At St. James elementary/junior high, the grade 9 Global Leadership class held our very own Human Rights Day. The Global Leadership class worked extremely hard, and everyone dedicated their time to making this day a success. After three months of planning and organizing, it was game time.
Every student voluntarily arrived at school several hours early to make sure we were one hundred percent prepared. A few hours later, fourteen schools were with us in person, and five more schools participated virtually. Schools from Mali, Jamaica, and Grenada created their own videos to show the different ways water was used in their country and how they value it in their culture. With 500 students there in person, our knowledge on human rights and on water was tested. Our class showed excellence through this project, and knew what they were doing. Of course we all made mistakes but easily improvised to solve any problems that came up.
We had 15 different presenters throughout the school from many different organizations, including CAWST, United Nations Association of Canada, our own Mr. Robinson, and many more. At the start of the day each visitor received a coupon telling them which country they represented. Based on this coupon, they would receive, zero, one or two cookies. Some kids got no cookies at all. They were to come up with a solution to this crisis. If the two-cookie people gave the zero-cookie people one of their cookies, we would all be equal.
Along with the cookies were also water privileges. There were several water jugs set up in different areas around the school, and based on your “country” you would have to go to certain jugs for your water. As an example, if you were from a poor country, you would need to walk all the way down the hall to get a small cup of water while two-cookie people could fill up their large cups at any of the water fountains in the school. This was to represent the distances people in developing countries walk to get water for their families.
The day turned out to be a huge success, and everyone left the building with stronger knowledge on human rights.
