Taking Action for South Sudan

My 7th grade students, many of whom are refugees or the children of immigrant parents and most of whom live in poverty, are not strangers to injustices in the world. They have been subject to stereotyping and unfairness, and as 12- and 13-year-olds, they are still trying to figure out how to navigate this world. When I planned this advocacy project, my goal was to not only expose my students to the disparities facing kids their age in other countries, but to give them a new perspective and teach them how to have empathy for those who cannot help themselves.

In this advocacy project, my students developed a knowledge of injustices and disparities facing people in South Sudan — they learned about their lack of access to clean drinking water and the diseases they suffer from because of that. Using the novel A Long Walk to Water and informational texts that further discussed the economic injustices Sudanese people face, the students developed informed opinions about the unfairness of this problem; they asked the question: “How can people possibly not be given clean water?” Then, in reading about Salva Dut in our novel, students learned how one person can make a difference; they learned that it is possible to have a voice and to make words actionable. They studied and felt compassion for a character who showed them how to be advocates for themselves and their communities. And this character inspired them to do the same.

The advocacy project outlined below was a fundraiser for South Sudan, in which the students raised money to provide a well to a village in Sudan that would give the people access to clean water. The students used their individual assets to advocate for the Sudanese people by bringing in their own money — allowance, birthday money, babysitting money — to give away, and they saw that their collective efforts surpass their own goals.


 
 

Planning

The 7th grade fundraising advocacy project was planned within our novel study unit of A Long Walk to Water, a fictional text about Salva Dut, a Lost Boy of Sudan. Throughout the novel, students also read various informational texts about refugee experiences, the history of conflict in Sudan, and the current injustices Sudanese people still face today. In my unit plan and pacing calendar, provided to the left, I outline our novel study, list the informational texts that will be embedded within our unit, and plan for the fundraiser and advocacy project (see pages 7-8). Within the document I have highlighted the teacher-provided texts that taught my students to read, write, speak, and think about real-world problems.

While my students did not begin to advocate for the South Sudan until the end of the unit, the texts that were provided throughout taught them how to have empathy and compassion for people facing systematic injustices and the inequity of opportunities. By the time we began our fundraiser, the students had knowledge and a strong understanding of these real-world issues, and they had formed their own opinions about how they could or would like to help.

 
 

 
 

Why take action?

The day we finished reading A Long Walk to Water, students learned that Salva, the main character, was actually a real person and that he had created an organization called Water for South Sudan that drilled wells in villages, just like we had seen in the book. I used the momentum and excitement from this revelation to jumpstart our advocacy project.

First, students watched Salva Dut’s TEDx Talk, “I Kept Walking,” which you can watch below. After watching the video, we had a discussion about how Salva advocated for himself and others, and we asked the question: How can we advocate for others, as well?

Students were told we would be starting a fundraiser for Water for South Sudan the following week. At this point, students began to learn how they could use individual assets — such as donating pocket change — to collectively help aid those who are subject to systematic injustices. On this first day, students set goals about how much they believed we should raise and why (see student images to the bottom right). Many students identified that they wanted their money to go toward building a well or helping fund educational programs. Because of our novel study, students had a strong understanding of the systematic injustices and inequity of opportunities in South Sudan.

 
 
 
 

After looking through the students’ goals, I set the fundraising goal to be $500, as the majority of students identified this as a realistic and attainable amount. I introduced this goal and the parameters of the fundraiser using the resource to the bottom left on page 1, which outlined the rules of the fundraiser and gave a glimpse at where our money would go. I also sent home a small flier to inform parents of the event, as seen on page 2. Finally, to kick off the fundraiser, we then watched Water for South Sudan’s video about Salva and his work in Sudan, which can be viewed below. Students were extremely excited to begin raising money — they believed that they could both individually and collectively help those in Sudan by providing enough money for an educational program or to help build a well.


 
 

Fundraising for South Sudan

The students took an extreme amount of pride in advocating for the people in South Sudan through their fundraiser. They were telling teachers and students in other grades about the injustices in Sudan, and they were asking every day if we had met our goal.

To track our collective progress, I hung a tracker in the hallway and updated a tracker in each classroom daily. Each advisory also had its own money jar that filled up more and more each day. Students started to see very quickly the collective efforts they were making to help challenge the inequity of opportunities in Sudan. I had students give up their allowance, birthday, and snack money, simply because they realized how much need there was in Sudan.

Within the first 3 days, the students had already raised more than $500. I was blown away by their compassion for the cause. With these results, the students wanted to set another goal — so we then started working toward raising $1,000. The students were motivated and were so proud of being advocates. One student even organized his own fundraiser outside of school by asking his mother to post about it on her Facebook page. This student raised $307.50 independently.

Click through the slideshows below to see the students’ progress over the two-week period.

Left: The goal tracker in the hallway was updated by a student at the end of each day.
Center: Each advisory’s contributions grew daily.
Right: A results tracker was updated in each classroom so students knew their collective efforts each day.

 
 

 
 
Above: Student sit in a circle and participate in the Socratic Seminar. Students participate within the inner circle, where they are discussing, and the outer circle, where they are tracking the discussion and taking notes.

Above: Student sit in a circle and participate in the Socratic Seminar. Students participate within the inner circle, where they are discussing, and the outer circle, where they are tracking the discussion and taking notes.

Student Discussion

When the fundraiser had been completed, I had my students take a step back and engage in a Socratic Seminar discussion (right) to analyze how they used literature to gain knowledge which prompted them to become advocates for a group of people who cannot advocate for themselves. Students used teacher-provided resources to support their thoughts and claims, citing evidence in each resource that showed challenges and injustices, then identifying how or why they felt the need to help.

Below and to the left are student work samples of their preparation work for the Socratic Seminar, and below to the right are the texts I provided students to cite in their arguments: the novel A Long Walk to Water, a chapter from the biography They Poured Fire on Us from the Sky, and the informational text “Time Trip: Sudan’s Civil War.” Students were also required to draw upon their knowledge of our guest speakers, Thon and Abraham.

 
 
 
 

Student Impact

Overall, my students raised a total of $1,376.04 in two weeks. It was incredible to see how passionate the students became about raising money for South Sudan. To the right are two students’ reflections about why they wanted to contribute to the fundraiser (pages 1-2), and on the last page, you can see a text exchange I had with the parent of a student who went above and beyond to raise money for the fundraiser outside of school.

The students received a blue bracelet when they donated, and they have kept them on throughout the entire fundraiser, using them as conversation starters to explain what they were advocating for. Click through the gallery below to see the display we had during parent-teacher conferences and our final money count, as well as some of the students’ bracelets.

Ultimately, the goal of this advocacy project was to teach my students that they had the power to effect change. My students learned about the disparities and inequity of opportunities in Southern Sudan through our novel study and imbedded informational texts, they formed opinions about a human’s basic right to resources such as water, and they individually and collectively advocated for those people by raising more than $1,200 for South Sudan. Not only was their action impactful, but they were also able to discuss about these disparities in a way that made it clear they have learned how to navigate and advocate for change.