43 minute read
Education
Literacy level and violence action: picture book
According to the World Factbook, almost three-quarters of the world’s 775 million illiterate adults are found in only ten countries. Of all the illiterate adults in the world, two-thirds are women. Literacy breeds thinking. It fosters opinions. It encourages independent attitudes. It also develops opportunities for innovation and economic productivity (source; Eugene Marlow). Adults who are literate are more likely to read to their children, be employed full time, use the Internet and e-mail, vote and volunteer. Literacy can also facilitate conflict resolution and peacebuilding; when literacy is in association with learning about the world, it is likely to promote intercultural understanding, tolerance and respect.
Madrasa Early Childhood Programme in Zanzibar is an NGO which works together with poor and underprivileged communities to close the literacy gap. A request has been made by them for willing volunteers (good at art) to illustrate manuscripts (written by local teachers) and turn them into books. They are hopeful that by providing rural schools with attractive educational materials, parents will be encouraged to spend more time with their children putting their literacy skills into practice and in turn, encouraging their children to increase theirs.
EXPERT CONSULTED
Dr. Mamadou Dian Balde, Deputy Director of the Division of Resilience and Solutions, UNHCR.
GLOBAL CHALLENGE
We investigated the link between violence, peace and literacy rates.
We found out it is of importance because a large number of conflicts happen because people do not understand each other or society. When people do not know how to read they are unable to understand society and therefore, respond with violence. If this is not addressed, useless conflicts could keep on happening and spreading.
According to UNESCO, 250 million children do not have access to learn basic writing and reading skills.
LOCAL ACTION
The link is that we are going to get people to draw things for illiterate people for possibly here in Switzerland.
We chose to draw a picture book, and send it to people who don’t have access to education the way we do (therefore could be illiterate), because we thought it would be a useful to help them learn how to read.
We learned about how literacy levels itself is not so important but more about what you do with that education, what you choose to read or write with that information.
The Link Between Literacy and Peace
THE TEAM
Lara Sukkari
Hana Van Ommeren
Magnus Wood Juan Lucas de Oliveira
Jessica Hicks
Ian King
ICT & Peace action: setting up a Twitter account & creating app
Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) are increasingly prevalent across the developing world and as such are being used in a variety of ways to prevent or address violence conflict. Examples of ICTs include mobile phones, the internet, social media platforms such as Whatsapp, Facebook and Twitter, satellites, and GIS mapping applications, and the crowdsourcing of information through these platforms. A large number of applications have been developed to gather, map and disseminate data on peace and conflict.
How are digital technologies used to prevent, manage or address violent conflict and promote stabilisation and peacebuilding? You can choose to focus on the following case studies if you wish: Saffron Revolutionî in Myanmar in 2007 London Bombings Bombings 7th July in 2005 Tsunami in Indonesia & Sri Lanka in 2004
Can you investigate the positive and negative effects of ICT, especially how ICT reinforces or reduces conflicts in our school. What about in our local environment? Do you have any suggestions for changes you would like to see implemented?
EXPERT CONSULTED
Anne Gloor, Founder and CEO of Nexus Vesting
GLOBAL CHALLENGE
Global Challenges is a series of dossiers designed to share with a broader readership.
What did you find out? That global issues can be a real problem for the earth, all around the world.
Why is it of importance? What will happen if it is not addressed? Because the future is going to be based on the internet so we need to find a way to use the internet to achieve peace. Information can be gathered and spread instantly. Sometimes this is good and sometimes bad. The social media can start riots or inflame situations. It can also inform injustice as we saw in USA with the police killing a black man.
LOCAL ACTION
How does your local action link to your global challenge?
We are thinking about setting up a Twitter account to figure out more about how the people around us are being affected by the Covid19 issue.
We discovered all about how peace could be used in so many ways for good. the internet could solve some of the biggest problems.
For instance, by using the internet we could make an app or an extension on some social media platform so we can talk and help other. Another idea we had was to make an app where people could go on it anonymously and give advice to others or ask for help in this difficult time.
THE TEAM
Owen Broome
Isak Lim
Louis Brittain Pauline Daelemans
Erika Ware
Selim Mimouni
Conflict Resolution Action: bake sale funding Syrian charities
The classic cycle of violence, which ensures that conflict follows conflict, has roughly seven stages: an atrocity is committed resulting in shock and terror, fear and grief follow, and then anger, hatred hardening into bitterness, followed by revenge and retaliation, resulting in a further atrocity. In recent times this cycle has been evident in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in Rwanda and repeatedly in different regions of former Yugoslavia. source: Dr Scilla Elworthy (2001)
Global Issue: Many countries go to war as a way of resolving conflict, leading to great costs for all involved. What alternative strategies can be used to resolve conflict more peacefully?
Can you investigate an international situation where alternative measures were used to resolve conflict more peacefully (e.g.Gandhi)? Can you identify different strategies that could be used to resolve conflict more peacefully? Which ones have been successful?
Local Action: Could you apply your findings to our school? What strategies could be used to help resolve conflict amongst students more peacefully? Can you suggest ways to help raise awareness and practice some of the skills that would lead to a more empathetic school community?
EXPERTS CONSULTED
Nathalie Birt, Mediator, Dispute Resolution Consultant and Coach.
Robert Dann, Chief of Political Affairs, Office of the UN Special Envoy for Syria.
GLOBAL CHALLENGE
Our global topic is Conflict Resolution and the topic we have decided to investigate in is The Syrian Civil War in 2020.
Due to the conflict over 5.6 million people/ refugees have fled the country since 2011. There are about 13.1 million people in need of help, 6.6 internationally displaced people and about 3 million people in hard-to-reach and besieged areas. This has a big impact all over the world. Millions of people will continue to die because of this conflict.
COVID-19 is only increasing the death rate as most people don’t have healthcare in Syria due to the conflict. Millions of people are suffering every day as human rights are being disregarded and ignored.
LOCAL ACTION
Our local action is a bake sale with food from Syria to help raise money that will then be given to a charity to help the refugees and Syrian people.
Our other action that will be done later on is creating a website with stats, real-life stories and videos to raise awareness of UN conflict resolution activities in Syria and what is happening.
Our global issue is linked to the SDG 16, peace, justice and strong institutions since we are covering conflict resolution. In order to resolve conflict, you need peace and mediation.
THE TEAM
Jane Lim Kai Salama
Minha Amir Eloise Simpson
Thomas Plasschaert Tatiana Manthos
Gang Behaviour and lasting peace action: reach out
In many countries, young people (12-17 year olds) are drawn into or pressured into gangs. In the gang, they find a sense of belonging, a source of protection, of income (often from illegal activities) and most importantly, a sense of dignity. At the same time, those gangs are mostly violent and criminal, leading to jail or death. Can you investigate a country for which violence and gang culture is prevalent (e.g. El Salvador, Colombia, Brazil)? Can you identify factors that draw or push young people to be part of a gang and make it so hard to leave? Have any other solutions or projects been successful in encouraging and supporting young people to move away from gangs?
Could you apply your findings? Are there any group dynamics (negative behaviours of a group, exclusion of individuals) for which some of the thinking that you have done around gangs could provide a solution? What do you think might tempt or push people to take up more negative behaviours in the school community? What might help them to resist or step back from these? Can you suggest ways to help include individuals who are part of the school community yet who do not identify with the ‘norm’?
EXPERT CONSULTED
Catherine Barnett, Unicef (UNHCR).
GLOBAL CHALLENGE
We have investigated gangs and gang violence happening around the world. We found out many interesting facts on how gangs can affect everyone surrounding them and the cities where gangs are situated.
While larger cities and suburban counties expectedly report higher numbers of gangs, there is also considerable variation within each area type.More than half of suburban counties and 45 percent of larger cities report 10 or fewer active gangs in their jurisdictions. A majority of agencies in smaller cities and rural counties report fewer than five gangs.
We also found out that the problem of gangs is reaching a critical point in many communities today. Communities are affected as they struggle to pay for the costs of law enforcement strategies to combat the operation and spread of gang violence. No one can place a dollar amount on the loss of life and the physical and emotional suffering experienced by victims and neighborhoods under gang siege. Thousands of our youth are irreparably harmed by the violent and criminal activity that is condoned and encouraged by gang membership. Most disturbing is the increasing trend for gangs to recruit children as young as seven or eight years of age.
LOCAL ACTION
We will source a person that was in a situation where they joined a gang or were going to and get them to help these people from a familiar point of view. We want the young people in some of the poorer communities that are often joining gangs to understand what they can do and that they have a purpose in life. Our goal is to get them to see that joining a gang will not help and that there are other things in life. The ‘’expert’’ that has experience should then be able to see it from the same point of view and understand these people. Our final goal would be to help them and to stop them from joining these gangs and ruining their lives.
THE TEAM
Nubia Mpondo
Chloe Larsen
Benjamin Hess Alejandro de Bellegarde
Matteo Chenal
Theodor Sommer
Digital disconnect action: planting trees for screen time
hile the internet’s data is largely invisible, it is processed and stored in massive data centers all over the world. Those data centers are powered W 24/7, just waiting to send information — videos, podcasts, music, news, memes, messages and everything else the internet offers — to our digital devices.
Using our smartphones, laptops and tablets more frequently means data centers are pushing out an estimated two percent of global greenhouse emissions — nearly the same proportion as air travel. And unfortunately, all that data that we’ve grown accustomed to having fast at our fingertips along with our always-on mentality ends up contributing to our digital carbon footprints. source: nami.org & bustle
Can you think of an innovative way to explain what a ‘digital carbon footprint’ is? What are the climate and carbon costs associated with digital technologies and our connected society and world?
Can you suggest some ways to encourage others to reduce their own digital carbon footprint? Can you think of some ideas to help students at school to digitally disconnect and reconnect for real?
EXPERTS CONSULTED
Phillipa Biggs, Accountant and Economist.
GLOBAL CHALLENGE
Everytime we send an email or save a photo onto our cloud it has to go somewhere. The data from everyone is stored in giant data centers in the North Pole with enough storage to save data from everyone in a country.
The reason data centers are located near the North Pole is because of the heat that is released. When you’ve used your computer for a while and it starts to get hot, and the fan starts to go into overdrive. Now imagine that on a continental scale, and instead of a fan, it’s an entire continent cooling it. The heat produced from these data centers is exponential, because over time, more people are wanting electronics, and the more electronics there are, the more data is being moved around which means more data centers, and that leads in turn leads to the North Pole melting quicker. Which, we are already doing at an alarming rate.
LOCAL ACTION
How does your local action link to your global challenge? We are making up for what damage we do, by planting trees.
Why did you choose to do what you did? We chose to plant trees, for every hour people spend on their screens. We have asked the students of the school if they could donate a certain amount of money for every hour they spend on their computer during school and then to plant the required amount of trees to offset the carbon emitted. I t is going to cost a lot of money, but if we all chip in, it’s going to be a lot more affordable. Also we realise that saplings take 5 years to grow big enough enough absorb a decent amount of carbon, but we have to start somewhere!
What did you learn? We have learnt about data centers, about technology about the earth about global warming, about the astonishing amount of time people spend on screens and that they are so useful in so many situations and are relied on for so many things.
THE TEAM
Maya Breckenridge
Charlotte Hansford
David Cooper Boris Golub
Elliot Benedek
Louis Aldridge
Drones for good action: Drone Aide
f all the technological innovations that have emerged in recent years, UAV’s (unmanned aerial vehicles) or drones, are probably one of the O most well-known and exciting. Regrettably, much of the publicity surrounding the machines to date has focused primarily on their military applications ignoring the numerous other ways drones are being adapted to benefit society.
How will drones positively impact life on land on a global scale? Can you investigate their social, environmental and economic impact? What are the legal implications of their widening use?
EXPERT CONSULTED
Jan Van Mol, Founder, creative think tank Addictlab, the Addictlab Academy and publisher, Ad!dict and SDGzine.
GLOBAL CHALLENGE
Our global challenge is called Drones for good. Most of our group were not very certain about drones so this was very interesting for some of us. We realised after meeting with our expert that drones can be useful for many things. We wanted to relate them to the global pandemic with Covid-19. Drones can be very useful during this pandemic.
We can use drones to deliver food and medicine for people who have a high risk of being infected. These people should be staying home and helping to lower the number of cases as we all should be. Unfortunately, it is difficult for them to receive the goods they need while distancing themselves from other people.
A solution to this issue could be using drones to deliver essential items such as food and medical supplies to people who have a high risk of being infected with Covid-19.
LOCAL ACTION
For our action we decided to come up with a company. This company is called Drone Aide. Drone Aide delivers food and medical supplies to people with compromised immune systems using drones.
High risk people should not be going outside to get their food and medical supplies. We as a community should be helping them. So as a group and with help from our expert our action is to help the high risk people by delivering food and medical supplies that the high risk people need. These people can get in contact with us. Telling us what they need and then we can go collect their food and medical supplies. Then we can use drones to deliver it to the front doorstep. Which means we wont be having any physical contact with the person. Once they collect the food and medical supplies we can fly the drone away from the house.
THE TEAM
Julia Giardini Sarah Issa
Finn Sealy
Zacchaeus Poulsen Max Deram
Marcellus Wilson
AI & Electric cars action: a contract to buy your next car electric
Close your eyes and imagine a world without traffic, without lines to find a parking space, fewer cars, less noise on the street and fewer accidents. If you opened your eyes in twenty years, this might be reality. Electric & driverless cars could provide a series of benefits which, for now, we can only imagine (source www.androidpit.com). However, as always, there’s a flipside. What are the pros and cons surrounding the new technology which will perhaps be surrounding our lives in the near future? How do driverless cars work? What are the issues surrounding them and the impact they might have on cities and society?
Can you get in contact and interview a person in the car industry to find out about the future of them from their perspective? Can you write up a report? Can you be instrumental in inventing and programming a robotic car?
EXPERT CONSULTED
Kristian Parker, Oak Foundation.
GLOBAL CHALLENGE
Nowadays, cars are one of the easiest ways of transport and they are very popular. There are around 2 billion vehicles in the world as of 2020. This doesn’t seem like it would be an issue, however, only around 2.2% of these cars are electric. Sadly, this means 98.8% of cars are still emitting CO2 into the atmosphere. These cars are producing a great amount of CO2 everyday.
Our project was about electric cars and the environment. We looked at the difference between diesel cars and electric cars and what impact they each have on the environment. We soon realized that electric cars are much better for the climate since they don’t pollute the environment. We then knew the right thing to do is try and promote them as much as possible.
LOCAL ACTION
Our plan is to inform people about the benefits of having an electric car by showing the statistics about the C0 2 emissions and how it affects pollution and sending out a pdf contract that asks people to promise their next car will be electric. We will give some suggestions of brands and some price estimates. People can stick it up somewhere as a reminder.
Why?
Eventually everyone will need to sell their car because they can only last so long. We want to encourage the next car they buy to be electric. The gradual change is good because immediate change is unlikely. Our action will help educate car owners about the harm that emissions from diesel and petrol cars have on the planet.
What did we learn? We learnt about different brands, how long cars usually last and the prices of electric cars. CO 2 is a greenhouse gas that drives global climate change-extreme weather conditions, rising temperatures and change in wildlife populations.
THE TEAM
David Jurcso
Adrian Cristobal
Mireia Ilopart Ozzie Bar
Anushka Forbes
Gabi de Bellegarde
e-Waste action: booklet & video
nce electronic devices reach their end-of-life stage, they become waste, and are often referred to as e-waste. E-waste is categorized as hazardous O waste due to the presence of toxic materials such as mercury, lead and brominated flame retardants. E-waste may also contain precious metals such as gold, copper and nickel and rare materials of strategic value such as indium and palladium. These precious and heavy metals could be recovered, recycled and used as valuable source of secondary raw materials. It has been documented that e-wastes are shipped to developing countries where it is often not managed in an environmentally sound manner, thus posing a serious threat to both human health and the environment. source: Renee Cho, Columbia University
What is in e-waste? Why is it harmful for the environment? What is a ‘circular economy’? Can you suggest how the electronics industry What you can do to educate individuals in your local area about the adverse effects of e-waste?
GLOBAL CHALLENGE
E-waste is a popular, name for the electronic products that are near the end of their “useful life.” Computers, televisions, stereos, copiers, and fax machines are amongst the electronic products regularly discarded. Many of these products can be reused, or recycled.
According to the calrecycle web site. “With the passage of the Electronic Waste Recycling Act of 2003, certain portions of the electronic waste stream are defined as the systems to recover and recycle them will be administratively regulated beyond the universal waste rules that apply to material handling.”
When your old phones, computers and electrical gadgets are finished with where do they end up? I’m sure most of you didn’t know e-waste even existed!
LOCAL ACTION
The main point of our local actions are to raise awareness and deepen knowledge on what e-waste is, why it is harmful, and what you can do to help.
In order to do these things we created a booklet and a small video about the basics of e-waste.
When we were making our booklet and video we learnt a lot more about e-waste simply by doing research and watching videos. We think this is a good local action because it will raise awareness and people will start being careful of where they throw things and consider recycling.
EXPERT CONSULTED
Tatiana Terekhova, Secretariat of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions, UNiTAR.
Michael Kewley, Director of Marketing, Ecolint.
THE TEAM
Mayliss Demeire
Ian Snider
Cathy Mi Peakay Clifford
Jamsedine Balde
Lucie Klein
CDiscrimination occurs when people are treated less favourably than other people are in a comparable situation only because they belong, or are perceived to belong to a certain group or category of people. People may be discriminated against because of their age, disability, ethnicity, origin, political belief, race, religion, sex or gender, sexual orientation, language, culture and on many other grounds. Discrimination, which is often the result of prejudices people hold, makes people powerless, impedes them from becoming active citizens, restricts them from developing their skills and, in many situations, from accessing work, health services, education or accommodation.
Language is our main form of communication and it plays a powerful role both in contributing to and in eliminating discrimination. People can be hurt, demeaned and offended by discriminatory and derogatory language.
Derogatory language is often dismissed as ‘harmless banter’ that isn’t intentionally hurtful. However when such language goes unchallenged, this has a clear negative impact on young people’s sense of belonging, self-esteem and attainment at school.
GLOBAL CHALLENGE
Our global issue is discrimination and derogatory language. This is a serious issue that affects many people very severely.
What is it: What is discrimination? Discrimination is an unfair judgment of someone resulting in treating them differently. Common grounds for discrimination are sexual preference, religion and race.
Importance: This is a big problem and can result in severe consequences and this issue should not be taken lightly. Victims of discrimination can be scarred for the rest of their lives. And the problem is that discrimination is not uncommon.
Effects: The effects of discrimination are severe. Discrimination can lead to extreme feelings of guilt, anxiety, depression and sadness to both the victim and the tormentor.
LOCAL ACTION
We did multiple actions to spread awareness about the importance of Discrimination and derogatory language and how impactful it has on today’s generation. As a group, we made two videos per person explaining in our own words the following two questions:
-Have you ever experienced discrimination or do you know someone who has and how did that make you feel? -Why is discrimination bad?
We also conducted a survey for the entire year 9 asking them to answer some questions about their own personal encounter with discrimination in their lives and what impact did that have on them. These answers were anonymous and we were glad that people took it serious and answered honestly.
And finally our last one would be more of an experiment that we are going to do to the audience. We’d separate everyone based on their eye color. So everyone with different eye colors would get separated from each
EXPERTS CONSULTED
The LaChat APPEAR team (Association de Parents pour la Promotion d’une Education Anti-Raciste)) From left to right: Karen Eugeni, Kindy Sylla and Alexandra Braum
other. We would then select random individuals and ask them to say hurtful comments to about them. Then we would lecture how brown eyes is superior than other eye colors. Then we would let them say how it felt for them to be discriminated because of your eye color. Then show them a video of the same experiment tested on older students and how they felt. Why did we decide to do these actions: for the first action, we wanted to simply raise awareness and tell them about our own personal experience with discrimination. For the second one, we wanted to let people have a voice to speak. To let them share their own stories with us because that helps them reflect. And lastly, the third one was to let them feel what discrimination is like and how terrible this could affect one’s future life.
THE TEAM
Yilang Wang
Josefin Ahlström Jonathan Klok
Luke Thomas
Ruby Parker Aidan Fogarty
Gender Equality action: fundraiser
iscrimination against girls and women in the developing world is a devastating reality. It results in millions of individual tragedies, which D add up to lost potential for entire countries. Studies show there is a direct link between a country’s attitude toward women and its progress socially and economically. The status of women is central to the health of a society. If one part suffers, so does the whole (source: children in need). What are the main obstacles that girls face worldwide? How can educating girls help to break the pattern of gender discrimination?
How can teenage boys help shift the balance of gender equality? What are the roles of boys and men? Explore the current state of gender in Switzerland and / or the World (see Global Gender Gap Report for example) and consider an innovation that could help address this from a teenage boy’s perspective. How can boys be gender equality champions? What changes would need to happen?
GLOBAL CHALLENGE
We spoke about the problem of Gender Equality in our group and thought about all different ways that gender inequality affected the world and how it was unfair. We spoke further about ways some subjects / topics were affected. We spoke about how Gender Equality affected the families and how it can’t continue. We found out that gender equality is a massive problem in life and we really need to help it.
If boys’ voices are the only ones that are heard then it leaves the girls powerless to help change. Girls have many qualities and strengths and should be able to contribute in the same way as boys. Everyone has the right to be heard and have the same opportunities, whether male or female.
The women have responsibilities to bring up the children so by helping them we will be helping the next generation understand about equality as well.
LOCAL ACTION
We are raising funds by different methods (e.g. Social media) and are trying to catch attention and will then give those funds to www.lapouponniere.ch.
They are a charity that is dedicated to helping to improve the lives of women and children in Switzerland. They are completely dedicated to helping young women raise children if aren’t able to themselves. They also help send women to college and look after their children so they are able to take full advantage of their education.
We think that this is a trustworthy company and that they are really helping the children and mothers in need. We want to help them get bigger so they can help even more people.
EXPERT CONSULTED
Jennifer Brant, Director, Innovation Insights.
THE TEAM
Lucy Cohen
Rose Graymore
Gueorgui Petrov Bardhyl Nushi
Konrad Sacha
Etienne Martin
Physical Disabilities action: creation of video
Aphysical disability is any condition that permanently prevents normal body movement and/or control. There are many different types of physical disabilities - they can be temporary or permanent, fluctuating, stable or degenerative, and may affect parts of the body or the whole of it. What can you do to educate your fellow students about the types and causes of physical disabilities? How do the laws and provisions for people in Switzerland compare to another country (perhaps one in the third world?)
Often multiple barriers can make it extremely difficult or even impossible for people with physical disabilities to function. From a student’s perspective, they may have experienced barriers to learning that relate to negative perceptions of their disability and low expectations. They may also have missed vital stages of learning during their schooling, affecting language acquisition and the development of literacy. One barrier experienced by many students with physical disabilities is physically accessing the learning environment itself.
EXPERT CONSULTED
Jorge Araya, Secretary of the Committee on the Rights of People with Disabilities.
GLOBAL CHALLENGE
We investigated the problem of attitude and treatment towards people with physical disabilities. People with a disability get treated differently, and are often wrongly judged by society, it is something that needs to be changed. Being disabled shouldn’t make a difference and certainly does not justify the way some are treated. The problem isn’t them but the barriers that we create. Those barriers make us treat them like they were different and sick people. Everyone should be equal and no one should be discriminated because they have a disability. This statement is not true yet; a survey was conducted in Denmark in 2015 on 18,019 Danish citizens. 519 of them had a physical disability and 1398 had a mental disability. The people with disabilities reported higher levels of violence and discrimination. It was found that people with mental disabilities were subject to more violence and discrimination than the rest. Men with disabilities reported the highest levels of violence and women reported the highest levels of discrimination, humiliation and sexual violence. The severity of the disability didn’t seem to have an impact on the way people were treated but they were all discriminated and treated unequally.
LOCAL ACTION
How does your local action link to your global challenge? The link is that Noah has a disability and so we thought it was a good opportunity to help him feel better, as he is wasn’t feeling good at the moment. We decided to make a video with the aim that it might cheer him up a bit and support him. Our local action was about treating him like everyone else, with empathy, and showing that everyone is equal and deserves to be treated as a person.
Why did you choose to do what you did? Our action was about making someone with a disability feel more joyful and included while in quarantine. During quarantine many people can feel bored and even lonely. In our school we also heard that someone was dealing with these things therefore, we decided the best way to help him was to make a video for him that would brighten up his day. We wanted to cheer him up during this tough time and discover what he likes. We can share it to show people that those with a disability like the same things we do and we should include them.
What did you discover? We learned that we are the same and enjoy the same things. Just because you have a disability doesn’t mean people should treat you differently. We often judge wrongly people with disabilities because we don’t know enough about them and it is possible to change that just by sharing a video. If we can prove that social barriers can be broken even in quarantine then it will show people that it is possible to do it every single day. We just have to accept them as they are.
THE TEAM
Tara Revaz
Alena Wachsmuth
Noah Wetzelaer Nicholas Clark
Oliver Kewley
Anna Demasure
The cost of cheap fashion action: podcast
Clothing has become cheaper and cheaper over the last thirty years. Where once teenagers may have received clothes twice a year and/or at special occasions, some now may buy fashion items every week – and throw them away after they’ve been worn a couple of times. However, ‘fast fashion’ comes at a cost. Investigate the impact of cheap clothing on workers in the cotton industry and the factory. What can consumers do to ensure that the products they buy are helping to create good jobs for workers in the supply chain, and are not produced using forced labour or child labour? How can young people as consumers be encouraged to purchase ethically sourced clothing? What is ‘ethical fashion’? What do our clothing purchases say about who we are?
Can you raise awareness of ethical fashion around the school campus (especially in relation to brands found locally)? Can you be instrumental in designing and creating a line of ethically produced clothing?
EXPERT CONSULTED
Edward Girardet, Founder, Global Geneva.
GLOBAL CHALLENGE
What is fast fashion/cheap fashion? Fast fashion is a part of a clothing industry which consists of clothes that are made to start and follow current trends that change really fast. These clothes, sold in mainstream stores are usually made out of cheap materials, and in mass production. They are usually produced by children or underpaid adults that are abused in order to produce massive amounts of cloth. We need to stop buying cheap clothing that is produced unsustainably, as the damage right now is on a very large scale. It is said that the average woman in Australia buys 27 kilos of clothing, only to throw away most of that the next year. only 15% of our clothing is recycled and most of it is dumped after being worn once , when the amount of water used to make a cotton tee shirt could have been enough for a person to have sufficient drinking water for 3 years.
Not only is drinkable water wasted, but washing clothes sends out microplastic to the oceans and contributes greatly to water pollution, making this industry the second largest water polluter/consumer. the inhumane production of this clothing sometimes resembles conditions of very hard labor that has gone on in history, and millions of people are involved in the textile industry. In fact, only 3% of the clothes Americans wear is actually made in america. There have been thousands of deaths in accidents due to negligence in the industry, including the sadly famous Rana Plaza building collapse in bangladesh. there are countless problems that come with the labor the workers have to do, but many LEDC countries do not have solid laws when it comes to labor, so it is very possible for children to have to work extreme hours for a barely sufficient amount of money.
While this is all terrible, we have learned that we can change this. fast fashion is based on trends and we need to promote more environmental fashion as something that people will want to buy. prices will be higher but it all comes down to choosing quality over quantity. if you do not have the means to by from small local environmental stores (as well as buying environmental clothing, you also support smaller businesses other than multi-million dollar corporations) plenty of sites and second hand stores are available to buy your clothing at for very cheap.
LOCAL ACTION
Our local action is linked to the global issue because we want to raise awareness, and we are planning on doing that by producing a podcast made to inform people of how big and damaging this industry really is. Using facts we are also going to entice people to change and buy better clothing. We choose to do this because it’s a simple yet effective way to quickly raise awareness and podcasts are really entertaining and easy to listen to at anytime (accessibility) and because of the CoronaVirus, we haven’t been able to expand our project like we wished to do.After doing our podcast, we were hit with how serious the issue really is. Our original project before Corona was doing a clothing drive so we had to adapt but a podcast means all age ranges can listen and partake, whereas with a clothing drive, getting the whole y9 involved would be a challenge.
THE TEAM
Lorenzo Aedo
Sasha Pappe Emma El Shami
Marco Di Ianni
Mélina Le Mentec Arnaud Larochelle
LGBT action: anonymous survey
ore than half (55%) of LGBT students have experienced direct bullying, and almost a third of them feel they have been ignored or isolated by M other people. This can have an impact on their attendance, achievement, and well-being. Students who experience more victimization are also more likely to have lower grades and to report feeling depressed. How prevalent is LGBT discrimination in students around the world? What issues do such individuals face? What are the misconceptions and stigmas that surround LGBT students?
What can you do to educate your fellow students about LGBT rights? Can you be instrumental in helping to address some LGBT issues in the school environment (e.g. writing an anti-bullying policy, targeting and tackling homophobic, biphobic and transphobic language?
GLOBAL CHALLENGE
The Problem: More than half (55%) of LGBTQ+ students have experienced direct bullying, and almost a third of them feel they have been ignored or isolated by other people. This can have an impact on their attendance, achievement, and well-being. Students who experience more victimization are also more likely to have lower grades and report feeling depressed.
The Task: Our team’s task is to find out how prevalent LGBTQ+ discrimination is in schools around the world, what issues do such individuals face, what are the misconceptions and stigmas that surround LGBTQ+ students and what can this lead to for them. We plan to spread awareness and alert others about our findings.
Results One of the questions we asked to students of our school: ‘Have you ever been a witness to LGBTQ+ discrimination?’ Out of 200 Responses:
LOCAL ACTION
Originally, we were supposed to take a local action. However, due to the Covid-19 circumstances, we’ve had to make our action hypothetical. We have created an anonymous survey that enables students to talk about their experiences concerning discrimination, and how that has affected their school life.
We asked their opinions on how LGBTQ+ issues are handled at our school. We’re also informing everyone about the school psychologist and her availability. With our Action we want to observe if LGBTQ+ discrimination is present in our school and if so we want to make sure it does not take place.
We will talk to the Rainbow Club for more ideas as to how we can help spread more awareness and understanding of diversity in our school community. We want to show equality is important.
EXPERT CONSULTED
Anderson Cavalheiro da Luz, Doctoral Student, Université de Fribourg
We chose this subject because we think that this is a important subject where people don’t get treated fairly just because of their sexual orientations. Therefore we think it is of extreme importance to change this.
THE TEAM
Siew-eisha Sahi
Olivia Hugo Marco Tapiero
Iker Guerra
Nathan Page Cleo Motta
Future of Education action: survey
lobalisation, technological innovations, climate and demographic changes and other major trends are creating both new demands and opportunities G that individuals and societies need to effectively respond to. There are increasing demands on schools to prepare students for more rapid economic and social change, for jobs that have not yet been created, for technologies that have not yet been invented, and to solve social problems that have not been anticipated in the past. 2030 may seem a long time away but this is the world in which those who are beginning primary school today will start their professional careers and those who are in secondary school today will become the core group of the prime working age. (source: http://www.oecd.org) Can you be instrumental in designing a school for the future? What will the buildings, environment and learning spaces look like? What will the core curriculum be made up of? Will the role of teacher / learner be different? What part will technology play?
Think about your own school environment. Can you make any suggestions for improvement based upon solid research? What would you change and why? Can you arrange to pitch your ideas to Mr. Woods/Dr. Hawley?
EXPERT CONSULTED
David Hawley, Director, Ecolint.
Biliana Vassileva, Social Innovation Coach, Consultant & Trainer.
GLOBAL CHALLENGE
We feel that our educational system is out of date. Sometimes we study things we are not interested in or are relevant for our future. We are learning the same things that our brothers and sisters learned years ago which we feel that we no longer need to know.
We think that there is not enough choice in school right now with the subjects and options that we have to study. Dr Hawley makes sure that the future of Ecolint stays as a community and grows in great ways.
Local Action: Contact pupils and teacher on their opinions about the future of education
Some suggestions that we feel could change:
Technology (teach us more skills we will need for the future) Online Schooling (give us a choice to do some subjects online) Different timetable (So we can start later and finish earlier) Add new subjects (more relevant ones for the future) Focus less on content and more on skills (which we need for jobs in the future) New extra- curricular activities (different ones added each year) Green schooling (to help the planet e.g. installation of solar panels for energy, learning more about what WE can do to help) More recycling (and understanding where it goes)
LOCAL ACTION
Our local action is to contact students and teachers to ask what their opinions are about the future of education and what they would like to change about their school day. We chose this action because we would like to know what people think about and what could change in their school and what they would like to see in the future.
We interviewed students and teachers from our school as well as teachers from other schools too. They gave many ideas a lot of which matched our own. It is clear that an educational change needs to happen - and needs to happen soon to prepare us properly for the future.
THE TEAM
Esmé Gembler Hugo Sandys
Lily Colsenet
Kaia Varnish Thomas Anderson
Luca Swan
Refugees and Education action: fundraiser
NHCR reports that refugees are five times more likely to be out of school than the global average. Only 61 per cent of refugee children have access U to primary education, compared with a global average of more than 90 per cent. Without the chance to study, an entire generation is at risk. (source: http://www.unhcr.org) What can you do to educate your fellow students about the plight of refugees? Why is accessing education especially important in times of displacement?
Can you connect with refugee children in your local community? What can you do to help enable them to access the education they are entitled to? Can you think of innovative ways to raise money (or ask for donations) for five backpacks with school equipment ready for May? They can then be donated to local refugee students in the community ready for the start of the school year. Ms Kirkus Vacic can give you more details regarding the students and what equipment they will need.
EXPERT CONSULTED
Mr Arafat Jamal, Head, Partnership and Coordination Service, UNHCR.
Dr David Hawley, Director of Ecolint.
GLOBAL CHALLENGE
The problem with having uneducated refugees in a country is that they can’t contribute to the economy. This ends up leading to problems like overpopulation, poverty, and many more.
This is a vicious cycle and in most cases the parents can’t even hope to afford an education for their children, leaving them in the same cycle of poverty as them.
Our Global challenge links to many of the UN’s different SDG’s (Sustainable Development Goals), two of them being related to what we talked about earlier about economic growth and the other two entirely relate to our global challenge (eg. Without a good education it is difficult to get a good job etc…)
LOCAL ACTION
We are going to raise money by doing a fundraiser. Each person in our group is planning to do some sort of physical activity eg. running. We will be sponsored per km. Alex has already cycled Gex-Bellegarde and back (about 80km) and raised 600chf. With the money we raise, we hope to buy educational supplies and backpacks for a local refugee family to equip the children with the necessary items to start their new school year. Any additional funds we raise we will ask our expert, Mr.Jamal, to suggest a good cause to donate to.
We will also try to connect with a couple of refugees who are currently living in Switzerland and are currently getting scholarships in Geneva at a different campus of Ecolint. We are aware this is a sensitive issue and it may not be appropriate.
Local Action: - Fundraiser - Sponsors - Donations - Raising awareness
THE TEAM
Sean Tracy
Julian King
Emmanuel Bernard Alex Tucci
Noe Migliorini
Nicolas Canovo
Connecting Classrooms action: connecting to a school in Buthan & making a movie
The issue of universal access to a “quality education” is at the heart of SDG 4. Part of the definition of a quality education includes collaborative engagement by students with peers globally in this interdependent world. Can you think of ways in which you can use technology to connect and learn with other students worldwide collaboratively, cross-culturally, and multilingually?
Can you think of ways in which you can use technology to connect and collaborate with the other Ecolint campuses? Can you be instrumental in connecting with 6 other students in 6 other countries to find out about what it is like to be a student there? Could you write a film script and producing a short clip entitled ‘a day in the life of a student at Ecolint?’ This film script can then be shared with students in other schools completely different from ours and then compared.
Some schools willing to participate in this would be: Aga Khan School Osh, Kyrgyzstan - WATU school, Tanzania - ELC high school Bhutan (plus you may have other connections yourselves) It would be great if you could get one school from each of the continents to participate!!!
EXPERT CONSULTED
Toby Cann, student wellbeing leader, Halcyon School, London
GLOBAL CHALLENGE
Our world issue is mainly focused on the 4th sustainable development goal: quality education. We were happy to have this subject because it is crucial in so many ways. It is especially important to provide everyone with opportunities and make sure they reach their full potential instead of wasting many possible talents. For example, 260 million children globally do not have access to school. Every child has the possibility to do great things like coming up with a great innovation or even just turning their life around. We are investigating our problem by means of our action.
LOCAL ACTION
Our action is connecting through a Google meet with students our age from Bhutan and asking them questions about their educational system. We asked them to film clips of a day in their life and we did the same. We then made a movie with some of the best ones from both schools
We did this to find out about education systems in other countries and then compare them to our own systems of education.
Obviously we were faced with the huge obstacle that students at both our schools were no longer going as normal because of the Covid19 virus. Instead of seeing it as an issue, we decided to use it to our advantage. Our new focus was to see how both our schools and governments (another factor that affects education) adapted and dealt with the pandemic. We made note of the different ways our countries were operating the schools during the pandemic.
A good quality education is one that provides all learners with capabilities they require to become economically productive, develop sustainable livelihoods, contribute to peaceful and democratic societies and enhance individual well-being.
THE TEAM
Morris Pendergast
India Woodall
Olivia Michielsen Sebastiano Moggi
Sean Tracy
Malik Warakaulle
support the SDGzine
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AT YOUR CERVIX 3.01
Early detection of cervical cancer
A CLEANAIR GREECE 3.02
Non-compliance with smoke-free laws (SFL) in public places such as restaurants
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Improve motorcycle safety through affordable and non-dis- tracting technology
iDOCTOR 10.01
Diagnosis of diabetic retinopathy based on AI algorithm
YES HELMET 11.01
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FEM. FRIENDLY 5.01
Mapping Female friendly Toilets
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