Curriculum Guide

A How-To Guide* for Let's Learn How to Help Ourselves and Others
A book written by Odette Umurerwa and illustrated by Jen Lemen


What’s this Book About? – ODETTE AND JEN’S VISION

Our featured book, Let's Learn How to Help Ourselves and Others, serves as the basis for all discussions and activities in this curriculum. The book introduces children to a different way of life and reality for a group of young children around the world in a Rwandan refugee camp. Additionally, it offers a message of hope and possibility, presenting a powerful example of how children can be creative and produce many ideas to help themselves and those around them. Most importantly it sends a clear message to children that they can take action and make a difference, no matter how small or large, in their world.


How Should I Use this Book? – THE EDUCATOR’S ROLE

After the children read the book, they may have many questions regarding refugees and why Odette and her family lived under such conditions. They may also ask why children owned chickens and had to go to market. American children may find it difficult to comprehend Rwandan realities at first because they may not have ever seen a (non-super)market or a chicken laying eggs, much less a camp where people live in such dire conditions. The educator should answer all the questions truthfully and in a positive manner, but not in a way that glorifies poverty.

This book will aid the educator in introducing children to difficult realities and conditions under which children around the world live. The purpose is to sensitize children to the way other people live around the world and awaken in them a sense of responsibility for other people. Our approach should not make children feel superior to others but should teach them that everyone, no matter how poor or disenfranchised, has strength and can help themselves. The book presents a hopeful message of self-help and helping others. In order to assist the children better digest the messages in the book, discussion questions have been provided.


What Should I Know before I Start? – THE HISTORY AND CULTURE OF RWANDA

To guide the educator, a history of Rwanda is provided on the blog. After reading the book and answering questions, the educator should give the children a “child friendly” version of the history of Rwanda (which can be done through the talking points we provide in this section of the blog). An overall “taste” of Rwandan history will further help the children understand the refugee experience and why Odette and her family lived in Uganda in a refugee camp.

It will also introduce them to a dark time in the history of this country: its horrific genocide. Such knowledge of this event will not only help the children feel empathy for Rwandans, but also understand the need for hope and tolerance. The educator should not, however, focus entirely on war and genocide: a full history of a complex Rwanda is essential for the students to know and appreciate. Description of the country as a whole should also be given to help children envision the country, its landscape and its people.

The educator should conclude this history on a positive note, exemplifying hope so children understand that Rwandans are still struggling but have done much to rebuild their country and their future. The educator could mention positive specifics like the fact that Rwanda has the highest percentage of women in parliament in the world.

Jen Lemen highly recommends the article Healing the Africa within us for anyone seeking to truly understand how to approach work with or about Africa. We also recommend a few books, movies/biographies, and music. Lastly, please visit Opportunity International for a child friendly video that explains microfinance, and the International Co-Op Alliance for an explanation on cooperatives, as children may have difficulty understanding these concepts.

How Can I Help Empower Children? – THE BLOG

URL: http://empoweringchildren.blogspot.com/

We hope you find the blog Empowering Children helpful and a good complement to the curriculum. In this blog, we have included links to the book Let's Learn How to Help Ourselves and Others, written by Odette Umurerwa and illustrated by Jen Lemen. It includes a section introducing the educator to the authors. This is an important section to read in order to fully appreciate the marvels and importance of this book, its purpose and its beautiful story.

In our blog, we have provided the educator with link to materials, web pages, essays and organizations (on the left hand side, titled "Helpful Links"). We hope you find these links helpful in understanding Rwanda and perhaps Africa as a whole and how to empower girls and women. If you would like to become further involved in empowering women and girls and in teaching empowerment and hope, we have provided links to many world organizations that do just that.

We would love to hear from you. Please send us your input on the curriculum, what you found helpful, and what you didn’t. We would love to hear stories of how this curriculum has been used. We would also like to post pictures and stories of children using this amazing book. Please send feedback to rwandagroup1@gmail.com

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CURRICULUM GUIDE

Purpose
This curriculum uses the illustrated storybook Let's Learn How to Help Ourselves and Others (Odette Umurerwa & Jen Lemen) as its educational foundation. Our hope is that through this beautiful and inspiring book, our curriculum will help educators and caretakers empower children, especially girls, nurture hopefulness and facilitate cultural awareness.

Objectives
1) To give children a strong sense of empowerment by
•Exposing them to Odette’s story and how she overcame adversity
•Engaging them in activities that teach them to believe in themselves and their ability to make a difference for themselves and others.

2) To teach children hope by giving them the opportunity to create hopeful messages for children in Rwanda that make them feel that they can impact the world in a positive way.

3) To teach children cultural awareness by
•Introducing them to Rwandan culture and history
•Involving them in activities that engage their imagination and five senses
•Exposing them to the wonders of another culture.

4) To help children appreciate diversity in a world of difference by
•Teaching them to respect and explore both the similarities and differences between their culture and that of Rwandan children
•Focusing on the shared humanity of communities and cultures around the world.

Audience
Children ages 8 to 12, especially girls. This curriculum can be used in the classroom, children’s book club, Girl scouts troop activity or any place children gather to learn.

Duration
One hour to one hour and a half

Activities
Five activities have been provided to accommodate different audiences, teaching styles, settings and time requirements. Each of them teaches and weaves together the three important principles in this curriculum: empowerment, hope and cultural awareness. The educator can choose to do a few or all of the activities. For specifics on each activity’s purpose, duration and materials please see the activity description and details on the blog. It is recommended that the educator uses the questions provided with each activity to help the children process the activity and connect it with empowerment, hope and cultural awareness.

•History, Geography, & Culture
•Music
•Cooking
•Microfinance
•Hope Hands

Note: If choosing to cook certain recipes in the cooking activity, the educator should allow time for cooking, especially in an oven. We recommend that the cooking activity be done after reading the book and covering the history to allow for baking time. In this case, the curriculum and sessions could conclude with the children sharing and eating what they have cooked.

Materials
General
•Illustrated book – Let’s Learn to Help Ourselves and Others written by Odette Umurerwa and illustrated by Jen Lemen
•Map of the world or globe
•Printed pictures of Rwanda landscape and people. This can be downloaded from our blog.
•List of questions for each activity

Music Activity
•CD player
•Board or poster board to write lyrics down for all to see
•Computer to play video of dancing and signing
•CD player to play music (unless this can also be done on the computer)

Hope Hands
•Map
•Cut out map of Rwanda with string for child to wear around her neck
•Cut out map of the US with string for child to wear around her neck
•Colored construction paper for drawing hands
•Scissors
•Hole punch
•String
•Markers
•Copies of hopeful quotes for children to copy
•Optional: pretty paper, glitter, stickers for decorating hope hand notes

Cooking
•Ingredients depend on which recipe is selected. Please see our blog for recipes that accommodate a variety of locations, and that illustrate the concept of creating something that is better when everyone works together.

Microfinance
•Printed math problems
•Pencils
•Scratch paper
•Board/ Poster Board

Discussion questions
The following questions could be used to stimulate discussion after the book has been read:

• How is Odette’s life in the book different from your own?
• What do you think it would be like to be a refugee?
• How does Odette feel about school? Why do you think she feels this way?
• How does she feel about her friends?
• What does the book say about the idea that girls aren’t as smart as boys?
• Is Odette empowered by what she does with the chickens? What gets accomplished?
• Does her work with the chickens seem to make her more hopeful about her situation?
• Do you think it’s good to learn about people in other countries like Odette? Why or why not?

Discussion Guides and Further Background Information for the Educator

On our blog, we have provided discussion questions on each activity and researched pieces on empowerment, hope, cultural awareness and the importance of focusing on girls, to help the educator understand these concepts more fully in order to teach them. We have also provided information on the history, culture, and geography of Rwanda. The educator should read these pieces before she or he teaches the curriculum to children.

Information on the author and illustrator, as well as how this story book came to be are also available for those wishing to learn more about Jen and Odette’s work to empower the people of Rwanda.

Lastly, we have provided a discussion of how this curriculum and blog serve as forms of activism. The educator should know that through this curriculum she or he is not just teaching children but is also helping them acquire the tools and power to change the world and make a difference.


*If you would like a pdf copy of this curriculum guide, please email us at rwandagroup1@gmail.com. Sorry for the inconvenience, due to security reasons blogger does not allow documents to be uploaded to its website.