Pen-pals For French Students

by Veronique Lancelin

As a teacher in a grade five class in the South of France, my students and I have initiated a letter exchange with refugee students from Congo.

I teach in an underprivileged area where children don't always live in good conditions. Their horizon is often limited to the small town where we live and they feel as they are captive of a background from which they sometimes dream to escape.

Offering them the chance of establishing relationships with children from other parts of the world provided an opportunity for them to explore these places with the help of their pen-pals.

"To feel" the existence of different countries, different men and women, different cultures, different joys, and also different sufferings is so much deeper than just "knowing" about them.

School conveys knowledge but letting life enter inside brings a color of reality too often lacking in teaching.

I didn't tell them about letter exchange at first. I waited until "back to school" activities were completed.

Then one day, I pulled this big brown envelope out from my school bag. I explained why refugee children from Africa wanted to have French pen-pals, about RESPECT, the part Marc Schaeffer plays as International Coordinator and founder, and what Sandrine does during our exchanges.

I had to explain to my students why the letters didn't arrive straight from Africa. They were expecting to see a stamp from Congo! The students welcomed the project and the first letters from Congo with emotion and great enthusiasm.

We discovered the letters and more especially the pictures. Each child now has his/her pen-pal's picture and his/her first name stamped on his/her desk. Some students talk to their pen pal and even say good-bye at the end of the day before leaving the classroom.

We also made a great poster with all the pictures I had duplicated, we added the pictures of Sandrine and Marc from RESPECT, posted an Africa map and indicated where Congo is located, looked for the town of Uvira that appears several times in the letters. We always look for additional information about Congo to complete our posters.

On September 20, we sent our first letters. The package also contained a few of the children's daily papers giving information about world news, and a mathematics manual for grade four.

While the first letters we received point out the refugee great material needs, my students are from underprivileged background and we don’t have the means to send much aid. However solidarity was spontaneously expressed in the class. We set up a box that is always open so the children can stuff it with small gifts: a pen, a set-square, a book, a balloon.... So many little treasures they manage to find at home or in their school bag. These are only little things but they are given with great heart and to open children to exchange is exactly the purpose. We will send this box next time.

This is a new experience for me as well as for the students and this is why it is important to feel supported by RESPECT members in this adventure.

Our educational project focuses on sustainable development. This letter exchange comes as an addition but, far beyond the educational project goals, the relationships between all the children from Africa and France is a human link which, I hope, will break the feeling of isolation of both groups.

Here are extracts from letters written by my students:

• "As soon as I saw your picture, I knew that you look like me." — (Mohamed)
• "I would like to meet you but I don't have enough money. I love Africa because I am African, I come from Morocco." — (Ismahil)
• "Monika, you are my pen pal, and I hope we will send a lot of letters to each other." — (Alison)
• "I hope one day everything will get better for you all. Good bye David, and say hello to all the members of your class." — (Abdesslam)
• "I am glad to talk to you, I would like we say everything to each other. I live with my mother. You are pretty" — (Paola)
• "I am glad to be your pen pal, Mungalo. Write me soon!" — (Jean-Simon)
• "I also have a best friend who is called Dylan. I would like you to become my friend too or even my best friend." — (Enzo)
• "I am happy to have you as a pen pal. I would like to talk to you as if you were here in front of me." — (Brenda)
• "Your first names sound funny (strange) to me. Ours you will say they are funny too." — (Yasmina)
• "Read you soon Zuura. Your new friend, Marine." — (Marine)