A Tale of Children in Two Countries

A Tale of Children in Two Countries:

Bolivia and Canada

The lesson begins with a comparison between the standard of living experienced by children in Bolivia with that experienced by children in Canada and then moves on to explore the importance of international assistance. Following a double bar graph assignment in which students illustrate two notable contrasts in the children’s standards of life, a discussion of quotations on the subject of humanitarianism and an introduction to the 0.7% commitment to Official Development Assistance, students create a visual art project (accompanied by persuasive words) intended to inspire humanitarianism.

Grade Level

Grade 10

Time Required

150 minutes

Curriculum Connection

Atlantic Provinces Curriculum for Social Studies: Council of Atlantic Ministers of Education and Training (CAMET): Prince Edward Island, Geography 10

Additional Resources, Materials and Equipment Required

·  Handout to be printed from “Bolivia – overview” at

acdi-cida.gc.ca/acdi-cida/ACDI-CIDA.nsf/eng/JUD-129112821-MBV

·  Handout to be printed from “Bolivia – Facts at a Glance” at

acdi-cida.gc.ca/acdi-cida/ACDI-CIDA.nsf/En/NIC-22312048-MY3

·  Graph Paper

·  Quotations on Humanitarianism (attached)

·  The 0.7% Commitment to Official Development Assistance (attached)

·  Humanitarianism Assignment: Visual Art with Persuasive Words (attached)

·  Art Supplies (specifics will vary with student assignments, but the students can use what they have on hand)

Main Objective

The threefold primary objective of the lesson is: to educate students in their understanding of some of the challenges facing the children of Bolivia; to increase the students’ awareness of the 0.7% commitment to Official Development Assistance; and to enhance their understanding and awareness of the need for increased international assistance / humanitarianism.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the lesson, students will be able to:

·  recognize some of the contrasts between the standard of living experienced by children in Bolivia and that experienced by children in Canada;

·  take written information and put it into graph form;

·  comprehend the need for increased international assistance / humanitarianism.

Lesson

Introduction

/ Ask students to locate Bolivia on a map. Invite students to share what they might already know about Bolivia.
Start a chart and instruct that it will be finished at the end of the class after further exploration.
Distribute the handout “Bolivia – overview” (four paragraphs in length) and review it with the students. Ask about some of the contrasts that exist between the standard of living experienced by children in Bolivia and that experienced by children in Canada.
Distribute the handout “Bolivia - Facts at a Glance”, and review the information with the students.
Distribute graph paper, and instruct students to prepare two double bar graphs – based on the information in the chart - conveying notable contrasts between the standard of living experienced by children in Bolivia and that experienced by children in Canada.
Collect the completed bar graphs.

Lesson Development

/ Distribute the attached Quotations on Humanitarianism.
Read over the quotations and the associated instructions. Divide students into seven groups with approximately the same numbers of students in all the groups. Assign a specific quotation to each of the seven groups. Allow about 10 minutes to complete the work.
Distribute The 0.7 % Commitment to Official Development Assistance to the students, and discuss the information with them.

Conclusion

/ Distribute the culminating assignment Humanitarianism Assignment: Visual Art with Persuasive Words. Review the instructions with the class.
Ask for suggestions to add to the chart from the beginning of the lesson.

Lesson Extension

·  Choose another country to compare/contrast the standard of living.

Assessment of Student Learning

·  Each of the two double bar graphs can be assessed / 5, with 3 given for precision and accuracy and 2 for labelling.

·  The Humanitarianism Assignment can be assessed / 20, with 5 given for the overall concept, 10 for the execution of the visual art, and 5 for the effectiveness of the persuasive language.

Further Reading

·  Canadian Atlas Online thematic - Canada and overseas development

·  A developing World – 2013 edition poster map

·  A developing World – 2013 edition interactive map

Link to Canadian National Standards for Geography
Essential Element #2: Places and Regions

·  Physical and human characteristics of places and regions in Canada and the world

Essential Element #4: Human Systems

·  Population density, distribution, and growth rates

Geographic Skill # 3: Organizing geographic information

·  Prepare various forms of graphs to organize and display geographic information.

Geographic Skill #5: Answering Geographic Questions

·  Make generalizations and assess their validity.

Quotations on Humanitarianism

In-Class Assignment: Read the quotation assigned to your group at least a couple of times. In your group, prepare a brief presentation for the class centering on the understanding you derive from the quotation as well as your opinion of it.

(From FamousQuotes.com at famousquotes.com/category/humanitarian/4):

(1) “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed.”

-Dwight David Eisenhower

(2) “North American pets get more investment per month than we have money for all our humanitarian operations in the world.’

-Jan Egeland

(3) “No man can write who is not first a humanitarian.”

-William Faulkner

(4) “Donors prefer to do one-stop shopping. The idea is to get all the mainstream humanitarian agencies involved in a unified appeal. It’s a matter of efficiency.”

-John Watson

(From peaceheroes.com at peaceheroes.com/)

(5) “I don’t do great things. I do small things with great love.”

-Mother Theresa

(6) “It’s easier to be ignorant and say I don’t know about the problem. But once you know, once you’ve seen it in their eyes, then you have a responsibility to do something. There is strength in numbers, and if we all work together as a team, we can be unstoppable.”

-Craig Kielburger, (Founder of Free the Children, an organization to stop child slavery).

(7) “You can’t fix every problem, but what you can fix, you must.”

-Bono (Lead singer, U2)

The 0.7% Commitment to Official Development Assistance

(Information from 0.7 percent - UN Millennium Project / Press Archive)

unmillenniumproject.org/press/07.htm

“0.7% refers to the repeated commitment of the world’s governments to commit 0.7% of rich-countries’ gross national product (GNP) to Official Development Assistance.

First pledged 35 years ago in a 1970 General Assembly Resolution, the 0.7% target has been affirmed in many international agreements over the years, including the March 2002 International Conference on Financing for Development in Monterrey, Mexico and at the World Summit of Sustainable Development held in Johannesburg later that year.”

“Ours is the first generation in which the world can halve extreme poverty within the 0.7 envelope. In 1975, when the donor world economy was around half its current size, the Millennium Development Goals would have required much more than 1 percent of GNP from the donors. Today, after two and a half decades of sustained economic growth, the Goals are utterly affordable.”

“If every developed country set and followed through on a timetable to reach 0.7% by 2015, the world could make dramatic progress in the fight against poverty and start on a path to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and end extreme poverty within a generation.

The UN Millennium Project’s costing shows that a comprehensive package to meet the Millennium Development Goals would cost about $75 - $150 US per person per year over the period, and that less than half of this would need to be financed by ODA.”

Note that the majority of the countries involved, Canada included, have not reached the 0.7% level.

Humanitarianism Assignment:

Visual Art with Persuasive Words

Introduction: According to “Bolivia – overview”, Bolivia is “the poorest country in South America.” In the year 2009, “as part of Canada’s new aid effectiveness agenda, Bolivia was selected by Canada as a country of focus.” One of Canada’s specific goals for international development is “providing the means for a better future for children and youth . . . .”

Your Assignment: Based on thoughts and feelings generated by this lesson, create a work of visual art (the product of about 60 minutes of work) that you believe could inspire humanitarian efforts for children in Bolivia. Along with your art, write about 25 to 50 persuasive words inspiring people to be generous.

Consider the following two quotations that illustrate the power of art and the power of the written word.

“Art to me is a humanitarian act and I believe that there is a responsibility that art should somehow be able to affect mankind, to make the world a better place.”

-Jeff Koons

(From Jeff Koons – Journal of Contemporary Art at:

jca-online.com/koons.htm)

“The salvation of mankind lies only in making everything the concern of all.”

-Alexander Solzhenitsyn (1918 – 2008), Russian author, “…who waged war on a superpower by using the weapon of words.”

(From peaceheroes.com at peaceheroes.com/)

Use the power of art and of the written word in completing your assignment.