My Submission to the Stettler Independent

The writer from the Independent couldn't come to the school, so he asked me to send him information - this is what I sent...

During Project Week (March 12-15), Wm. E. Hay runs on a modified timetable. There are two classes per day. Each class is 3 hours long. This allows teachers to plan activities that they may not have planned due to the time restraints of the traditional timetable.

My Social 10-1 class had been discussing Imperialism in the Belgian Congo under Leopold II. During Project Week, I had wanted to plan an activity that encompassed the overarching goals of the Social Curriculum - namely, active citizenship. I wanted students to have the opportunity to talk with an expert on the subject of activism - someone who had done something to make a difference in the world, more specifically, I wanted to find someone who was involved with the Democratic Republic of the Congo because there were so many links to the current situation there and what we discuss in Social Studies 10-1 about the challenges and opportunities related to Globalization. My search led me to the Friends of the Congo organization. I sent an email and it was answered almost immediately. I set up a Skype Session with a member of the Friends of the Congo - a social activist from the DRC currently living in New York City - Kambale Musavuli. On the first day of Project Week, my Social 10-1 class participated in a mini-conference called the DRC Convention. During that time, we had collaborative sessions, group discussions, and finally, we skyped with Kambale. Kambale discussed the current challenges in the DRC - namely, conflict minerals but also touched on gender based violence and the use of child soldiers. Kambale informed the class that the DRC has the potential to feed the entire population of the world until 2015, but that the resources and potential there were under-utilized due to political corruption and conflict. In addition, Kambale focused on the highly coveted resource of Coltan. The DRC possesses 80% of the worlds Coltan and Coltan is an essential component of all electronic devices. The cell phones that we rely on, laptops, iPads - you name it, it requires coltan to produce. This makes coltan a highly valuable resource and a source of conflict - just like diamonds to Sierra Leone. Kambale talked to the students about the fact that the purchases they make as consumers in Canada are directly impacting the lives of the Congolese, but that this is rarely considered when North American's purchase products. Kambale also gave the students advice on how to develop Social Activism Projects. He stated, "what do you like to do? Use your talents!", "use what you are passionate about to spread the word of the Congo" and "Get the word out". He left the students with an inspiring quote, "You have the power to change the world. I believe you will change Canada."

From that point, students created Social Activism Groups, six in total in the class. Each group was resposible for desiging a goal, a plan, a timeline and divide the responsibilities amongst members. Some of the groups decided that they wanted to focus on spreading the word - BAAMM4Congo is one of those groups. Their focus was on using Social Media to spread the word - they have a facebook account, twitter account, a blog (www.baamm4congo.blogspot.com), and created a Public Service Announcement that aired on our school newscast. They attempted to get community and regional radio stations involved without success. Other groups focused on raising money. One group of young ladies canvased local businesses to get funding in which they bought custom designed Congo Bracelets. John's Mens Wear, Home Hardware, Michelle Fisher, These were sold during our Flex Block here and also in businesses around Stettler. To this group, community involvement was key. Another group, Cash4Congo, had the goal of having every individual at Wm. E. Hay donate a toonie for the cause to purchase generators for communities in the Congo. This group expanded their fundraising throughout Stettler, you may have seen boxes at A&W, Atco Electric, Boston Pizza. Students4Congo was a group who combined both social media with their blog and raising money. They, again, canvased the community and had information at Stop&Go and Esso. This group could also be found handing out informational pamphlets at the local Art Walk were they "busked" for the Congo. Another group focused on raising awareness of the use of Coltan in cell phones by having students turn off their cell phones for 5 minutes. Finally, a group set up a booth at Sobeys and had informational pamphlets that they handed out and also collected money.

The students collectively decided that the focus of any funds raised would go towards buying technology for youth in the Congo and also for power generators to power communities in the Congo. They felt that these items would create long term, meaningful and sustainable change for the people at the ground level.

On Wednesday, June 13th, we skyped Kambale Musavuli once more. Each group presented a summary of their project - their goals, their plan, their successes and their plans for continuation. Kambale gave each group advice for future activism in their lives and questioned each group about what they had learned and what their challenges were. This provided a high degree of accountability to the students. They realized how important it was to be prepared! Kambale was incredibly impressed with the students, as was I. He said that words could not express the feelings that he had for what our students in this small town and this small school did. He made the statement that these students could have been spending their time doing anything else, watching the NBA games or going out and hanging out with friends, but instead, they dedicated countless hours to making a difference in the lives of youth in the DRC. He was moved. He was even more moved, when our class presented a giant cheque to the Friends of the Congo Organization for $2432.20 (a combined tally of the funds raised by the activism groups - to date the final tally has increased to $2458.20). He said that he would go out immediately and tell the students that he works with in the DRC what our students at Wm. E. Hay in Stettler, Alberta had done for them. Many of the students follow Kambale on twitter and the night of June 13th, he tweeted three different times about our class: and then:

A campus of 500 students in a city of 5000 people in Canada mobilized to break the silence through 6 student groups in social activism clas kambale @kambale

and also:

Speaking to students at Wm. E. Hay Composite H.S. today gave me greater hope for Congo. Never seen any school do what they did for Congo.

Students at Wm. E. Hay Composite High School shattered the silence around @CongoCrisis+raised funds to support Congolese youth on the ground

It is important to note that Kambale Musavuli is a true activist - a famous one at that. He recently appeared in Martin Scorseses new film "Surviving Progress", which our class viewed this week. It was inspiring and empowering for the class to know that an expert, a famous person, took the time to give them information and specific feedback about activism. An expert, a famous person, was proud of them. This group of 25 15-16 year olds have taken the initative to make a difference in our world. They have shattered the sterotype that so many people in society have of youth today. I can only hope that by community members reading this article they will feel as much pride in this group of budding activists as I have. We often only hear the negative when it comes to youth, but the youth in Stettler, the youth that I have the opportunity to work with every day really are outstanding kids and this is certainly an example of what they are capable of doing if given the opportunity.