Today was a memorable day. Why? It is hard to put it in words.
I think today was the beginning of something big. My year 9 and 10 students and I had our first Skype session with students from the Fuji Pri. School in Kenya. Not anywhere in Kenya but in KAKUMA REFUGEE CAMP, which is located in the northwest of Kenya and hosting more than 50.000 school aged children, all refugees.
I must admit that before I became an MIEExpert last fall I had never heard of the camp. So why skype with them? For pedagogical reasons? For cultural exchange? For fun? For a change? All good reasons to some degreed but, honestly, it is something else. My friend Susanna Jilka made me aware of it when we were looking at some of the photos we took today: It’s in the kids’ eyes. When you see the children’s eyes looking onto the screen or into the camera, hungry for education, eager to learn, ready to give more than 100%, surrounded by what the very simple conditions at the camp have got to offer, you will know what I mean.
You will know that you just need to do something about this and keep in touch with the kids and teachers, schedule a session with them next week, plan a project, find ways to support them. Project Kakuma (http://projectkakuma.com/ ) is one of them.
In case you or your students cannot imagine what it is like in the camp watch https://vimeo.com/110751066 together in class and/or check out http://kakuma-project.org/ and after that schedule your Skype session with the camp at www.j.mp/projectkakuma or get in touch with Sixtus O Odumbe on Skype or FB. It will make you have a memorable day, too.
Thanks to Koen Timmers for making this possible and Yuri Goldfuss and Kurt Söser for introducing me to Project Kakuma in the first place.
