Get students engaged, inspired and involved, Alison Naftalin

In choosing workshops for their students from the many possibilities available, teachers working in international schools may find it difficult to select the one that is right. Workshops should be educational while also providing students with the opportunity to do something practical and active.

An increasing number of teachers now accept offers from international and local charities to visit their school and deliver a half-day or one-day workshop, during which the selected charity provides information about its work and actively involves students through small activities that contribute to the charity’s projects. The aim of these workshops is to raise awareness of the charity and its work. More importantly, the workshops serve to involve the students in the charity’s projects and to show that it does not take much to make a difference and to help their beneficiaries directly. Lively Minds work in deprived villages where children do not have basic educational

Get students engaged, inspired and involved

Alison Naftalin explains how schools can help tackle poverty in rural African villages

opportunities

Lively Minds is one of a number of charities that work with primary and secondary schools through our Imagine Life Elsewhere workshop. We work in deprived rural villages in Ghana and Uganda where children do not have basic educational opportunities. Without these they will, like their parents before them, never have the chance to break out of poverty. Our community-run educational play schemes reach children at a crucial stage in their development, giving them a better start in life and a chance for a brighter future. Our Imagine Life Elsewhere workshop consists of two parts: First, we deliver a presentation which lasts around 20 minutes, followed by an activity where students make games and books that will be used at our play schemes. The workshops are delivered free of charge; all we ask is for schools to fundraise a minimum of £500 over the school year to support our work. We provide a fundraising pack as well as