As our Lenten Project draws to a close in the next few weeks, we have had the chance to reflect upon our work on this project. We have taken the time to think about what we have learned, why we chose GUA, and how we have made a difference. This project has taught as many things as a class and individually. We collaboratively wrote a blog outlining some of our thinking. It is published on the GUA Africa website. Click here to read the full blog post. Thank you everyone for your support on our journey. We still have a few weeks left on our project and we look forward to letting you know our final total raised!!
On Thursday, March 12th, we had an opportunity to Skype with Kate. Most of us hadn't Skyped before so it was really neat to Skype halfway across the world. We had to make sure we called Kate at a time when she was awake since the United Kingdom is 5 hours ahead of us. Kate works out of her home and has an office where she runs GUA. We asked Kate questions about herself and her education and how she met Emmanuel. It was interesting to learn her history with Jal and how she started running GUA. She opened our eyes to more information about the work GUA does and the terrible things that these children suffer. We talked about the school days in Canada and what a school day looks like in South Sudan. We learned that kids in South Sudan only study math, english, social studies, science, and religion. We thought it was neat that they study Christianity - same as us. It is nice that we have that connection with them. When we Skyped, some of our classmates asked questions, some recorded our conversation on video, and some recorded notes of our questions and answers. We were all apart of it and we thank Kate from the bottom of our hearts for the awesome opportunity. Below is a sample list of some questions we asked Kate and her responses. We will also post a video of us Skyping with Kate on our Gallery Walk Page - check it out!
Lenten Project Q & A With Kate! Q: How did you get involved with GUA? A: Well me and my mom went to a conference where we heard Emmanuel speak and we heard him talk about himself and the next day we bumped into him at a cafeteria. We became good friends and Jal ended up asking my mom to become a trustee for GUA. That was 8 years ago. The rest is sort of history. I’ve been working for Gua for 5 years since I graduated from university. Q: How has working for GUA affected you personally? A: Tough Question. It has completely taken over my life and has changed my family. It has affected me emotionally and has opened my eyes. For example, a student we've been involved with has not seen his family in 16 years. Recently, we found his family and we reunited them. Q: How often does GUA travel to South Sudan to build school houses/classrooms? A: Well at the moment we are not building any houses or classrooms because of the recent conflicts. I personally have not been in Sudan in about a year and a half but we continue to support our classrooms by providing resources and tools. Q: Have any GUA houses been destroyed by the war? A: Well the classrooms we have constructed are still standing but they have been looted by a group who overcame the town and have destroyed the chairs and materials. Q: How many school houses do you build in 1 year? A: We have constructed about 5 classrooms in total and those are where Emmanuel was born and raised in Leer. Q: What kind of music do you like? A: Oh that is a tough question. I obviously like Jals music but I am biased and I usually go to music festivals and I like a bit of everything really, world music. Q: Where do you think you would be if you haven't met Emmanuel? A: I would have dreamed for a job like this. All my other classmates were jealous of me because the only way they can do something like this is starting an internship and being at the bottom and not getting payed. I was lucky to meet Jal. Q: What subject(s) do the children of Sudan learn about? A: Its very restricted. The standard subjects are math, science, english, religion and thats pretty much it until college where they really get into deeper things. Q: Per campaign, how much funds are raised? A:Do you mean a campaign similar to yours? It really depends on the length of the campaign, if it is 1 month or 1 year etc.. It varies a lot. You could make a few hundred dollars or few hundred pounds, or we could get thousands. Thank you to Bruce Corcoran for interviewing us and putting our project in the local media. Thank you for taking the time to recognize the hard work that we have been putting into raising awareness for peace and education in South Sudan and Kenya. Bruce interviewed three students, Kamryn, Braydon, and Emily and they represented our entire CTK grade 7/8 class very well. Click here to read the full article on the Chatham Voice website.
Part 2 of our blog series is written by Brianna D. Read Brianna's blog here on the GUA website or check it out below. On the GUA site, Brianna's blog was read by a student who benefited from GUA and he wrote back to Brianna! Very eye opening and inspiring to read Gabby's response. Thank you Gabby for sharing your thoughts with us and to opening up and sharing your story! Click on our Gallery Walk Tab to see pictures of Gabby!
Hey everyone it’s me Brianna! I’m in grade 7 and I go to Christ the King School. This opportunity has given me a greater perspective of what happens in different places of the world. It has opened my eyes to see what other kids endure compared to us, how children in these countries fight in wars and are hungry for both food and peace. We have so many material possessions to be thankful for and one being peace and safety that we take for granted. This awareness came about when we started to discuss child soldiers which led us to discuss Emmanuel Jal and his story. The grade 8 students had the opportunity to listen and meet him in person. With the return of the grade 8’s to school, we as a class began to brainstorm ideas to help support Emmanuel Jal’s campaign. Each idea built upon a new idea and cooperatively we came up with the “Lenten Project” idea. We quickly got to researching information about Emmanuel Jal and his story. Each of these elements pushed our learning to world issues that we were unaware of and the need for us to take part, to bring greater awareness to others locally and globally and to take a stand for what we believe. With every person helping out we can make a difference. A Day At Christ the King Catholic School First block of the day 8:55- The bell rings, we get ready to go inside the school. 9:00- Warning bell to get ready for school and learning. 9:05- Our day begins with singing Oh Canada and prayers. 9:10-9:50- We have history and phys-ed with our teacher on Fridays. 9:50-10:50- We either have French, music or phys-ed. It depends on what day it is. (Mondays we have music, Tuesdays we have phys-ed and Thursday and Friday we have French) 10:50-11:05- We have a recess break to go outside. Second block of the day 11:05-11:55- We have math. 11:55-12:15- We eat our lunch. 12:15-12:35- We go outside. Third block of the day 12::35-1:25- We have French (only on Wednesdays) or we have literacy (reading and writing). 1:25-2:15- We have literacy (reading and writing). 2:15-2:30- We have a recess break to go outside. Fourth block of the day 2:30-3:18- We have science. 3:20- We go home for the day. Sometimes our subjects get switched around throughout the week. But we are very busy learning. I was wondering what your day looks like when you go to school? ____________________________________________________________________________________ Gua Africa student Gabby's reply to Brianna Dear Brianna, my name is Gabriel and I am a final year medical student in Nairobi, Kenya. I am one of the beneficiaries of Gua Africa, the organisation founded by Emmanuel Jal. I just went through your blog and thought it was amazing! I thought I could respond to you and help you understand the difficult things that transpire in developing countries, especially in Africa where war is so rampant. I am from South Sudan and being born during the civil war made it so difficult to live because of the risk of being recruited to fight as a child soldier. Thank God I made it to the Kakuma refugee camp through the help of UNHCR (United Nation's refugee agency). Kakuma is a semi-arid area in northern Kenya. The temperature ranges from between 30-45 degree Celsius and it rarely rains but is frequently dusty. Most of us boys were living without parents in Kakuma, either they were left in South Sudan of they got killed by the war. The UNHCR provided a small house for me and lots of other boys. I was lucky to be able to attend school in one of the camps primary schools which was just a short walking distance from where I was staying. There were so many of us in class often above 200 pupils in one class and we just sat on the floor since there were no desks. We always struggled to understand what the teacher was saying. We never had school uniforms, no shoes just our bare feet. You only get one exercise book for all the five subjects we studied, Mathematics, English, Science, Social Studies and Religious Education. We only studied from 7am to middday because there was no available food in school for lunch, so children had to leave and find food. We could not read at night because there was no electricity in the camp and it was always dark. It was very difficult to attain 250 marks out of 500 marks which is a pass mark for you to join high school. During that time I had a different perspective about education, my interest was basically about knowing how to read and write. It was only when I managed to join high school that I realised it means so much more than that. It was a struggle again in secondary but at least I had grown older and I was able to endure the problems. Life was never easy until Gua Africa in to my life and offered to cater for my needs. Thanks to God they took me to one of the best universities in Nairobi since 2009 up to now I am studying Bachelor of Clinical Medicine and Surgery. At teh end of this year I will graduate to become a doctor. Well, the memories of the difficulties I went through when I was in the refugee camp are still so fresh and I could never forget them. I am just thankful I was able to get a way out. Thank you all for your support of Gua Africa's work. You are amazing! Thanks to GUA Africa's coordinator, Kate Gumm who is publishing our blogs on the GUA website. We have been blogging our thoughts on our project and Kate is publishing our thoughts every few days on GUA's website. Part 1 is written by Kamryn H... read Kamryn's blog below or check it out on the GUA website blog page.
My class first heard about a man named Emmanuel Jal back in January. I was not very interested because I didn't think I needed to worry about him or something from another country. But then my class met Emmanuel Jal at UCC and I said to myself... "The things he is sharing can't be real life". Just hearing about his life in the war torn country of South Sudan and living through what he did... I probably wouldn't last a day. Hearing about how he had to sleep with one eye open and a gun by his side, that is just despicable! Just imagine falling asleep to the sound of gun shots, knowing that at any point in time you can die right before your parent's, siblings, and family! Also, knowing if your mother goes to the store her chances of coming back beaten, raped, or not at all are very high! And your father... he goes to work and gets shot or held hostage! Think about your sisters and brothers not having the chance to enjoy a family dinner like we do almost every night. Picture having families running into your hut trying to stay safe from bullets being shot outside. Imagine watching your aunt being attacked by a police officer and being raped! Can you imagine having limited food to eat, having to run around naked because you can't find clothing? You may only get a t-shirt to wear for the next 10 weeks and maybe get it washed in dirty water! As Emmanuel shared these stories, my heart broke. Listening about his life and listening to his struggles, I realised that we have NO idea what it truly means to fight for something. We are handed education, food, clothes, shelter, water - the basics of life. Emmanuel Jal and the other people of South Sudan have to fight for these things that we are just handed in Canada. It made me realise we need to do something about it - we need to help him, the people of South Sudan, and others who face these struggles daily. This is how our Lenten Project started - we need to raise funds and we need to bring awareness to Jal, GUA, and South Sudan. As a society, we need to learn to not take things for granted. Hopefully our project will help people realise this. Join our challenge @ www.ctkcalledtoserve.weebly.com Kamryn H |
BlogsWe have been writing our thoughts down about our projects and documenting what we have been doing and how we have been feeling throughout the project. Read what the student's involved in this project have to say! We will also post tweets, messages, and emails we receive here! Archives |