug war

Mišel and Almos have made a map.
You can see on it, where children can’t live in safety, caused by conflicts in their country.

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Comenius College, Hilversum, The Netherlands:

Please watch this movie made by Lucy, Caro and Iris
about the children’s right to grow up save:


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Rishikul VidyaPeeth Sonepat, India:

Our dream for children, we share today –  to live, to learn, to grow and play.
For all, a happy, healthy childhood we seek.
No matter how young, no matter how meek
Our dream for children, we share today –  to live, to learn, to grow and play.

For each, good education is a must, A school and good teachers is right and just.
Our dream for children, we share today –  to live, to learn, to grow and play.
Nutritious food fills every tummy For every child, daddy and mummy!
Our dream for children, we share today –  to live, to learn, to grow and play.

No hours of work should any child see,
Time for play keeps them happy and carefree
Our dream for children, we share today –  to live, to learn, to grow and play.
Girls and boys are equal we say,  And no one is wed before their eighteenth birthday.

Our dream for children, we share today –  to live, to learn, to grow and play.
Dignity, Equality, Justice for all
No matter how different, no matter how small.
Our dream for children, we share today –  to live, to learn, to grow and play.

 

Completion: An invitation to create a new Children’s Right.

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In this assignment we requested the students in the Learning Circles to write a paper to UNICEF, 
including:

  • A brief personal introduction
  • Lessons learned and eye-openers during the Learning Circle process
  • A new, to be added, Children’s Right and a motivation why this specific Right needs to be highlighted.

 

By giving and receiving feedback to and from three peers we asked each student to critically think and learn together. Collaborative learning in a Learning Circle allows students to learn and work together; the diversity in their countries and backgrounds creates a rich learning environment.

Hundreds of students joined in this amazing process of peer learning with their global classmates.
The tool they used is called peerScholar.
We are thrilled to be able to show you a selection of quotes from these wonderful and impressive letters:

QUOTES from Letters to UNICEF

Selection of the 2015 ‘Letters to UNICEF’ (pdf)

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Evaluation: Your tips and tops will help us to improve!

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Anton Resida Mulo, Wanica, Suriname:

Hi everyone,

As a group we have experienced very positive LC .
The students were very enthusiastic and eager to learn. They liked that they were able to gain knowledge of different countries and in particular on the subject which was to be done during the investigation period .
The students found it very instructive to know several child rights / learning.
How things work with children in other countries.
What can be done for the child.

On preparation, content, timeline, planning and communication speaking, we would like to thank precisely the LC team.
Everything on time passing, what tasks must be done within the time we had to finalize contracts, the feedback we got, we always had, and there was always a timekeeper, who passed the messages.

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Oukba Ibnu Nafiaa, Assa, Morocco:

Student 1:
1. My experience in this project “Learning Circle Children’s Rights 2015” was a wonderfull  experience because I get to know many information and I have developed my knowledge.
2. The contribution which impressed me the most is the picture that we had in the first step and the interview.
3. I think you should offer in the 2016 Learning Circles ways to suggest solutions, and to have problem about every subject so that we can have everyone expressing his/her opinion.
4. I would like to advise you to change the time of preparation and to give us a lot of time to do it.
5. I would like to say thank you so much for everybody in this project and I really had a wonderful experience. I wish you all the best in your life.

Student 2:

In the name of Allah, the most gracious and the most merciful:

First of all, I would like to say thank you for giving me this chance to express my opinion about the project. In fact, this experience was the best of all. It has added a lot of good things to my mind. Secondly, all the topics are great and interesting, but my favourite one was to do an interview because I like to ask questions and get answers. I would not change anything in this project because it is perfect and it will be perfect forever if it continues like that.
In 2016, I would like to add more toppics and talk about diffrent subjects.
Finally, I want to say thank you once again for creating this project and giving me this chance to try this experience. Also, I want to say good luck for the next year and all the best!

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Kennedy PS, Toronto, Canada:

Our grade 7 class really enjoyed the entire experience. They learned far beyond what I imagined they would..The concept of collaborative inquiry based learning took over the class and they began to question and then sought answers.

I liked the challenges that encouraged the students to investigate. I was happily surprised to see them run with these challenges.
They enjoyed seeing their work published on the wiki and commenting on their peers’ work too.

The Social Justice and Equity part should, no, must be continued. It creates empathy, understanding and builds a classroom attitude that we are not taking, we are going to give.

It has been an amazing experience for my students. Learning about children’s rights with students from all over the world has been a very rewarding experience.

Gymnázium Zikmunda Wintra, Rakovník, The Czech Republic:

1. How did you experience the Learning Circle Children’s Rights? It was a very useful for the students to think about issues that they are not exposed to that much in schools.

2. Which contribution impressed you most? Probably the part about Safety alongside with the part about Water and Healthcare.

3. What should we certainly offer again in the 2016 Learning Circles? Linking make students awareness with art as in the cartoon or the crisis around the world.

4. What would you advise us to change or add? I think participating schools should fill in the dates of their holiday so that the dates would be ok with all schools.

5. And this is what we also would like to say…: It would be lovely to have video conferences.
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Gymnasium #2, Chernivtsi, Ukraine:

Which contribution impressed you most?
We very much liked a format of tasks.
That all tasks were followed by explanations, examples, photos, drawings, video fragments.
Everything very colourfully and illyustrativno.
With big enthusiasm children prepared the page with representation – Introduction.
Then stages of tasks by the rights of children (Challenge 1,2, 3) were also clear and caused many discussions.

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What should we certainly offer again in the 2016 Learning Circles?
We will surely take part in the new project in 2016.
And this is what we also would like to say…
Many thanks to participants of the project, to our project coordinators. Everything was very well organized, constantly there was also a feedback.
We learned a lot of new, useful. Thanks to all! 

Dvojezična srednja šola, Lendava, Slovenija:

Please click on the glogster!

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OSG De Meergronden, Almere, The Netherlands:

MY REFLECTION POEM – made by Sem

With this project I had lots of fun.  
But more time would be not so bad because I had to run

The contribution that impressed me the most was the reflection
that was because of the great reaction.

I think you should keep the exchange
all the other people reactions were fun and strange.

Please don’t cry  
But it is the end of the project and I have to say bye.

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