We are delighted to share a blog written by Our Voices Have To Be Heard, a group of students at Olashore International Schoolwho who are delivering a Global Goals project for the 2018-19 Global Goals Competition.
Their project is among over 800 social action projects currently running as part of the GSL movement and we are excited to be supporting them to design and lead positive social change in their community.
Our experience has been demanding, fun and educative.
Project Overview
What we noticed is more of a condition than a problem. Children all around the world lack a sense of identity, worth and responsibility. Kids are maltreated and abused, used and dumped. They either don’t know this or they don’t know what to do about it. A few actually believe they deserve it or just wouldn’t dare speak against their guardians or abusers. We want to give them the power through educating them. If they know about abuse and what they can do to avoid and stop it, there’s a better chance of eradicating it.
So far, we have spoken to the teachers and students at our school, asking what they think their roles are in empowering children. We’ve also given surveys to random adults, asking these same questions. We want to hold seminars with other schools, conduct information fairs and create campaigns. Apart from all these, we want to use our blog to reach the world at large.
Our Journey
We are learning the skill of compromise and prioritizing. As a team of about seven people, there are bound to be a lot of conversations where ideas are exchanged and sifted. We have all learnt the importance of compromising and prioritizing. Every ones ideas should be listened to, but realistically as a group we have to decide what needs to be tackled first and which idea tackles it.
We’ve also learnt some interesting things about each other. Some of us are better suited to talking, others to designing and others to the actual creation of ideas. Nevertheless, everyone plays a role. Our biggest challenge is time. We have a very structured timetable in school and fitting in our programs might prove difficult. But we will divide to conquer. We’ll share out tasks, start ahead of time and work really hard individually and collectively.
The Next Chapter
We completely believe that other people in our age range should get involved in such projects. The only thing better than children that have something to fight for is them knowing how to fight responsibly. We think that children should hone their voices. They should take heed to wise counsel, but ultimately take responsibility for their actions.
Children should work hard and not allow themselves to be put down by pessimistic possibilities. There’s always a downside, but focusing on it gets you nowhere. We affirm that everyone has a child in them waiting to be unlocked. And it’s with that childlike determination that mountains move.
The 2018-19 GSL Global Goals Competition is now open and runs until June 2019. If you belong to one of the 700+ teams of students currently delivering a social action project as part of the competition we would love to hear from you and feature your blog and project photos on our website to inspire others.
