While
the world is vast-- global population exceeds 7 billion people across
thousands of diverse ethnic, religious and linguistic groups--the
Internet is transforming
how we connect to each other, making it easier than ever to embrace
global citizenship from an early age.
World Vision wants to suggest some ways you can teach children to be global citizens
leading up to Mother’s Day (May
8, 2016). Following are some tips from
World Vision for bringing this concept home:
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Turn story time into a teachable moment:
Learning
about other countries and cultures can happen during daily activities.
Choose children’s books that accurately portray other cultures or focus
on historical events for afternoon or bedtime
reading. After finishing the book, parents can talk to children about
what they learned and how the lives of the characters in the book differ
from their own.
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Make the facts digestible for young minds:
Young children may have a difficult time comprehending abstract
statistics about inequality
around the world. Create a math activity at home to make this
information more relatable. Use beads or buttons to count out how many
children are in the child’s class, and then remove items based on global
averages for clean water access or hunger statistics.
According to World Vision’s
2015 Food Assistance Report, 1 in 6 children – more than 1.4 million
kids - are dangerously underweight because they lack access to adequate
food and nutritional assistance. For a classroom of 24, remove 4 beads
to represent these children.
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Experiment at home:
Ask children to put themselves in another person’s shoes by conducting
experiments at home. For example, create
a family menu budgeting $1.25 a day per family member. Give children
$1.25 during the next grocery store trip - the amount of money that 1.3
billion people worldwide live on each day, according to
World Vision - and let them shop and price compare themselves.
Afterwards, talk about the types of foods they couldn’t purchase and
what kinds of foods the menu is limited to: Were you able to purchase
fresh fruits or vegetables? Is the meal limited to
rice or pasta? What kind of protein could you afford to buy?
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Sponsor a child:
Get children involved directly in providing a “hand up” to communities in need around the world by
sponsoring a child as a family through World Vision. Involve children in the process of
choosing a boy or girl to sponsor; ask them to write cards and draw
pictures for the sponsored child, and talk to them regularly about how
the sponsorship donation is helping provide equal opportunities for boys
and girls, clean water, bed nets, job training
for parents, and much more – including the freedom to simply be a
child.
Why sponsor through World Vision?
Though
children and families face hardships like poverty and conflict, we can
bring hope to a hurting world. Child sponsorship through World Vision
allows for a one-on-one
relationship with a sponsored child, while pooling gifts from sponsors
who support children within the same community to provide long-term
resources for lasting change. World Vision believes that effective
development that lifts communities and individuals
out of long-term poverty lies in helping them discover their potential
as human beings and mobilizing communities to take ownership of
long-term projects that support clean water, healthcare, agriculture,
education and income generation. Join us in partnering
with those in need to build lasting solutions that address their
challenges. Together, we can be greater than adversity.
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