Global Issues Club

Welcome… (as Leila said) to the Global Issues Blog. Over the summer, this blog has been taking its own “vacation”. The summer was a break from school, jobs and any other sort of work. But now….. the summer is over, and me and Leila are ready to get back on board.

Alot of our posts were written by either me or Leila. So… how would you like to get the chance to write your own post on the blog?? You can write about anything. Some choices are.. the GI club, issues in the world, inspirational people and many other topics you would like to talk about.
Well.. if you want to write a post, read the instructions below:

• Post a comment (on this post) that basically says your grade and first name ONLY. That’s the only thing you will have to comment. When you’ve included your email in one of the required fields, please make sure it’s an email address you normally check.

Those are the steps that you will have to do for now. After 1-3 days, check your email for any news. You don’t have to send in a post, this is your choice. If you have any questions (because I’m sure this process can be confusing), post up the question on this post.

Welcome back everyone, or just plain welcome,

This year, me being in high school and Nabila in Middle, will give us good coverage of what is going on in at both places. So from now, whenever I post about updates, it will be, mostly, for high school. 

Bearing that in mind, I’m excited to see how many people will attend the meeting on Wednesday the 3rd. We only have an hour to give a lot of information regarding the club. This is year is going to be busy as we as a school don’t have much time to prepare for the coming conference.  Though it is in March, which will come fast, we as a school need to get a lot of work done. 

Hope we all have a great year as we 

“BE THE CHANGE!”

- Leila

I think it was yesterday that Mr.J sent this email to over 100 people. All to people in the global Issues network. More details will come later as we get closer to these dates. Here is the email.

Greetings from ASD EduCare in Doha,

It’s time to mark your calendars for next year! Three events in the 2008/2009 school year that will move us all towards education for a sustainable future.

1) Fall Leadership Conference 

   October 23rd-26th, Amman Jordan

   EduCare Workshop

2) NESA Winter Training Institute

   January 30th-31st, Doha Qatar

   A strand dedicated to environmental and global issues in the curriculum – EduCare!

   Registration soon on the NESA website 

   Special guest facilitator Dave Wilton from“ Facing the Future”  

   Learn about them, view the video 

 3) EduCare Symposium / Global Issues Conference

                       “Be The Change”

                        March 12th-14th

   For teachers (all levels) and students (8-12)

    Each school will be limited to 12 students

    Limited number of spaces for students

    Spaces will be held by payment and registration form

    Inspirational guest speakers, student lead workshops, action plan writing and more

    Website coming in August 2008

”Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” Margaret Mead

Have a wonderful summer break!

EduCare Doha

I guess we at ASD are more excited about the third event. Let’s talk about it.

- Leila

After reading Nabila’s “We need to wake up”, I decided to post this article.

A FIRE swept through a Doha labor camp SUNDAY April 27, 2008 –sending all valuables and belonging to 600 workers up in smoke.

The blaze started at 1:30pm, while the camp was all but empty at such time with exception of a security guard and a couple of other men.There were no losses that were reported but as the broad smoke overflowed the sky over Ain Khalid, lots of workers raced back to the camp to discover all their possessions shattered.The camp, belonging to Power Cleaning Services and the HBK Engineering, mostly consisted of brief cabins that quickly became engulfed in the fire. Strong winds made it hard to bring the blaze under control. According to the shocked laborers, who could only stand by as their things burned, a number of men lost money in the fire. One man claimed to have lost 2,600 QR. “I came home about 3pm and tried to go inside as I have money and personal belongings inside, but it was too dangerous,” said one laborer who works as a painter. “I have never seen such a fire in my five years here in Qatar.”Another worker said: “The camp is home to hundreds of people. Now they have lost everything; all their personal belongings, their clothes, and even their money. Everybody is in a state of shock.”An eyewitness said: “As the fire broke out during the day no-one was hurt as all laborers were away working. I dread to think what might have happened if this fire had broken out at night.”If only people could see what happened that day, could you imagine all those months hard work for money, food and clothing now destroyed!Though there is still hope, as ASD students from both Global Issues club and class are aiming to fulfill help for them as a goal. You can be that help by sending donations that include money, food and clothing to Global Issues club or on boxes of donations set in the middle school main lobby at ASD. Remember this people had lost their living conditions to build us a better one, it is time to make a change on theirs now step by step.  What can we do to help? - Leila   

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

Here is what one of the posters made for the boot sale say so if you didn’t come to the meeting or want some information it’s here. This one was made by Nishat.

What: Boot Sale

When: May 3 2008. 3-5 PM

Where: Middle school parking lot

Why: The funds are going to A-CET for building the school.

How: Bring in old, unwanted and usable stuff to sell in the back of your car. Or donate some of it to ‘the table’.

Money: QR 70-For one space in the parking lot and QR 10 for entrance.

Who: Elementary kids; but the Global Issues Club is trying to help out!

Listen to the morning announcements and look for posters if you want to learn more.

- Leila 

Like Mr.J mentioned during the previous Global Issues meeting here is the spot to see how we can help the elementry with their Boot sale. I don’t remember the date but it will be sometime after Spring Break. If you were not there for the meeting then I’ll give you a summery on the Boot Sale.

4th or 3rd, don’t remember, graders are holding a boot sale. In the sale you buy a section of land to sell your stuff on. Each section cost 70 to 80 Riyals. Once you have the place you can sell whatever used items you have at home and make money. All the money made from the land selling goes to A-Cet to help build our school in Ethiopia.

Here are a couple of questions to start a conversation.

• How is this Boot sale going to help us?
• How can we in the middle or high school help support this event?

- Leila

Hi Everyone,

Well after Mr.R left, the blog has died down. But it’s time to turn it back up! You might be wondering who this is and so I’ll answer that question.

First of all I am Leila. I’m a student in the middle school and also a Global Issues member. After Mr.R left the blog has been handed down to two Global Issues members. Me and Nabila. Mr. J will be on too but you will be hearing more from us. So now that you know who I am, we can move on.

Let’s not forget why we started our blog. the most important reason was and is to network with people our there and try to make change. Technology is a powerful tool in helping us so should use it. I will try my best to help with the blog so we can use these tool to help make change.

- Leila

We recently received the following letter from Michael Pelletier at the American International School of Riyadh. He asked that we share their work with you, our students:

Dear Teachers and Students from around the world;

Technology With A Cause is a club created by students at the American International School of Riyadh. Our goals are:

• To use technology as a catalyst for public awareness, discussion and appropriate action on social issues within our local, regional and global community.
• To Inspire and promote “Humane Education” amongst educators around the world through discussion and practical examples.

There is an important and global event taking place on March 29th, 2008

Watch Earth Hour here. AIS-R will be a part of this from 9:30 am to 10:30 am as a school community. We would like you to join us by promoting the event and having all of your students and teachers understand why this is important. Our weekends in Saudi are Thursday and Friday. Since EARTH HOUR is on a Saturday we will be participating at school. For most of you it will be a weekend so plan to do something at home.

We have created a Blog for all of you to join. Please post comments about how you will participate. Also, after the event we would like to see how much ENERGY everybody saved!!!!!!

Please join us by posting a comment cheering everybody on and getting involved. If you are not interested send it to a teacher or student who might be. Our hope is to have thousands of International School participants. So far we have 850 from AISR – HOW ABOUT YOU!!!!!!!!

End of Letter

So what do you think? Their goals seem pretty close to somethings we are working on. What can we do? Please send a comment of encouragement here and then let’s see what we can do. Perhaps we can have a candle lit dinner at school and raise funds for A-Cet. Or maybe you have other ideas. Get more info at the Earth Hour website. Start the conversation here now. Leave a comment below.

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!