SVF’s Wake Up Seriously Week!
Jun 01
Global Concerns Clubs, Student Action Child Survival, Club, Global Concerns Classroom, Malaria, Plumpy'nut, St. Vincent Ferrer High School, Water Walk 1 Comment
Club members get ready to share about child malnutrition with Plumpy'nut tasting
Did you know 22,000 children die every day from preventable causes like malnutrition? Club members at St Vincent Ferrer High School decided to bring awareness of some of the issues facing child survival to their school community. As a start, to convey the gravity of the issue, club members made a banner filled with 22,000 dots to represent the number of child deaths that occur every day.
Yes, they actually made 22,000 dots! The banner was put up on the gym wall so that students and staff walking by could see it. Underneath it, for a week, additional facts and comparisons were made to draw attention to the significance of the number.
Plumpy'nut tasting
The following week, club members set up a table in the cafeteria to promote a critical issue each day over the lunch periods. The first day focused on child malnutrition. Students were given the challenge to taste Plumpy’nut, a ready-to-use therapeutic food, used to treat malnutrition in children under five. Students were a bit hesitant at first, but with a bit of prompting, most agreed that it tasted pretty good – like powdery peanut butter!
Malaria bed nets
The second day of Wake Up Seriously week, club members set up a bed net over the table to grab the attention of students passing by. Students shared about the impact of malaria especially on children in Africa and how the use of bed nets can prevent the parasite-carrying mosquitoes from biting children at night and infecting them. Students immediately gravitated towards the bed net, many even commenting that they have slept under one before in the Dominican Republic or the Philippines.
Water walk
The third day featured a water walk challenge. The issue was to spread awareness of how access to clean water can change a child’s life. Drinking unclean water causes a number of water-borne diseases that kill children. But having access to clean water means that young children may have to walk several miles every day to fetch water using 5-gallon jerry cans. Students took up the water walk challenge and walked a short distance in the cafeteria to see what other children experience worldwide. Most students found it doable over a short distance, but admitted it would be challenging if it was a daily chore and over much longer distances.
The Wake Up Seriously week also featured a passport, where students received a stamp every time they took up the challenge. At the end of the week, students with all three stamps were invited to join a Global Concerns cupcake party which was highly attended! At the end, the campaign generated a lot of interest around child survival and attracted more students to the Global Concerns club for next year, where ideas to set up a Global Concerns table on a weekly basis is already in the works. Congrats to the SVF club for pulling off a successful campaign and for making sure students would not forget the number 22,000. One day, it will be zero!
For more photos on SVF’s Wake Up Seriously week, click here.
