Case Studies
"New Millennium, New Friendship - Human Rights for All."
Gort Community School, Ireland and Tana Haik Secondary School, Ethiopia
Background
Prior to the formation of their partnership, both Gort Community School in Galway, Ireland and Tana Haik Secondary School in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia developed relationships with the Irish Aid-funded NGO Aids Partnership with Africa (APA). Through this connection it became clear that both schools–given their background and experience in working on community-based issues while also on issues of global concern–could benefit from the establishment of a formal link with a partner school. The WorldWise programme set the link in motion, and to date this partnership project has not only provided teachers and students with the opportunity to share their cultural identities and traditions, but also to evaluate basic human rights issues that exist within their own communities.
Focus
The human-rights based approach to this partnership project is what makes it particularly dynamic, and any development issues that are focused on, such as HIV/AIDS or gender-based violence, are linked back to the area of human rights. Both schools have tended to focus on the use of the creative arts – such as music, installations, poetry, drama, dance, sculpture, murals and graffiti – as a methodology to explore human rights within their own schools and with each other.
As Aisling Collins, member of the project coordinating team in Gort says, “Our link continues to succeed primarily because we focus on community-based issues…we discuss and collaborate to strengthen student rights-based groups within both schools, and plan joint projects to celebrate student activities promoting social justice and human rights.”
Teacher Visits
Three Irish teachers from Gort undertook a WorldWise teacher visit to Bahir Dar in October 2008, which kick-started the partnership. This was followed by a return teacher visit to Gort by three Tana Haik members of staff (Melkemariam Genet Daget, principal Zewdu Kebede Ayele and Kefyalew Gashaw Emiru) in September 2009. The partnership agreement which emerged from these visits, as well as the establishment of real friendship between the two schools, gave them both a clear picture of the project, and will enable them to further develop the partnership. These two visits have been instrumental in cementing and directing the link, and the project will be broadened further in 2011 with repeat teacher visits scheduled to take place and include other members of staff.
Progress
Students from Gort and Bahir Dar exchanged booklets detailing what their lives are like. Tesfaye Dagne, a teenager from Debre Markos in Ethiopia, told his story of living on the streets following the death of his mother when he was twelve, and the enormous challenges he faces in order to support himself. He wants to go to school and become a doctor. He spoke of the local community response to his situation: “Nowadays I think that there is less discrimination [against street children] because the community police are working to try and solve the problems that we face and also to raise awareness among key community members…I want to change my life and continue my education.”
At the 2008 Global Forum on HIV and AIDS in Dublin, Gort student Dominique Twomey spoke to international representatives, including An Taoiseach, about the views of her and her classmates regarding human rights and HIV/AIDS. In that speech, she addressed directly some of the issues raised by Tesfaye’s story: “This scarf represents my life. If you can imagine it as the personal 1989 to 2008 Convention Scarf for the Rights of the Child. That child being me! But what happens if I pull a string here? Everything begins to unravel. Without human rights, what are we left with? If I don’t have the right to a home and a family then I must sleep on the street. If I don’t have the right to food, then I must work. If I work then where is my right to education? This one thread is holding everything together, and without it? We are left with nothing.”
Good Practice Elements:
- Human rights-based approach to project
Art work that has been produced
Joint project work, including student booklets that have been exchanged - Full text of Dominique Twomy's speech at the 2008 Global Forum on HIV and AIDS: http://www.irishaid.gov.ie/uploads/Dominique%20Twomey's%20Speech.doc
