Kidzcase by World Vision Australia

kidzcase.com Issue 2

Time to r case ack you

Meet A dunga from

m a n t e i V ... for

Be an ntal env ironme r! advent ure

Ethiop ia!

Welcome to...

Hey kidz, Pack your bags and remember to write home! First we’re off to Vietnam, where mountains and forests cover much of the country. Most people live along the coast but here they can be affected by cyclones and floods that destroy lives, houses and rice fields. Next we’ll visit Ethiopia, where you’ll discover beautiful lakes, towering mountains and wildlife reserves. Unfortunately there are also droughts in Ethiopia, which mean people can go hungry simply because they can’t grow food on their dry land. You’ll meet great kids like Vut from Vietnam and Adunga from Ethiopia, and they’ll tell you all about their lives. Plus you can be a scientist for a day and try out a cool greenhouse experiment! Once you’re finished the KidzCase Mag you can keep travelling with us at our website kidzcase.com where you’ll find games, stories, videos, and a couple of things for mum and dad. We’ll catch you there! The KidzCase Team

Around the world people are learning to bet ter care for the environment. Here are three ways World Vision is helping the world’s poorest people to care for their environment:

Plant

Trees!

Planting trees is a good way to stop soil get ting washed away and help absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Prepare

for cyclones and floods

When people understand disasters, they can build safer houses and install emergency warning systems.

Use clean energy

for cooking, heating and lighting 3

Solar-powered lighting and cooking facilities can reduce the number of trees cut down for firewood in places where there’s no electricity.

In many parts of the world we’re helping families as they care for the environment. Ethiopia, Vietnam and Australia are just a few of our stops! Keep reading to find out some fun and easy ways you and your family can help.

Z oom in Vietnam

• Capital: Hanoi • Currency: Dong ($1 = 16,000 dongs) • Official Language: Vietnamese • Population: 87 million • Climate: Tropical monsoon – which means it’s hot, wet and humid! • Vietnam shares a border with … Cambodia and Laos in the west, China in the north, and the South China Sea in the east and south.

Check ou t more surprising fac ts on Vietnam. • Of only 60 Javan Rhinoceroses still alive in the entire world, there are about 50 in Indonesia and less than ten in Vietnam. These solitary beasts are one of the world’s most endangered animals. • The conical hat (called a non la) is commonly worn in Vietnam and the ao dai is the traditional dress for Vietnamese women.

• In the old quarter of Hanoi, you buy shirts in the ‘Street of Shirts’ and shoes in the ‘Street of Shoes’! • Pho (pronounced phuh or fuh) is a noodle soup that’s a popular breakfast dish!

• The Mekong River is 4,200 kilometres long and empties into the sea in Viet nam. This area near the sea is where most of Viet nam’s rice is grown. 5

Hanging Hi. My name is Vut and I am ten years old. I usually wake up at 5.30 in the morning and help my mother boil drinking water and cook break fast.

teeth. Do Here I am brushing my ? too th tee r you sh to bru

you have

I have breakfast with my parents and my younger brother. We eat a lot of rice in Vietnam!

Every day, my brother and I have a bath at the village tap.

out with Vut in Vietnam

ens is to feed the chick One of my chores d. lai ve ha gs our hens and collect the eg

My favourite subject at school is art and drawing. I enjoy drawing with my friend. Do you have a favourite subject?

After school and homework, I like to go with my mother to pick pineapples. We also grow rice, bananas and corn. This is the river that flows through our village. We have to cross the river to get to school but today we are on holidays. School is good but holidays are bet ter!

Child Sponsorship helped make some great changes in Vut’s community. World Vision helped the village make a gravity-fed water tap so Vut’s mum doesn’t need to get up very early to get fresh water from a stream far from her house. More children in Vut’s village can go to school since classrooms were built and school supplies provided. 7

Z oom in • Capital: Addis Ababa • Currency: Birr ($1=11 birr)

Ethiopia

• Official Language: Amharic • Population: 79 million • Climate: Varied climate – from cool to very cold in the highlands (where most people live) to one of the hot test places on earth in the plains. • Ethiopia shares a border with … Sudan, Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia and Kenya! It’s landlocked, which means it doesn’t touch a sea or ocean.

Issat) Fire (Tis f o e k o Falls – Sm Blue Nile

Rock-Hewn Churches, Lalibela

More things you didn’t know about Ethiopia. • Ethiopia used to be called Abyssinia! It’s the oldest state in Sub-Saharan Africa and was home to powerful ancient kingdoms. • The world’s oldest known human remains were found in Ethiopia. They’re around 200,000 years old!

• Since 1960, Ethiopia has won 19 gold medals at the Olympic Games – all for long distance running. Abebe Bikilla won Ethiopia’s first gold medal when he won the marathon … running barefoot! • Soccer and running are Ethiopia’s biggest sports. • Coffee beans were grown and harvested by Ethiopian highlanders before anyone else in the world! Coffee beans have been grown in Ethiopia since the 9th century.

• The Ethiopian wolf is a rare species that looks a bit like a fox or coyote. It’s officially an endangered animal … less than 500 are still alive. 9

Hanging out

with Adunga in Ethiopia

Hi, my name is Adunga and I am eight years old. I live with my mum and two big sisters more than 500 kilometres west of Addis Ababa, the capital city. In our part of Ethiopia many people grow coffee beans. My days are busy. At dawn, I get up and fetch water. When I get back home I wash my hands and face, eat breakfast and go to school. I really like school. I am in Grade One and my favourite subject is environmental science. I also like playing soccer and practising athletics.

School ends at 1.45 pm and it takes ten minutes to walk home. At home I eat, and then go to the river and fetch water for my mum. After that I feed the chickens then look after our neighbour’s cat tle. I have to take the cat tle to the river to drink and lead them to good pasture. At 6.30 pm I lead them home to their owner. He pays me 10 birr a month (about $1) and I give this money to my mother to buy some bread for us. After my chores I go home, play with my friends and do my homework. Our house doesn’t have electricity so we use a kerosene lamp so to see. Studying with the kerosene lamp is uncomfortable because you breathe in the smoke and it burns your eyes. My life changed when World Vision began working in our community. My sisters and I used to get sick and miss school because our mum couldn’t pay for medicine. Now, through child sponsorship, we have pencils and books for school and medicine for when we get sick. Our mum was also given a fuel-saving stove so we don’t need to spend so much money on wood for cooking, and it’s bet ter for our health and the environment too!

Adunga

Choose your own adventure ... every day! Can you spot the differences between each pair of cartoons? When is the family making a bet ter choice for the environment?

Think about your home. What does your family do every day? Talk with your

Transport 12

Light ing

Washing

Cartoons by julie smith

family about more ways you can look after the environment. You could talk about...

Recycling

Heat ing & cooling

Cooking

What’s happening to OUR ENVIRONMENT? Our environment is changing … too much! Countries report temperatures that are hot ter, and climates that are wet ter or drier than before. Changes to the earth’s climate affect the world’s poorest people by making it harder to grow food and find clean water. Some people also face more storms, floods and cyclones. World Vision works with poor communities to help them be more prepared for changes to their environment. For the Humbo district in Ethiopia, plant ing trees has improved the environment and helped the community. Most trees in the district had been chopped down to sell as firewood. When it rained, the lack of trees created floods, soil erosion (good soil was washed away) and water pollu tion. World Vision is now working with the farmers to decide how many trees are OK to chop down, to grow new shoots from tree stumps, and to plant seedlings. The community never expected to see so much grass on the rocky slopes or trees growing so quickly – they’re very happy!

Soil erosion 14

Humbo Mountain, Ethiopia: after only one year of the community working with World Vision, trees and grass have quickly grown in an area that was bare and dry.

One year later in the same area

In Ethiopia … new biogas stoves use cow manure to make gas for cooking!! For families in poor communities, this means children don’t have sore eyes from the smoke of inside wood stoves. Cooking with biogas is good for the environment and saves time because women and children don’t need to search for firewood.

In Vietnam … many villagers live at the bot tom of mountains where there have been disastrous landslides. Now they practise evacuating from their homes to be more prepared for a serious landslide. If one does come they will know what to do and many more people will survive.

An evacuation drill in Vietnam 15

TRY THIS AT HOME! WARNING: You may find out a startling fact when you try this experiment.

What you’ll need 2 identical glass bowls; 4 cups of cold water; 10 ice cubes; 1 clear plastic bag; 1 thermometer (or you could use your lit tle finger – we did!)

What to do 1. Put two cups of cold water in each of the glass bowls. 2. Add five ice cubes to each bowl. 3. Carefully wrap one bowl in a plastic bag – this is the ‘greenhouse bowl’. Leave the other bowl unwrapped. 4. Put both bowls in the sun. 5. After one hour, get the thermometer and measure the temperature of the water in each bowl – or put your finger in and feel the difference.

What facts did you discover? In bright sunshine, the water and air inside the ‘greenhouse bowl’ becomes warm. The ‘greenhouse’ plastic bag holds in the sun’s light energy and some of its heat energy. When people burn fuels like wood, coal, oil and natural gas they put gases like carbon dioxide (CO2) into the air. These gases can build up in the atmosphere and act like a greenhouse.

The experiment showed you the effect of the plastic bag on the temperature of the water. If the effect of the plastic bag is similar to the effect of greenhouse gases, what do you think greenhouse gases are doing to the earth’s environment? Source: www.energyquest.ca.gov/projects/greenhouse.html 16

The

Shop smart – Can you start using solar power for some of your electricity? Do you take your own bags to the supermarket?

All around the world – including places like Vietnam, Ethiopia and Austr The tick list below includes ideas for you and your family. What choices

Go on, plant a tree! – Planting trees is a fun and important way to slow down climate change. Trees absorb CO2 (a greenhouse gas) from the air. They also shade you from the sun!

Save and recycle – When you recycle cans, bot tles, some plastic containers and newspapers you create less garbage, help save trees and use less metal.

NMEN O IR

ralia – people are making choices to bet ter care for our environment. can you make to care for the environment?

NT AL A DV E

UR NT ER'S tick l i s t

Hop (or ride) to it! – Cut out the smoke by walking or riding your bike to school. Maybe you could catch a bus or train? If you have to get there by car you could offer a ride to your friends.

Switch on, then off! – Be switched on … and switch off the lights! Using electricity made from coal puts greenhouse gases into the air. So when you leave the room, switch off the lights and TV.

Talk the talk – As a family, talk about things you can do to take care of your environment.

Cooking up summer Cha gio Here’s a fun Vietnamese recipe for you to try out. It’s called cha gio (pronounced ‘chai yah’) or Vietnamese spring rolls. Vietnamese families love snacking on cha gio! This recipe makes 20 spring rolls. Ingredients 1 packet of rice paper sheets 2 chicken breasts Bunch of mint leaves Bunch of coriander leaves 1 packet of bean sprouts 2 large carrots, grated 2 Lebanese cucumbers (long thin strips) 1 tbspn oil 2 tbspn soy sauce Sweet chilli sauce

You’ll need Chopping board Sharp chopping knife Frypan Large plate (for the vegies) Tablespoon Tongs Bowl Wok or large saucepan Tea towel

SPRING ROLLS! Method 1. Heat the oil in a frypan and cook the chicken for three minutes on each side, or until itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s cooked. Slice the chicken into thin strips. 2. Finely chop the mint and coriander leaves. Put them on a plate and add the bean sprouts, carrot, cucumber and chicken. 3. Pour hot water into a bowl big enough to put a whole rice paper sheet underwater. Wet one rice paper sheet at a time, and leave each rice paper sheet in the water for 30 to 45 seconds. Lay them on a clean tea towel to dry. 4. Fill the rice paper with ingredients. Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t make them too full! 5. Pour a lit tle of the soy sauce on the top. 6. Roll them tightly by folding the bot tom over the filling then tucking each side in and rolling. 7. Serve with sweet chilli dipping sauce.

Find the clue in A

S T

T R A I N I N G

W. U

Y. Z.

the code Don’t forget to write! We’d love to hear what you think about KidzCase mag. Drop us a line or send us a photo … you might even see it in a future issue! You can write to us at kidzcase@worldvision.com.au and KidzCase, 1 Vision Drive, BURWOOD EAST VIC 3151. Write your own coded message! Using the code above, write an idea about how to care for your environment. When you’ve finished, ask a friend to decode it so they can share your idea.

Checking in on Vietnam and Ethiopia has been fun, and we hope you’ve enjoyed the ride. Did you get some new ideas on what you can do to help care for our environment? Well, it’s time to go now but we’ll catch you soon in the next edition of KidzCase! The KidzCase Team

kidzcase.com

28 004 778 081 is a ÂŠ 2009 World Vision Australia. World Vision Australia ABN ed to working with dedicat ation organis y advocac and ment develop Christian relief, . injustice and poverty e overcom to children, families and communities 24