Colonial Village students reach out to South African children

Niagara Wheatfield Tribune, May 24, 2007

Fifth-grade students in Jill Gonzalez’s class at Colonial Village Elementary School in the Niagara-Wheatfield Central School District are feeling lucky lately because of all the things they don’t have.

They don’t have to beg for food, they don’t have to get their water from a well, and they don’t have barbed wire around their school. Now, they have taken steps to reach out to students who actually do have to deal with those things every day.

After hearing a presentation about conditions in Grahamstown, South Africa, the students were excited to learn that there was a way they could send communications to students at the Amasango School for Street Children located there. They asked Gonzalez and Colonial Village Reading teacher Joanna Torreano if they could write letters to the street children. An excellent idea, agreed the teachers, who asked the students to cover one aspect of their lives in the letters and include photographs. The letters and photos were sent to South Africa, but just as the street children there will learn about the lives of Colonial Village students here, the students here will also be learning more about the lives of the South African Street Children.

“Through the generosity of a grant, the South African children have been given a Kodak instamatic camera that they can use to chronicle their lives for us,” Gonzalez said. “We will be learning about their culture as they learn about ours.”

That’s not all these children have learned from this exercise, Gonzalez said. A field trip to LCTV, Lockport Community Television, added a new dimension of communication, as children made a DVD to send to the South African children. “Included on the DVD were snippets of the lives of the kids from Colonial Village, as well as questions about life in South Africa. Students were even taught a few words in the native language of Xhosa. My students are eagerly awaiting a DVD from South Africa with a response to their questions.”

Colonial Village’s school Media Specialist, Steve Clancy, offered his support by setting up a computer blog for both continents. Students here ask questions and get answers from the South African students, and those children ask questions about American lifestyle. With the help of Rhodes University in South Africa, the Amasango students are allowed to use the computers to respond to the blog.

Students here have gained much from the activity, including a new perspective on their own lives. “I have so much compared to the kids in Africa,” commented Joe Ayers, “I don’t have to beg for food or money.”

“I’m happy to live in the U. S.” said Austin Yorio, “I don’t have to worry about being picked up and driven many miles away from my home.” Everyone, including the teachers, Gonzales said, has a new realization of what they have and a new appreciation for life here.