If you're attending our charity Be The Change event on November 20th in Nagoya, have been thinking of attending, or wish you could help even if you can't attend, I thought it would be good to know why I'm involved and where your donation will go.
Learn more and/or register for the event: http://www.cengage.jp/elt/event/jalt/
Although the November 20th Be The Change event is graciously sponsored by Cengage Learning ELT, all proceeds are handled by the HOPE International Development Agency, Japan and will go to support HOPE, Japan's work & its mission to spread HOPE Clubs and the I Can spirit of Design For Change across Japan. Our short term goal is to create 250 HOPE Clubs in elementary schools, junior high schools, high schools, and universities by the end of 2011. Our long term goal is to change education in Japan for the better, one classroom, one school, one community at a time by providing a structure within which student generated ideas & innovations will be nurtured, encouraged and supported and from which students will generate awareness about world poverty, develop plans to better the lives of some of the worlds poorest families and communities, and form relationships of value with such families and communities. Our longer term goal is to create a generation of change-makers who believe as we do that they have the power to change the world.
Why I Am Involved As many of you know, I have become infected by the positive example of Kiran Bir Sethi -- a teacher in India who took an idea she started in her own school, spread across her city, and then spread to 32,000 schools across India in 2009. When I saw Kiran's TED video in which she describes her Design For Change movement and its effect on kids I realized I simply had to contact her and work with her to help spread this movement around the world -- and that's exactly what I did. I had to do this because what Kiran is doing exemplifies everything I believe to be true about education. I could say more, but please, watch for yourself.
http://www.ted.com/talks/kiran_bir_sethi_teaches_kids_to_take_charge.html
Spreading The Infection Since I saw that video nine months ago, I have worked to spread Kiran's vision around Asia and have inspired Design For Change movements in countries such as Taiwan, Indonesia and Russia -- places where people immediately got the idea and have gone on to spread the movement across their own countries. It's been a little harder in Japan, a country I love and call home, because here the job really is to turn the historical reliance on top-down education around and change it into a bottom-up process, while also showing our students that they really can take learning into their own hands even after being told so often that they can't, that change is difficult, that it's just the way things are. Combine that with a cultural tendency to be wary of ideas without structure, and I realized that in Japan I would have to do more than be excited and inspiring. I would need to provide a recognized, already respectable structure for Design For Change, and that is why I have partnered with The HOPE International Development Agency, Japan.
The Partnership The HOPE International Development Agency Japan has become the perfect partner for Design For Change in that both organizations exist for the sole purpose of bettering the lives of others. Neither is political, religious, nor has any other agenda, and both firmly embrace the life-changing positive FEEL, IMAGINE, DO, SHARE, CONTINUE framework which we know leads to change & growth. As a recognized NGO in Japan, The HOPE Development Agency works to improve the supply of basic human necessities for the neediest of the needy in the developing world through self-help activities, and to challenge, educate and involve Japanese residents regarding development issues and global education. To inspire youth to be the change, HOPE Japan has developed HOPE Clubs: campus clubs made up of students who believe they can make a difference and work to do so by setting and reaching goals to provide anything from school supplies, seed packets, cows, to complete schools for needy families and communities. By doing so, they bring hope. By bringing in inspiring speakers, they spread hope. By forming relationships of value and traveling to needy communities to help and learn, they are hope. By participating in Design For Change, they do all of these things while coming up with real innovations and projects of true value that not only work to change the world, but also to change how they see and value themselves.
A Cycle of Success By doing this work, I believe it is possible to create a cycle of success for our learners. It's not all about changing the world. It's about empowering our learners and sharing with them the power of autonomy and collaboration. By doing this, we will create the generation of change makers we aim to create one classroom, one school, one community at a time, and by doing so we will change more than these words can say.
Support I believe deeply in the necessity of this mission, and I am thrilled that Cengage Learning ELT believes in it, too: deeply enough to fully fund our Be The Change event on November 20th. They are supplying the venue, the food, the entertainment, the drinks, and they are flying Kiran Bir Sethi into Nagoya to be a part of this -- so that she can inspire us all even more.
Your Donation 100% of your donation to attend this event, any money you spend on raffle tickets, premium items, or at our silent auction will go to support our work to spread HOPE CLUBS and Design For Change across Japan. If you believe as I do that this is important work, that education and educators can make a difference, and that it is our students who will lead the change, then I encourage you to come to the event and give generously when you do. If you cannot attend the event, you can still help by making a pledge to HOPE International Development agency. Your money will go to create positive change.
The Event will be held at Shooters in Fushimi, Nagoya -- just 10 minutes from the JALT conference site -- and will run from 7 pm until midnight. If your evening includes other plans you are welcome to come late and leave early.
It is not too late to register, and you may do so at .... http://www.cengage.jp/elt/event/jalt/
Everyone is welcome, but seating is limited. At the moment, only 75 tickets remain available. Please reserve yours soon.
Futher Reading Please read on to learn more about Design For Change Japan and The HOPE International Development Agency
About Design for Change Japan DESIGN FOR CHANGE JAPAN was inspired by Kiran Bir Sethi and the Riverside School's Design For Change Contest -- a world-changing contest for children, and a children-changing contest for the world -- and is part of the global Design For Change movement. http://www.designforchangecontest.com
About Hope International Development Agency: HOPE believes that all people, regardless of their geographical setting, creed, gender or race, have basic rights and should be given the opportunity to achieve their potential. Learn more about HOPE’s activities in Japan at http://www.hope.or.jp/en/japan_programs.php
HOPE Clubs If you have already been infected and would like to learn more about HOPE Clubs and how to start one in your own school, please write to club@hope.or.jp or contact me directly at charnelsan@mac.com
