Explore Howard: Wilde Lake Middle students turn attention to Darfur

 

myenglishclubdt.blogspot.com

Seventh graders to donate to education project

By Sara Toth

stoth@patuxent.com

When it comes to health care, the war in Iraq, global warming and animal rights, Howard County students have different ideas and passions. At an upcoming event, a group of middle school students will be working toward the same goal: providing education for refugee students in Darfur.

Fifteen seventh-graders at Wilde Lake Middle School will take part in the Voices of Youth event, Tuesday, Jan. 25 at 5 p.m., at the school, in order to raise money for the Darfur Dream Team Sister Schools project. This is the second time the school has hosted such an event but the first time that the proceeds will benefit Darfur refugees. The students, selected by their peers, will deliver original speeches on various issues facing this country.

While the school raised $550 last year for Animal Advocates of Howard County, this year the students shifted their attention to the genocide in Darfur and Sudan, said Jeanette Swank, an English teacher and seventh-grade team leader at Wilde Lake. At the beginning of the school year, Wilde Lake was partnered with a school at Camp Djabel in Chad and a specific student: a 15-year-old boy named Murtada.

Swank said the partnership came about as a result of lessons on the Holocaust. "We started learning about the Holocaust, and the students didn't know what it was," Swank said. "They were really upset that they couldn't do anything about that, and I wanted to give them something that was more of a present-day situation, and see what we could do to help, to reach out to people."

'How can we help?'

Thomas Saunders, principal of Wilde Lake Middle School, got involved when he co-taught a class with Swank about Darfur."We were looking at, do these issues take place in modern times, and unfortunately, they do," Saunders said. "The kids were very interested in what was going on, and how they could help. That's the great quality of middle-schoolers; they ask, 'What is going on?' and immediately jump to 'How can we help?' "

Through the Darfur Dream Team Sister Schools project, and another non-profit, the Enough Project, the Wilde Lake students were able to communicate with Murtada, sharing photos, videos and messages online. Many of the students in the refugee camps have never been to school, Saunders said, and any money raised would go to buying books and school supplies, and keeping school buildings maintained.

Swank said that as a middle-schooler, she wished she had more opportunities to help the people and places she was learning about. This was that chance for the Wilde Lake seventh-graders."If they don't learn about these things, there's a chance that history can repeat itself," Swank said. "I really want them to start to think about what's going on in the world around them."

Swank said she hoped the school raised as much money as it did last year for the charity and continues the event, and the partnership with Camp Djabel, for as long as possible. "Kids need to be listened to more and heard more because they do have some amazing ideas," she said. "I hope the kids see now that they need to be involved in their community; they need to know what's going on in their area. They shouldn't be passive; they should be questioning things and speaking out."

Saunders expressed similar hopes. Many times, he said, young adults are not given the opportunity to speak their minds, and this event is a chance for them to do that, he said. "It's exciting to hear what they're actually interested in," he said. "It's exciting for kids to hear themselves speak, and hear their peers speak. It's a great glimpse into what our kids are thinking about, and gives audience members insight into the concerns middle-schoolers have.

"They are really thinking about issues, and someday they're going to be the people who are going to solve some problems."

 
Explore Howard: Wilde Lake Middle students turn attention to Darfur