We are delighted to share a blog written by Rafia Khan, a student at New Cairo British International School who is part of a team delivering a Global Goals project for the 2018-19 Global Goals Competition.
Their project is among over 620 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.
One drop of water makes a difference in the oceans; teaching even one child makes a difference in the world.
Project Overview
In my community, I have realized that there is a vital need for English language to be taught. Knowing how to speak English is a necessary skill in life as it helps people communicate better, therefore with a group of people from my school we have come up with ways to teach people English.
From personal experience, I have seen that many parents in my community do not believe it is important to send their children to English speaking schools, so as a team we have decided to make children our main focus.
Additionally, by teaching English to children we are helping the United Nations achieve Quality Education (which is the fourth SDG). Moreover, living in this community I regularly see that girls and boys are treated unequally, for example boys are encouraged to get a quality education where as according to society’s norms it is not as important for girls to get the same education. In order to increase Gender Equality (which is the fifth SDG) we mostly teach young girls who do not always get the opportunity to learn English.
The way we carry out our project is by going to a local school where we teach about 60 children and it feels extremely rewarding when we see that they are learning something new every lesson! Prior to our project we had visited the school to see their English level so that we could prepare lessons accordingly. Furthermore, we have taken teaching classes to ensure that we know how to make lessons highly beneficial.
To make this project sustainable we have created a ‘club’ so that people from our school continue to teach children English, for a long period of time.
Our Journey
There is a variety of skills that I am developing while taking part in this competition. Team work is crucial and I have learned how to take people’s ideas and combine it with mine to create ‘great things’, as Mother Theresa had said
“I can do things you cannot, you can do things I cannot; together we can do great things”.
Another major skill is communication between team members, teachers and the students we are teaching – at times it becomes challenging to communicate with some of the students and staff as we do not all speak the same language, we have overcome this by keeping having native speakers in our teams.
Most importantly by taking part in this competition I have gotten the chance to make a positive impact. I have learned that my passion is to help people and to improve their quality of life.
Even though I have always known that education and specifically knowing how to teach English is essential, I had never realized just how valuable it is, therefore in my opinion the main challenge now is to spread the word so that more and more young people get quality education and the opportunity to learn English.
The Next Chapter
It is extremely important for young people to get involved in similar projects, as quality education is key to developing and enhancing the lives of many. It is our duty to help the people in our communities who are not fortunate enough to get the same education as us, therefore I highly recommend young people no matter where in the world they are to go out in their communities to discover the needs of others and help them. It may not seem to make a huge difference but if we all help our communities it will make great differences in the world.
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.
