Schools update
The past term has been quite busy for the Schools team, but not in the usual manner of producing resources. We’ve been busy taking and facilitating workshops on a variety of topics, from global poverty to trade to climate change. In July the team helped to host the Aotearoa Global and Development Education Network’s (AGADEN) first conference, on issues concerning Global Citizenship. The keynote speaker was Vanessa Andreotti and she gave food for thought about what it means to be a global citizen. More information can be found here: www.agaden.org.nz
We have just produced our Term 3 Global Issues, on the very topical issue of climate change. This issue looks at the opportunities and challenges of climate change, examining the organisations and institutions involved and ways to reduce your own impact on the planet. Up ahead we have a few more resources for schools that we are working on, (on Indigenous perspectives, activism and international aid) but you’ll have to wait till Term 4 for more information on them.
From the School's team
Cindy Munn, Noa Noa von Bassewitz & Rachel Tallon
Community Happenings
The big news in the GEC office is that Eva is leaving :( The office has been flooded in the tears of her friends and colleagues, but to be fair we haven’t been able to wipe the smile off her face. She’s off to Central America to travel, work and perfect her Español. She has been a driving force behind the fabulous thing that we call the Just Focus Youth Network and we know her knowledge about global issues, her passion for making sure young people’s voices are heard in Aotearoa, not to mention her quirky sense of humour, her pickle of death (it’s hot, not poisonous) and her pressing need for important coffee meetings, will be greatly missed!!
Click here for a message from Eva.
And who is filling these GIANT shoes?? Tessa Johnstone (formally Editor Extraordinaire of Tearaway Magazine) will be joining the team in September!
But wait there is more...
Sara Tamati is joining the Community crew also. Sara comes from a background in youth work and is an active member of the Hip Hop community. Her main focus for us will be the overseeing of The Next Project, and to provide support and advice to groups who are looking to utilise Hip Hop as a positive development tool.
Sara can be contacted at sara@globalfocus.org.nz
Also check out other things to do with the Community team:
New Community Resource
The Trafficking Trap
There is nothing new about taking drugs. What is new, however, is the staggeringly vast multi-million dollar black market that has arisen to supply illegal drugs all around the world. And it's not just the trafficking of drugs, that is sweeping the globe, but the trafficking of people, animals and rare plants as well. Everything is up for grabs... no drug too dangerous; no life too sacred.
Global Bits is a 16 page quarterly resource providing young people, youth workers and educators with information and ideas for exploring global issues and how they impact on young people and their communities.
Available online or contact GEC Commmunity Youth to request a hard copy.
Just Focus
Staff changes aside, the Just Focus team has been busy busy!
Regional Groups
The Just Focus regional group pilot in Christchurch has now reached the end of its cycle and Eva is undertaking an evaluation and creating a case study documenting successes, challenges and recommendations.
The pilot has provided a lot of useful information about the process of establishing and maintaining a youth group based on principles of youth participation and global citizenship. The learning from the pilot has informed the roll-out of regional groups to Auckland and Wellington.
Regional Just Focus groups now run in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, operated by enthusiastic and skilled facilitators in each centre. Groups meet fortnightly and are open to young people aged 14 to 20.
A national training and planning day for the regional facilitators was run in Wellington on July 2nd with Gino, Jennie and Eva. The Global Education Centre is very positive about the nationally networked structure and the plans in place for the year. GEC is also pleased to be working in cooperation with the Disarmament and Security Centre, Oxfam and Trade Aid.
For more information, contact info@justfocus.org.nz or directly contact the regional facilitator.
Auckland (in collaboration with Oxfam)
Laura Cleary
027 604 8600
Wellington (from mid August)
Will Watterson
Christchurch (in collaboration with the Disarmament and Security Centre and Trade Aid)
Chancey MacDonald
0273817604
Just Focus Website
We spend almost a month battling the spam on the forum, until our super IT guy designed a multi-faceted spam busting plan, which seems to be doing the trick... now we just have to get the young people to get talking again!
New articles:
Through the rise of social networking websites and the emergence of the “citizen journalism”, notions of global participation are being dramatically redefined. Nicole Mathewson looks at Global Citizenship in a Virtual World.
Elisabeth Perham explores an An Age Old Problem. Racism and sexism are forms of discrimination that we hear about all the time, splashed across the media….however, another form of discrimination that, while still being very damaging, we don’t hear much about.
Anna Wu investigates The Anti Vitamin Bill, a piece of legislation that got minimal media attention, but could affect affect thousands of us. . For now it has been put on hold because of lack of support.
My Space: Your Space? Jayran Mansouri offers her vision of a positive multicultural society as one that actively supports different cultures and ethnic groups, and where all can have their voices freely heard. And in Redefining Intelligence Jayran examines a prejudice many of us are unaware even exists.
Global Education Fund
The Global Education Fund (GEF) provides funding for small projects to develop awareness and understanding of global perspectives among New Zealanders, and to encourage them to become responsible global citizens. Projects must be educational. Grants are between $2,000 and $15,000 (ex GST).
GEF is a contestable pool of money allocated through New Zealand's International Aid & Development agency, NZAID Nga Hoe Tuputupu-mai-tawhiti and administered by the Development Resource Centre.
There are two funding rounds per year. The next closing date for applications is 31 October.
For more information on who is eligible and how to apply, go to: www.globaleducationfund.org.nz
Small Grants Fund
The Small Grants Fund applications for September 2007 are now open and you are kindly requested to invite your community and networks to submit applications.
The Small Grants Fund is targeted at local projects advancing the rights of New Zealand children. Save the Children wants to fund local initiatives that endeavour to make lasting benefits for children and young people by building their capacity to reach their full potential. The projects must focus on child participition, protection and poverty and with the ideas identified, developed and implemented by or with children and young people as appropriate. The Small Grants Fund will consider funding research, project development, start-up costs, training, and appropriate resources, conferences and meetings. Capital items such as office equipment, on going project costs, leisure activities, medical expenses, retrospective funding, projects taking place off shore and those undertaken by national and local government will not be considered.
The maximum Small Grants Fund award is $10,000.
The Small Grants Fund is allocated twice a year and the next closing date for receiving applications September 15.
Click here for applicant information and an application form. Or visit the Save the Children website.
Global Focus Update
Latest Just Change is out.
In July Global Focus published issue 9 of Just Change, Global Focus's development and human rights magazine, on the topic of borders. Among other things, the latest issue covers such topics as Australian immigration policy, economic refugees on the Thai/Burma border, the plight of environmental refugees fleeing damaged homelands, as well as that of undocumented migrants stranded in the port of Calais.
Read it here or peruse back issues on a range of important global issues.
