7. Children’s Book/Agenda for schoolchildren 7-11 years in Southern Province
One of the initiatives introduced by Plan Sri Lanka is to equip 10,000 school children with a Book/Agenda helping them at one hand to come to terms with the psychosocial consequences of the Tsunami as well as acquiring and improving life skills.
The Agenda “Culture for Peace” was born in the year 2000 as a combined effort between UNESCO and Radio Nederland Training Centre, RNTC – Latin American office, within the context of the UN Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-violence. It has now been published for five consecutive years, at an average edition of 15.000 copies.
The objective of this experiment was to promote human values among primary school children fostering an attitude of tolerance for an easier co-existence of different social groups, through a practical and amusing instrument that allows them to better organize their time and tasks.
Today this publication is eagerly expected by thousands of children – and many adults as well. Depending on the general topic of the year (it changes with each edition), each month presents a central idea or value, emphasizing tolerance, respect and dialogue as indispensable tools to practice a Culture of Peace in the relationships among people, families, cultures, even nature. The central theme offers the structural link to combine entertainment, stories, anecdotes, life examples, comics, ideas for manual activities, poems, etc.
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Although the book-agenda was originally planned for children aged 7 to 11, the fact is that the agenda is bought by adolescents and adult persons as well. Teachers have learnt to use it as a tool for dealing with human values.
The Agenda in Sri Lanka: Sri Lanka needs a coherent strategy to provide psycho-social support, education and entertainment to those affected by the tsunami disaster, mainly children and the youth. At the same time, the entire population can benefit of non-formal educational materials that combine human values, the need to fight corruption and a culture for peace and tolerance. This strategy is to combine electronic media productions, both governmental and private, multimedia support materials for schools, transitional settlements and local NGOs assisting the displaced population with an educational policy involving schools ( teachers, children and parents) and the use of Internet.
The Book - Agenda can play an important role in this strategy, especially as the 2006 contents are planned to deal with “Water” and “War”, two major problem areas suffered by the country: a) psycho-social attention to children and adults recuperating from the tsunami and a “culture of preparedness” for potential disasters (natural or human-provoked); and b) basic human values fostering a “culture of conflict resolution, respect and tolerance” for the cultural and social differences in the country.
Each month will be composed of 14 pages (the original had 18). Colors, designs and motives change every month. The central monthly topic is presented in the second page, emphasizing some ideas related to the basic philosophy of Culture of Social Harmony and Human Values. All other sections of the month are linked to these thoughts and their application to daily life, as follows:
- An editorial or central theme related to Culture of Social Harmony
- A description of a human value
- A comic or story which develops the central theme.
- A short story related to the human value
- Short sections introducing relevant information, biographies, advices of how to behave under different circumstances, skills, brief notes about a problem in particular.
- What to do in case of … (specific disasters)
- Manual activities
- Quotations and riddles
The agenda will be field tested and distributed freely in Sinhala among 10,000 school children in the Southern Province of Sri Lanka mainly in the Hambantota area while a number of copies will be sold at book-stores, toy-stores, etc, as an experiment for self-sufficiency in the future.
One didactical guide on how to use the agenda and related materials will be produced. 500 copies of the guide are to be distributed among teachers and facilitators.
12 schools, selected among those assisted by Plan, will become major partners in the production and validation process.24 teachers and adolescents (ten per school) will act as co-producers and facilitators within their respective schools and communities. The pilot will be evaluated in March 2006. Pending this evaluation a wider distribution will be considered by Plan adding a Tamil and English version.
The complementary production and training effort to be implemented with the financial support of the Dutch Van Leer Foundation will “extend” the influence of the Book-Agenda through other communication outlets. It will also facilitate a monitoring process of its effects and reactions by children and adults. Some of the training workshops, facilitators guides or children radio productions will allow a regular follow-up and solid contacts with the participating schools and communities.
This project is funded by Plan Sri Lanka. |
