Global Letter Exchange Combined With Other Activities
At the start of the 2005-2006 academic year, children aged 6 to 12 years, at two schools located near Paris, France, joined the RESPECT Global Letter Exchange. They were put in contact with the Recovery School for Congolese Refugees in Bujumbura, Burundi.
Poster about describing children's rights created by students at the Recovery School for Congolese Refugees.
The French teachers included this activity to their respective school projects because it matches their requirements, sustainable development and opening on the world and the international solidarity.
During the first letter exchange, the pupils developed other activities allowing them and their pen pals to exchange much more than only letters.
School of Bellay in Viry Chatillon, France
Ms. Vanessa Pastoor's class is taking part in a project regarding developing education. Its purpose is to make the children discover the way other children live and to develop the education in terms of solidarity. The RESPECT global letter exchange was chosen to complete this project as it perfectly matches the requirement.
The beginning of the letter exchange was an excellent opportunity for her pupils to study Burundi's geography and the story of its colonization by Europeans. Her aim was to enable them to learn through discovering another country and describing it with their own words.
Vanessa also took the opportunity to start to work on solidarity. This project took shape with the children participating in the Children's Parliament Program during which they submitted to the French National Assembly their proposal regarding the improvement of children's education in the world.
In addition, the pupils organized a sustainable development market and will assign the collected funds to a special need of the refugees school in Bujumbura. In a more artistic way but still for the same project, they have also participated in a poetry contest whose theme is Travel Journals. It is with the help of a painter that the children wrote poetries on Burundi. One of them was awarded the Second Prize.
School of Charles Peguy in Gonesse, France
Mr. Nadim Zeghoudi's class is working on the opening on the world and international solidarity. Nadim chose RESPECT global letter exchange for the same reason as Vanessa. His aim is to make his pupils aware of the "not always easy life that their pen pals are going through" by using the letter exchange and other activities at this effect.
French phrase book created by students at the Recovery School for Congolese Refugees.
He also wanted to demonstrate that children's rights are the same for each and every child but they are not always respected. This is why he created with his pupils, a big illustrated poster with the children's rights on it which they sent to their pen pals so that they can equally work and learn about their rights.
Then, they worked on French phrases which were compiled and also shared with their friends.
Now to use a different and more exciting means of communication, they are making a movie on their school activities. They hope to send a video tape to their pen pals so that they can finally meet their French mates.
These examples demonstrate that the exchanges can be more than sending and receiving letters. It can also help the children learn about other cultures and increase awareness among them. The RESPECT global letter exchange is a friendly exchange, a way for us to open ourselves to the world.
Nobody is limited to only exchanging letters. The use of different means of expression and participating in other activities are very enriching experiences.