Letter from Carolyn

Dear friends,

I can't believe there are only three months left to twin classes with Sierra Leone this year! I will be returning to Canada at the end of April and hope to complete letter exchanges and joint learning activities before I leave. As I plan and prepare for the next three months, I wonder if you could let me know if you are planning any more letters and/or if you might be interested in another type of activity with your students. For instance, some schools are exchanging artwork on their ideas of peace and some classes are exchanging on-line photos and video about their communities via the internet. If you would like to engage in a joint activity or investigation and are looking for ideas, perhaps you could take a look at the eight on-line activities we posted in the summer and see if any would be of interest. The link is: http://cvangurp.googlepages.com/schooltwinningactivities

As we wind up our first full year of twinning we are also planning for next year and we've asked some friends to help us research the effectiveness of this bi-national peace/global education initiative. This will help both with planning and with raising funds for continued twinning (now done with no funding in place). This is a heads up that you may hear from a researcher from Queen's University over the next two months regarding your involvement in this project.

I'd also like to tell you about my sister Hetty's visit here in January. Hetty conducted two extremely successful workshops with teachers, administrators and community members on alternatives to corporal punishment which have had an immediate positive impact. Information about Hetty's visit is linked from my blog at: http://cvangurp2.blogspot.com/

As a result of her experiences here, Hetty has set up through Peaceful Schools International the "Kawaleh Peace Education Fund" (Kawaleh means "light"). This fund will support scholarships for volunteer teachers and students, grants to community schools, peace education, library and bookmobile, students' health needs, and income-generation for volunteer teachers. If your students are thinking about a fund-raising project, please contact Hetty at hvangurp@mail.com for details.

Thanks for all you are doing to make this small world a more peaceful place.

Sincerely,
Carolyn van Gurp
Mapaki, Sierra Leone
cvangurp2.blogspot.com