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Service Learning
Service Learning American School in Japan English Playground Service Program for Fukushima Evacuees >>
On March 11, 2011 the Tohoku region of Japan was stricken with the triple disasters of mega earthquake, giant tsunami and nuclear catastrophe. In the immediate aftermath of these momentous events, students, staff and parents of The American School in Japan began a series of short-term relief efforts ranging from mud removal and gutter cleaning to feeding hot meals to thousands of evacuees. In addition to these short-term efforts was one long-term program that we call English Playground that still continues today.
The English Playground volunteer program began in May of 2011, approximately two months after the March 11th disasters. The nuclear disaster in Fukushima forced the Japanese government to evacuate families living near the damaged nuclear reactors. Many of these families were evacuated to Tokyo for a yet-to-be-determined period of time. This has not been a smooth transition for most families, and the children, in particular, have had a difficult time adjusting to the drastic changes in their lives. Many have even refused to attend their new school or associate with their new neighbors.
The plight of the evacuee children was brought to the attention of ASIJ students in the National Honor Society (NHS) and Community Oriented Student Action (COSA) groups by ASIJ parent Hsien Wang. In conjunction with a local NPO and under the guidance of high school Assistant Principal Nancy Kroonenberg, the students developed and continue to run the English Playground program for close to 30 elementary children evacuated to Tokyo from Fukushima.
The English Playground program meets on Saturday mornings and involves between 10 and 15 volunteers who plan and implement a 90-minute program of English education and socialization for the Fukushima children. One primary purpose of the program is to give the kids from Fukushima a place where they can feel comfortable and safe. The English Playground program has become a place where they can release the stress of having had to abandon their old lives and start new ones in Tokyo as well as enjoy the opportunity to develop an interest in learning English. In addition to the weekly meetings, ASIJ student leaders also organize special events, such as trick or treating, Christmas parties and an English speaking summer camp experience.
The English Playground program has been a wonderful learning experience for the ASIJ students involved. On top of becoming role models for the Fukushima kids, the ASIJ students have had to take on the weekly responsibility and challenges of planning and organizing lessons, and have learned to understand and deal with the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder on the Fukushima children.
Why do ASIJ students continue with this program every Saturday morning? ASIJ senior Saki Uwagawa’s answer: “Because we care. The community extends beyond the immediate surroundings of family, school and neighborhood.” Taichi Nishiwaki, one of the leaders of the program, states: “ASIJ students are privileged. We recognize that. After 3/11, especially, I think a lot of us felt a sense of responsibility, a need to do something to help the country we live in. Going up to Tohoku to shovel dirt out of people’s demolished homes is great volunteer work, but we can also make a difference by doing things within our power. There’s significance in the little things like reading Curious George and playing charades with second graders that may not seem like community service but serves our community in a way that is really needed.”
Doing one’s part in a community is important, and the English Playground program gives ASIJ students hands on opportunity to learn about and see the importance of volunteering.
Lia Camargo – ASIJ senior Tim Thornton – Deputy Head of School
Service Learning A Small School Can Make A Big Difference >> By Brent Fullerton, Grade 5 Teacher, Pasir Ridge International School, bfullerton@prisborneo.org
Gentle prayers are whispered by a shaman in a language I am unable to understand as he sacrifices a young chicken with his razor sharp knife. Its blood is smeared marking an “x” on our foreheads. After each prayer the village chief translates an unrecognizable dialect into Bahasa Indonesia. An elderly woman takes my hand and threads a thin red string with three tiny beads snugly around my wrist. Her wrinkled, nimble fingers take care to weave an unbreakable knot. She produces a red betel nut grin and winks.
“You are welcome to Nihas Leah Bing,” gleams the chief, carefully shaking each of our hands before touching his heart.
“You are protected and may enter our forest,” gestures the ornate shaman standing next to the chief.
One by one each village elder clasps our hands, bows and welcomes us into their thousand year-old Wehea Dayak tribe and their forest. My colleagues, Andreas Saputro and Jeff Evans, and I, have traveled into the heart of Borneo to meet the Wehea Dayak to learn how they are working to protect their ancient forest from international loggers.
The Wehea people live along the banks of the Wahau River in the village of Nehas Leah Bing, located in East Kalimantan. The Nehas village are the oldest Dayak of the seven Wehea tribes. They are ancestral hunters and guardians of the Wehea forest, which emcompasses approximately 38,000 hectares of forest land. This forest has been under constant pressure from companies looking to log the old growth trees and export the wood to international markets.
Not that long ago, the Nehas village was surrounded by a dense, biodiverse tropical rainforest, home to towering trees and the buzzing sounds of endemic species. Now we must drive a rough and bumpy three hour ride through endless palm oil plantations before reaching the edge of the forest. Sadly, most of the young children from the village have never seen this forest. The sun scorches our necks as we walk into the village. There aren’t any trees around, and it’s difficult to find shade from the intense equatorial heat. My new bracelet is soaked with sweat.
In the village we meet up with Brent Loken and Sheryl Gruber, the couple who founded the NGO, Integrated Conservation. Their mission is to create a sustainable program to support the Nehas Leah Bing as they wrestle to protect one of the last remaining lowland forests of Borneo. the school community can help the NGO and Wehea Dayak to construct a traditional longhouse within the community. The longhouse will serve as an educational center to teach the value of the forest and ensure traditional knowledge and oral history will be passed on to future generations.
This is my third time meeting with Brent and Cheryl. Back in 2009, they traveled to East Kalimantan leading 18 students from Quest UniversityCanada on a seven week immersive study. The intrepid group visited PRIS and shared their discoveries about the environmental and ecological issues negatively impacting the island of Kalimantan with our school. Since then the school has followed Integrated Conservation’s ambitious work.
From the Integrated Conservation website: “The forests of Indonesia are home to an estimated 12% percent of the world’s mammal species, 16% of reptile and amphibian species, and 17% of bird species. The number of species endemic to Borneo make it a biodiversity hotspot, yet 60% of Borneo’s forests have been cut and what remains is in danger of being lost within decades. One community, the Wehea Dayak, is fighting back to protect their forest. In 2004, the Wehea Dayak declared 38,000 hectares of forest, ‘protected land’ under their traditional law. Since this declaration, forest guardians have reduced illegal logging and hunting, and this project was awarded Indonesia’s highest environmental honor.”
This large tract of forest is home to the Borneo clouded leopard, sun bear, orangutan, Miller’s Grizzled Langur, as well as a hundreds of other native flora and fauna. Interestingly, the Miller’s Grizzled Langur and the Bornean bay cat, both thought to be extinct by scientists, were recently rediscovered in the Wehea forest. Our hope is that students at PRIS can learn a valuable lesson--that despite our relatively small school size (population less than 100 students), we can make a difference. We have done it before. We can do it again.
Many years ago the school community helped another scientist, Dr. Willie Smits. Willie made his home a refuge for many orangutan and hornbills that were illegally captured and kept as pets in Balikpapan. He needed a place to care for them so he approached the PRIS school director. With empathy and understanding some policies were bent and the campus became a temporary safe haven for the animals. Meanwhile, the community worked tirelessly to raise money which eventually lead to purchasing deforested land in the nearby village of Samboja. The Balikpapan Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOSF) was born. The once barren grassland is now home to a regenerated rainforest growing each day. The children and PRIS community learned they could make a difference.
Now the Wehea forest needs our support.
Last fall Sheryl Gruber again visited PRIS and presented Integrated Conservation’s initiative to a large audience. We gazed in awe at the video and camera trap images of wild animals roaming freely in the Wehea forest.
“That was so inspiring!” commented one of the parents after the presentation.
This eventually led to the Early Childhood/Art teacher Heidi LeGassick creating and organizing, with the assistance of Art teacher Elizabeth Campbell, an art auction event to raise money for Integrated Conservation. Throughout the school year children began designing individual and collaborative paintings and sculptures, which were to be sold on the auction block. All the proceeds were to be donated to Integrated Conservation in order to support the Wehea Dayak’s educational and media center longhouse. Brent and Cheryl were invited and shared their vision to the audience. The night was a grand success. After much excitement from bidding battles from the
crowd, eventually all the pieces were bought. The entertaining evening was capped by the closing announcement that the auction raised a grand total of $10,000!
Join us to support protecting the forest so our children will not have to To learn more about the efforts to help the Wehea people, visit Integrated Conservation’s website: http://ethicalexpeditions.ning.com/
Just a Small Effort >>
By Hajera Shah, International School of Kuantan, sha.hajera@yahoo.com After receiving the Global Citizen award for the Year 2010-11, I resolved to put even more effort and interest into the cause I already found joy in working for. Keeping in my mind the meaningful and inspiring quote from Laurence Leamer’s King of the Night,“The difference between a helping hand and an outstretched palm is a twist of the wrist.” I always seek oppurtunities to help the needy. When I was informed about the EARCOS grant program for Global Citizens I eagerly applied for the grant. To my utmost surprise and joy, I was announced as one of the six winners. I was awarded $500 and this enabled me to participate more fully in the activities of the NASOM Autistic Centre carried.
The Autistic Centre proposed a list of materials from which the autistic children were to make hand-made objects. These items were to be sold in their annual art exhibition to raise funds. I could not wait to get started with the project. I keenly looked forward to test my creativity and my ability to get the little ones to produce something good. The interest of the children in the colorful materials assured me that this was going to be an enjoyable project. I was so glad to discover that the children absorbed and used their own creativity to make the goods. The children, under the teachers’ guidance, made colorful hair clips, frames, decorated the headbands and much more. It took me by surprise to see how the children had a perfect sense of choosing good color combinations to decorate the goods. I concluded that a lot could be done with them if they were to be given a lot more oppurtunities.
Although I just made a small effort to contribute for the betterment of the world, I think that one should always strive to do whatever he can do, be it small or big. In the words of Edward Everett Hale, “I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do.”
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