Global Issues Club

If you attended last Thursday’s Global Issues Meeting in the middle school then my question to you is are you ready for the talent show?

If you didn’t come and have no idea what I’m talking about then I’ll explain. Mrs. Sikora, middle school’s amazing art teacher, decided that before we leave for our summer vacation, we should have one more fundraiser from the middle school. She had an idea for a talent show. We would have auditions and choose the top 10 to represent the school. Anyone from any grade is allowed to audition. We would then sell tickets for opening night and also have a concession stand to make more money. All the money would go to A-Cet to help build the school in Ethiopia. 

Now that everyone knows what the plan is my question is we only have 1 month of school left. Is it possible to have all this done? We have to arrange, advertise, audition and then put on the show!!!

I have heard that some students and Mrs. Sikora are going to prepose the idea to Mr. Ladd. Once approved we are going to immediately advertise. We have to make sure we peek interest so we have people to are willing to participate.

So, the key to success here is time management. So I’m asking two questions here

•  Is this possible with the short period of time?

• And if yes, how?

- Leila

Ethiopia is perhaps one of the most unlucky countries in the world. They have been stripped of their few natural resources throughout the years and are now relying on mainly agriculture to support them. This wouldn’t be as big of a problem if they had plenty of arable land but in reality only about ten percent of the whole country has fertile farming soil. The locals continue to farm making the situation worse because by working the land they’re over farming what little left they have of usable land causing desertification.

Another problem Ethiopia is currently facing is the lack of access to clean fresh water. The area is often common to very long droughts making the farming and getting fresh water more complicated. Ethiopia has also had trouble with disease. As of 2007 one point five million people suffered from HIV in Ethiopia alone. The majority of these diseases could be easily avoided with some knowledge of hygiene such as, schistosomiasis, hepatitis A and B and typhoid fever.  Educating them about what water is safe to drink and what isn’t and disease prevention through hygiene is an even bigger problem with the literacy rate only being about forty two percent.

The only chance Ethiopia has of becoming a successful country or even maybe surviving is a brighter future. The best way to assure a better future is to educate the children; they will lead the next generation hopefully to a more promising future for their country and the sake of their own lives.

Sunday’s keynote was very successful. Both Claire and Bisrat gave presentations. Claire gave a presentation on her life and her work in Ethiopia, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Uganda and many more places. First, she told a bit about her life and dyslexia. From there she jumped to her joining the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). She explained her work in the feeding center in Ethiopia and the hard choices she was forced to make, the choices that haunted her for about 20 years later. She told small events that happened in different war zones. She said “War is not the answer“. One of the points she emphasized on was that no matter where you go, no matter who the people are their all humans, and at the end of the day all that matters is “Humanity“.

After Claire’s amazing presentation, Bisrat told a bit about A-Cet and how A-Cet helps kids in Ethiopia. He also showed a ten minute video on A-Cet which also showed the man who started A-Cet, David Stables.Bisrat’s main point was “A little goes a long way”, the more we do the better.

During the Keynote Middle, High and Elementary kids were doing fund raising. The Middle and High school were selling the A-Cet wristbands and Claire’s book “Moving Mountains”. The Elementary had a bake sale. After Claire and Bisrat had presented Mr. Johnston gave Claire and Bisrat each and ASD T-Shirt and in addition gave Bisrat 10 T-Shirt for him to take bake to Ethiopia for the kids in A-Cet. But the biggest news was that the whole school in the past months, through small fund raisers, had raised $5,000. That’s a real good start. All ASD needs is support from everybody out there. Sunday’s Keynote was a great success.

Leila

Tell us what you think if you attended this amazing event. Leave us a comment. Join the conversation!

Ethiopia

When you hear Ethiopia, what’s your first impression of this nation? Many think it’s just another country in the continent of Africa. Some people at school refer to the bracelets we sold to raise funds. I’ve heard a lot of responses to what they think it is like. But Ethiopia is more than what you think…

Ethiopia is a large country located in the Horn of Africa. In fact, Ethiopia is the 27th largest country in the world. Its areas are vast and rocky. Many mountains with high elevations are found all over Ethiopia. Not many sites are green and fertile. Most of the land is covered with sand and dirt. The temperatures could get very high. It varies from 30 to 50 degrees Celsius in the daytime.
This great country has many backgrounds to it. There are many mixtures of culture, religion and history. Ethiopia has a combination of many religions, but Christianity and Islam are the two major ones. Both religions date back to ancient Ethiopian times. There are many other local and more traditional religions. The Ethiopian culture is very unique, but a bit similar to most African countries. They have many interesting music, dance and art. Their arts are very distinctive. Many of them are made from the ancient Ethiopian times. Folklore and legends are also popular in Ethiopia and other countries. Its history is precious and is a lot about their culture, religion and lifestyle. African history is very interesting and unique. Legends describe special events that treasured their hearts. Their artifacts are very important and the key-role into solving their timeless history.
Ethiopia is a very remarkable nation. But along with that, the country is also dealing major issues. Some of the issues they are solving with are: deforestation, famine and lack of education. Ethiopia is slowly improving these problems. Something that is a major cause of other issues is the lack of education. Because of the lack of education, many people cannot take care of their lives properly and doesn’t know how to solve critical situations. If they would consider education as an important part of their lives, many problems could be solved. For example, if they had basic education, they could tell the difference between clean water and un-clean water. Another issue they could solve is HIV/Aids. They would have more sense and knowledge on how to prevent issues.
Ethiopia is definitely a special and extraordinary country. It’s famous for its culture and history. Yet, this nation is suffering many issues and problems. They are slowly decreasing it, but these issues spread around the place very quickly. Next time when someone asks what Ethiopia is like, you could give them a more detailed and interesting answer. Help spread awareness about this unique country.

By Nabila

Ethiopia is the second largest populated country in the horn of Africa…or Eastern Africa. It is bordered by Sudan to the West, Djibouti to the North East and Somalia to the East. Sadly, Ethiopia is known as one of the poorest areas in the world and Ethiopia is dealing with many issues due to that. One of the major problems is famine.

For decades, Ethiopia has had many droughts and chronic hunger with children worst hit. Preventable diseases and malnutrition on average kills up to half a million Ethiopian children a year. Starvation in Africa has become more frequent, more widespread, more sever and affects about 7.9 million people! Ethiopia has had many past famines like the ones in 1983-1985.

Now why is there famine in Ethiopia? Well, Ethiopia is among many of the countries that are not self-sufficient in food growth. Food growth is “bad” because of soil infertility, land degradation, erosion and desert locusts-that destroy crops and are a factor of livestock diseases. There are frequent droughts and lack of rain fall and Ethiopia doesn’t have a good system to collect and save water for the dry seasons leading to many people and animals starving to death. The time between each drought is small, so it’s really very hard to recover from it. They’re crying for help… and we should do what we can to help.

Many organizations are helping in support of Ethiopia and the problem with famine such as Unicef and United Nations. UN world food program launched an appeal to provide emergency relief food to countries in the horn of Africa, where more than 12 million people are threatened with starvation.

ASD is helping to build and fund the school for the local children and people of Ethiopia. ASD is also having fundraisers to help raise money that we can send to the school. Here are some ways that YOU can help. Visit these websites for more information and how you can help-

World Food Program
Children’s Hunger Relief Fund 
Unicef
Children International 

United Nations food agency reported that malnutrition rates have reached alarming levels and in 2005, about 10.1 million children died before the age of five, ¾ of the deaths in Africa-one of the regions that suffers from the highest rate of hunger and malnutrition. I hope this had some impact on you and made you want to help make their lives better.

by Farah

Just found this great video…I am having trouble embedding, so click here to watch.

 About Director:

Christian is an eleven-year-old who wrote, directed, produced, and edited this documentary BY HIMSELF about his experience in Ethiopia, Africa. Although not the initial plan, in the past several months reactions to his film have led to the development of a much needed reconstruction project in an Ethiopian elementary school where children still sit on the dirt floors for their lessons. Christian and his friends have experienced a paradigm shift with the realization that they (elementary students) CAN change the face of education half a world away! By letting go of limiting thoughts and “being the change they wish to see in the world”, they are challenging others to live and love LARGE…right NOW!

About the film:

The images and video show a rare view of this young American boy (9yrs) and his sister (8yrs) traveling through small villages and bridged the cultural gap through the language of music.
Tourism is relatively new to this East African nation due to many years of civil war and unfortunately it has been long associated with draught, famine, and AIDS. You are about to learn of a new Ethiopia, one of beauty, of peace… of hope. A nation of natural and cultural wonders once hidden by a thick veil of war and hunger.

Hey, ASD Global Issues members, we just joined the The Global Education Collaborative. Please go on the page and see if you can find anything interesting. We will talk about networking tools like Nings soon, but in the meantime check out this video I found about Ethiopia:

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